But Goldeneye 007 represents the first time a publisher has brought a cherished shooter through the nostalgia wall and fully into the present, and the result is an extraordinary mix of old and new that feels startlingly fresh.
Goldeneye 007
For: Wii
From: Eurocom/Activision
For starters, let's be clear: This isn't a simple cleaning up of the classic Nintendo 64 game.
Goldeneye is a new game that adds new layers to the storyline (now starring Daniel Craig instead of Pierce Brosnan), parlays those layers into new environments and uses the old set pieces as inspiration for new mission designs rather than for purposes of copying and pasting.
Modern amenities - destructible environments, regenerating health on lower difficulties, the customary visual improvements and all they bring - make their presence felt, but it's the way the game spins revered levels into new experiences that shines brighter.
At the same time, Goldeneye does not forsake its roots.
Dispatching enemies stealthily - a game-changer back in 1997 - remains fun in 2010, in no small part because of Goldeneye's immense gun selection and multilayered level design.
But at no point does Goldeneye punish players who would prefer to recklessly run, gun and punch their way through.
Most modern shooters do, and Goldeneye's ability to retain its old-fashioned values while modernising most everything else is perhaps its most impressive achievement.
Technically speaking, Goldeneye looks good for a Wii game and certainly covers its bases in terms of controls.
The remote/nunchuck combination works well, very rarely confusing the need to adjust the gun's aim with the need to turn, and the game includes a variant that caters to the Wii Zapper accessory.
Goldeneye's campaign runs roughly twice as long as most of its contemporaries - a nod, intentional or not, to the days when first-person shooters prioritised length and elaborate level design over cut scenes and corridors.
But Goldeneye's legendary status was built on the back of its multi-player, and Eurocom's successful replication of that will ultimately define this game as well.
True to form, Goldeneye includes four-player split screen, and the playable characters (Oddjob, Jaws, Julius No), modes (deathmatch, team deathmatch, Golden Gun) and modifiers (melee only, tiny players, paintball, invisibility) return from the original.
But Goldeneye's online multi-player (eight players) elevates this to the arguable top of the Wii's first-person shooter heap.
The lack of voice chat support for Nintendo's neglected Wii Speak peripheral is disappointing, and the welcome ability to form four-player parties is still hampered on the ground floor by Nintendo's clumsy friend code system.
But players who want to just jump in and play some lag-free online Goldeneye finally can do so, and Eurocom rewards those who do with an experience points system that doles out better weapons and gadgets as players level up.
Online multiplayer also takes advantage of the higher player count to add some new modes centred around team and objective-based play.
