James Bond: The Duel

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James Bond: The Duel

Developer(s)	Domark
Release date(s)	1993
Genre(s)	Action game
Mode(s)	Single player
Platform(s)	Mega Drive/Genesis, Sega Master System

James Bond: The Duel is a James Bond video game released for the Sega Master System, the Sega Game Gear and the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis. It is loosely based on the spy films featuring Ian Fleming's secret agent, 007. Armed with a pistol, the player controls James Bond through various side-scrolling levels to locate and disarm bombs, as well as save female hostages. Along the way, Bond must battle numerous thugs and familiar bosses. The game is often compared to Namco's Rolling Thunder series, although it was much less popular with the critics.

The Duel is notable among Bond games for a number of reasons. Although it was released 4 years after Timothy Dalton's last outing as James Bond (in Licence To Kill) his likeness is used in the game, most notably the opening screens (presumably as Dalton was still under contract to appear in future films), thus making it Dalton's last appearance in a Bond game to date. It was also the final Bond game to be released by Domark, who had released a series of Bond themed games beginning in 1985 with A View To A Kill. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, it was the first Bond game not to be directly based on a movie or novel. Instead it featured an original storyline, albeit one featuring familiar villains including Jaws and Oddjob. Though The Duel's storyline was not its strong point, it did blaze a trail for future licence-holders EA, half of whose Bond output would be based on original storylines. One previous Bond game, the Delphine developed The Stealth Affair, included an original storyline but the game was originally based on a generic Bond-style character named John Glames and only had the licence added for its US release.

The game was developed and published by Domark and released in 1993.