- JP release: 23rd August 1997
- PAL release: 25th August 1997
- NA release: 25th August 1997
- Developer: Rare
- Publisher: Nintendo
- N64 Magazine Score: 94%
The legendary game GoldenEye. This is the game I got with my N64 and I spent all day searching around the dam level for bungee rope as it wasn’t in my inventory. It was a landmark game for not just first person shooters, but video games in general.
GoldenEye had the brilliant idea of adding objectives that were more than just pushing buttons then going through the level again to look for something that has changed. You had to protect certain people, blow up certain objects and find objects. On higher difficulty options, you have more objectives to complete.
The praise of GoldenEye has been done countless times before, but one aspect I think is overlooked is the level design, in terms of how the levels feel like actual places and buildings and not a nonsensical string of rooms and corridors.
Part of this is due to how the developers made the game: the GoldenEye team had never made a video game and was a risky experiment from Rare to throw people who had never worked in the video game industry to see if they would come up with unique methods. It’s quite shocking that they were willing to do this with an IP like James Bond, but it paid off.
Typically, the objective and player path is made first and then the level is built around that, but for GoldenEye, the levels were constructed and then they added the objectives and decided where the player would start. This meant that some rooms are essentially “pointless”, but it helps makes everything feel real.
The muiltiplayer was another huge surprise – a few of the developers started it with 6 weeks of development left and without getting permission to do so first. It was simple, but at the same time extremely enjoyable and is still one of the most famous multiplayer modes in a video game.
Some aspects of GoldenEye haven’t aged well, particularly the controls (although there are dual analogue options hidden in the settings, requiring two controllers), but sort that out and it’s still an absolute joy to play.
Fave
In truth, this is so far ahead of Doom 64, and even Turok, that comparisons are pointless. You’ll look at GoldenEye’s filmic feel, lashings of originality and – yes -frequent genius, and wonder why id or Iguana couldn’t have done similar things. And the reason? Because Rare, like Nintendo themselves, know the N64 inside-out and, plainly, are breathtakingly talented to boot.
Tim Weaver, N64 Magazine #9
Remake or remaster?
There was an XBLA version of GoldenEye that was nearly finished. You could swap between old and new graphics (although the “old” graphics weren’t fully finished) and it played great on a modern controller. Finish that version and release it, as it’s what GoldenEye deserves.
Official ways to get the game.
You can buy the game by purchasing a digital copy of Rare Replay on Xbox One/Series. It is also available for subscription as part of Xbox Game Pass or Nintendo Switch Online
Re-releases
2008: XBLA, Cancelled
2023: Nintendo Switch Online (Subscription Only)
2023: Xbox One/Series
Europe
Japan
North America
N64 Games by Date
1997: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
1998: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
1999: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
2000: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
Best shooter ever💯💯💯
Goldeneye is a game that really needs to be played with a real, original/NSO N64 controller. Nothing else feels remotely natural.
And really, it needs to be on the 1.2 Solitaire setting (AKA “Turok Controls”), with c-buttons to move and analog stick to aim. Even to this day, hand me an N64 controller with this game and I would happily be able to play with zero issues. Feels totally natural.
The only real sin with the controls as far as I’m concerned is that 1.2 Solitaire should’ve been the default… shockingly, this is something they didn’t fix with Perfect Dark; as its 1.1 default controls are the same as Goldeneye’s, and once again, you have to change it to 1.2 to get the correct “Turok Controls” setup. Worse still, Banjo Tooie’s FPS sections only offer 1.1, with no option to change them to 1.2! Which is a tremendous shame, because BT’s FPS levels and multiplayer mode are actually a ton of fun otherwise (It’s basically more Goldeneye with new weapons & stages!).
Also… inverted y-axis is correct and always was correct!
I personally think that dual analogue suits the game a lot – it was the first game to have them (you just needed to use two controllers).
Goldeneye is such an absolute miracle of a game. To think it came from a freshman team at Rare is just even more ludicrous; the Stampers just simply had the Midas Touch when it came to scouting talent and incubating the best games that the industry ever saw.
On paper, this game should’ve been a dismal failure. A long delayed licensed title, original intended for the fucking Virtual Boy, that came out almost two years late, on a platform that was almost dead in the water by this point. Not only did it revive the console, not only did it revolutionise the FPS genre (indeed, this was the inflection point where the FPS genre truly came into being on consoles), it actually managed to supplant the original source material it was based on. Today, when you hear the word “Goldeneye”, you instantly think of the 1997 N64 video game, not the 1995 movie; the movie was shit.
Martin Hollis, Dave Doak and the rest of the team at Rare not only beat the odds, but they crafted one of the single most important and influential video games of all time. Goldeneye is amongst the single most representitive games of the entire N64 library. Quality over quantity. The droughts were the stuff of legends, but when the big hitters hit? They HIT.
Every single subsequent FPS game owes Goldeneye a debt as deep as every 3rd person action game owes both Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time. But it’s only right and proper that we look at the debts owed by Goldeneye itself. Looking past the obvious foundation laid by Wolfenstein 3D, Doom and Quake, as well as the control foundations laid by Turok Dinosaur Hunter (1.2 Solitare is a 1:1 carbon copy of Turok’s controller layout), Goldeneye also owes a debt to SEGA’s Virtua Cop; and I do mean that literally. Most of you are probably already aware, but just in case you’re not, Goldeneye was originally going to be an on-rails light-gun game without the light gun… and we actually have footage of this version of the game!
Only a short snippet, but timestamped for your viewing pleasure
The “aim mode” seen in the final game (Where you hold down R to make a reticule appear) was directly inspired by both Virtua Cop and this old prototype.
Finally, Goldeneye also owes its mission structure directly to Super Mario 64, again, common knowledge for most people here probably; but it just goes to show how everyone stands on the shoulders of giants. Even something completely original and groundbreaking is built on what came before; and sometimes, all it takes is using those existing ideas and elements in new ways to create something completely unforseen before.
It’s really hard to understate the impact of this game. Without Goldeneye? Nintendo may well have not survived the N64 era. It single handidly saved them in 1997, coming not a moment too soon, despite being 2 years late; and it would revive interest in the console as a whole, putting it back into mainstream conciousness in the west and raising the sales/mindshare tide for all of the console’s other software. Goldeneye went on to become the 3rd best selling game of all time for the console (4th best selling throughout the entire generation), ushering in a whole new era of console FPS games that would later flood the market (and indeed, for a time, the N64 itself). We all owe a debt to Bond, and to Rare.