It was a given that as long as I owned a copy of Goldeneye for the Nintendo 64, it was going to end up as one of my games of the week. In spite of the fact that it’s a video game based on a James Bond movie that was 2 years old at the time of it’s 1997 release, Goldeneye is considered one of the premiere first person shooters of the era and a classic must own for the N64. Goldeneye offers up two modes of play, a single-player campaign mode or multi-player battles. This mimicked the options that Doom had offered a few years prior on PC so it was nothing new. However, finding multi-player on a console in 1997 was pretty unique and that’s where a lot of gamers cut their multi-player teeth prior to games like Halo were released half a decade later. Since I didn’t own an N64 during it’s original lifespan, I never had a chance to enjoy the multi-player games that a console with 4 controller ports excelled at. No Mario Kart, no Smash Bros, no Mario Party and definitely no Goldeneye. The single-player campaign mode is where I’ve always played Goldeneye so my memories are solely based on this aspect of the game.
I personally think the single-player version of Goldeneye still holds up in 2017. I enjoy the missions and feel like the controls match the level of difficulty. I never really feel like I’m playing with one hand tied behind my back because of poor controls or camera angles. The Nintendo 64 excelled at framerate and Goldeneye succeeds thanks in part to this. A lot of Goldeneye detractors claim this game hasn’t aged well and if you’re talking multi-player, I would agree. I enjoyed playing this game all the way through in single player mode about 10 years ago so admittedly my memories are now from last decade. I did play it again briefly for my “GotW” write-up and nothing has changed my opinion. I still think Goldeneye is a seminal 90’s classic.
Rating: A-
Currently in my collection: game, manual, box
Cartridge Corner 