Hello once again RetroFriends! Everyone has their favorite game of all time, that being said I am very excited to bring you an article about a game that will always be near and dear to my heart, N64's Goldeneye 007. First Person Shooters (FPS) had their genesis (nice pun right?) with Wolfenstein and then Doom. Fast forward a few years and you have a game that set a new standard in gaming and easily wins this phrase:

"Best. FPS. Ever."




I understand some that may read this disagree with my opinion and that's OK, it just means that you probably are a PC gamer that loves your keyboard and mouse and you never played it :P. On that note it is important to point out that the N64 controller only had one analog stick, so movement and looking around (x and y axis) were combined into one input device that was surprisingly great. Today on the Xbox360 or the PS3 dual analog sticks are standard and this was the case for Xbox, PS2, and PS1.





Let's talk about graphics. When the game came out I was absolutely blown away with the fact that people's faces were actually scanned into the game and appeared on the characters that were in the movie! Nothing to this level of detail was ever done before and was nothing short of highly impressive. Such love and care was put into the whole game that actually followed the movie quite closely such as the dam jump in the beginning that dropped my jaw when I watched it happen, I was James Bond 007!





Not only did this game have the graphics and the story, but it had 60 frames per second rocking. This was a smooth game that never hiccuped, never stopped and started, never had to load because it was a cartridge and not a CD. Future games came out after it on the N64 that tried to emulate its feat, but either graphics suffered a bit or dropped frame rate. The developer, RARE, created an absolute gem that even Perfect Dark could not touch. This game continues to live on in every gamers heart and mind that played it.





I loved the weapons, and yeah, there were a lot. Not only could you carry one at a time but certain ones you could carry two at a time such as the Mac 11. To reload the gun(s) you hit a button, they dropped out of sight and then just popped back up reloaded, I liked that instead of long realistic reloads! (haha).

You could unlock special features such as the golden gun, one shot one kill, or the most difficult one of all, invincibility. Before we go any further you are a true Goldeneye expert if you ever achieved this. Before I remind those of you who forgot what you had to do to get this know that I played the game every spare moment of my freshman year of college for 3 days straight to get it. No kidding I would close my eyes before bed and see myself running through the level shooting people. It was bad and almost broke my will until the the moment I GOT IT! You had to beat Facility in 2:04 or less and boy did a lot have to go your way for that to happen. What an accomplishment for those that are part of the few and proud to say they've done that!

Here is a link to someone doing it in 1:45:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=An4iRCd3SAY





Now let's talk multiplayer, it was you and up to three other friends that could battle it out on one TV split screen. I promise I never looked at anyone else's screen :). College was awesome because so many people had/loved this game and putting together parties was always a ton of fun and it helped that I remember being pretty good at it. You could even unlock levels and different characters from older Bond movies like Jaws and Mayday, and the end rocket level from Moonraker.






This game truly had it all, it is my understanding that due to nightmarish like licensing issues this game has still yet to make its way to Xbox Live Arcade or Playstation Network for purchase. I love to see games that make the jump to today's console because the developers always to a great job updating the graphics for HD. That day will be sweet and awesome for everyone that played this game, let us hope it is sooner than later.





It is my sincere hope that you remember this game to be as great as it was, it certainly was an EPIC accomplishment that time only makes sweeter. I try to find a fun memorable way to end my articles, but I have to end it with how I began it saying that it is the BEST. FPS. EVER.

If you enjoyed this article, here is a link to other ones I have written:

http://www.retrojunk.com/user/contributions.php?type=article&uid=95049