From the forum issue 178 - Goldeneye

[NickThorpe]

Hello everybody, I hope you're all well and that issue 177's poll results didn't make you spontaneously combust. It's questioning time, this time about an N64 classic:

What impression did Goldeneye leave on you back in the Nineties?

For me, the impact was mostly centred on the multiplayer as I didn't own a copy until later. The native support for four players was a huge deal, as it meant less turn-taking during gaming sessions with friends, and my Playstation got a lot less attention than it otherwise would have done.

As usual, some responses will end up in the From The Forum part of the mailbag.

[kiwimike]

When I first played goldeneye, I was totally blown away.

I'd been a biased PS fanboy. I would see these N64 reviews of games and think THEY were biased, they couldn't possibly be as good as all the reviews suggested.

When my PS drive burnt out, I though I'd take the opportunity to buy a N64, second hand with a few games, see what the fuss was about and if it was as good as some of the reviews suggested.

And yes, large amounts of humble pie were scoffed as I got my N64 home and took it through it's paces. The two that I believed were overhyped were Zelda OOT and Goldeneye. Both deserved the praise that they were given.

Goldeneye was just superb. While I still loved the likes of the simple FPS blasting of Doom, I could not believe how good this game looked at the time, and how it played. FPS with up/down always seemed a bit fiddly and yuck to me before Goldeneye, but the control was just spot on, and played like a charm.

I was still discovering fun things to do with remote bombs months after I first started playing it...then the multiplayer added another dimension again. What a game.

[sidney]

I remember it keeping me up night after night, I just became totally immersed in the whole thing, I had never played a shooter that good before and for a long while after.

[TheAlex]

Everything, but especially the level-design and music, was brilliant. I think I part-exchanged it for Turok and my brother wasn't too happy at first. Even without the multiplayer it was the best first-person shooter we'd played. Perfect Dark has to get a mention as it improved on the already-amazing Goldeneye in every possible way - perhaps only minus the Bond licence (but Joanna Dark, The Carrington Institute and Elvis were great, and it allowed for more of the Rare humour). Perfect Dark is the one I love to pick up and play today.

I'll be disappointed if Perfect Dark doesn't get a mention in From the Forum!

[Big Shoes]

We used to stay at a friends house and play Goldeneye till the early hours of the morning, at least 4 of us most evenings. It was amazing an the first time I really got the 'Multiplayer' experience.
There is nothing like having friends round to play split screen, there was always one friend who knew where the golden gun was on every level, it was awesome and not beaten until Halo 1 on the original Xbox where we regularly had 16 people, 4 TV's and 4 Xboxes all linked up at someones house

[merman]

I never played Goldeneye in the 90s, didn't own an N64 until much later...

[antsbull]

I went to university during the day (Computer Science), then worked until 1am in a burger joint, then finished with Goldeneye single player until 3am, then repeated. It also turned me onto Bond bigtime, and I ended up getting sleep deprivation!

[Mayhem]

That a console could actually do a FPS, and with four players, the multiplayer was off the scale. The times for turbo mode, golden gun, banning Odd Job sessions was immense! But the story mode was very well planned out, took the parts of the film and expanded on them brilliantly, and the levels were conceived and designed to feel natural and capture what you already knew.

[Arnie]

Despite having a N64 from the early days I never got Golden Eye and still have not played it. I did get its spiritual successor though Perfect Dark.

[WaveRacer]

Apart from the 4 players, what stuck in my head is how playing the game on higher difficulty gave you new objectives and things to do rather just doing the exact same thing. It made it actually worthwhile to replay the game on a higher difficulty.

[TheAlex]

I never played Goldeneye in the 90s, didn't own an N64 until much later...

Despite having a N64 from the early days I never got Golden Eye and still have not played it. I did get its spiritual successor though Perfect Dark.

Tell me more...

[RetroMartin]

I was more of a single player person back then. The campaign blew me away with its objectives and scope. It was like nothing i had ever played.

[seekingvirtue]

I knew things were changing at that point. I had dabbled in a bit of Doom and Wolfenstien3D, but this was something different, something special. I knew that gaming was never going to be the same on my consoles--the infectious gaming style born from Mario 64 was now beginning to adapt and take hold of new genres. It was a turning point in modern history.

[Crusty Starfish]

Is this where console gaming grew up a little bit?

[RichL]

Is this where console gaming grew up a little bit?

It had grown up. This is probably just where Nintendo grew up a little bit.