Whether it’s crowding round a small TV in a tatty uni flat to play a game of ‘Slaps Only!’, or a huddled pizza party in your best friend’s basement – I’m sure that many a late Gen X-er or Millennial reading this blog has a strong bond with the Nintendo 64 GoldenEye 007 game.
Beyond our individual love for the game (and, I’m sure, our shared hatred for all those cheaters who play as Oddjob) the videogame is hugely influential in the wider gaming market – it is the third best-selling N64 game, won a BAFTA, and still regularly features on many publishers’ ‘Top 100’ games lists.
As Nintendo has recently released a version of the game on the Switch (after a long and complicated licensing battle), we thought we’d dust off our dual-wielding Klobb skills and explore the legacy of this fantastic game – why it was so important at the time, and the impact it’s had on the video game landscape moving forward.
Games, Bond: The Rise of GoldenEye 007 on N64
In early 1995, with the imminent premiere of GoldenEye later that year – the post-Dalton, Brosnan-led reboot of the James Bond franchise – UK-based games developer Rare was tasked with creating a tie-in game as part of a broader effort to promote the film in the lead-up to its release.
Expectations for this tie-in were clearly low from the start – as, at the time, games connected to films were generally panned by critics and players. Rare itself were apparently hesitant to accept the project, worried that (what they expected to be) a poorly received game might smear their blossoming reputation (ala Atari and ET), and ended up only devoting a small, inexperienced team to the project.
Two years later – after many long and (what sounds like) gruelling months – the team were ready to release GoldenEye 007 on Nintendo64… blowing way past the original deadline, but just in time for the announcement of the next Bond film, Tomorrow Never Dies.
And it quickly became apparent that this scrappy young team had created a classic.
Three reasons why GoldenEye 007 is a Classic Game
In my opinion, there are three reasons why GoldenEye 007 on the Nintendo 64 is an absolute classic video game:
1 - GoldenEye 007 heralded the arrival of FPS on consoles
“I see GoldenEye [007] as the direct ancestor of Call of Duty, Halo, Fortnite, all these first-person shooters today. I think they owe Goldeneye their popularity and their success in some way” – Alyse Knorr, GoldenEye 007: Bossfight Books
Alyse Knorr, a Professor of English and prolific writer on video games argues that the GoldenEye 007 game was an early proof-point that the First Person Shooter (or FPS) genre could work on a console. And she’s not the only one making this claim.
Up until this point, PCs were considered the main domain for FPS fun – games like 1993’s Doom had left an indelible mark on the landscape (so much so that FPS games in the 90s were often referred to as ‘Doom Clones’). However, the introduction of the console stick on the N64 controller (and the recognition of what this could add to a console gaming experience by the Rare team) changed all of that.
According to the project’s director, Martin Hollis, GoldenEye 007 was envisioned as an on-rails light gun game – something akin to Time Crisis or Virtua Cop, where players are automatically transported through the game on a predefined path and point a plastic gun at a screen to blast away enemies. At the time of development, the creators knew very little about the as-to-be released N64 hardware and designed many of the levels with set ‘rails’ in mind.
However, the console stick unlocked the ability to move and aim in a fluid way – producing a more natural ‘run and gun’ environment, something that had previously only been achieved on PCs.
While Turok: Dinosaur Hunter is technically the first FPS on the N64 platform (by a few months), and there was a Doom port early in the year, it was GoldenEye 007 that really cut through with players – and is now considered to have set the standard for modern shooters on consoles.
2 - The game presented a three-dimensional and immersive Bond world
“It was a Bond universe licence instead of a GoldenEye licence. We were all massive Bond fans, so we cherry-picked all the things we wanted to put in” – David Doak, GoldenEye 007 Writer
The console stick wasn’t the only innovation that the N64 brought to the table: it also unlocked better 3D graphics. While limited by its cartridge sizes (particularly compared with the PS1), the console blew competitors out of the water when it came to graphical sharpness (or ‘textured polygons per second’, if we’re getting technical) – and was a huge step up from Nintendo’s previous 16-bit Super Nintendo offering.
GoldenEye 007’s developers leant into this development – the controller unlocking the ability for fans of the Bond universe to wander around a realistic version of the film (some of the textures were apparently taken from Rare’s photos of early visits to the GoldenEye set) and enact some of their favourite moments from the film. Depending on the level of difficulty, objectives were added or removed – which meant certain rooms or game areas might seem purposeless – which, some claim, added to the non-linear, ‘real’ feel of the game.
The developers were also given broad license to use assets from across the wider Bond universe – setting up levels where players could square off against Jaws and Baron Samedi with iconic weapons like the Golden Gun or Moonraker laser. As Hollis put it in an interview for the Independent: “We were told we should use anything: any character or piece of hardware from any of the films. It was a dream licence and we didn’t really realise that at the time.”
Powering up this immersion was the use of location-based damage. Speaking for myself, I spent countless hours shooting hats off of the heads of guards or popping them in the foot to make them hop around. This, combined with early stealth elements, meant that you could play through the main story in the way that you wanted to – going in sneakily or guns blazing – a flexible playstyle that has been fully embraced by many AAA games in recent years.
Taking all of these factors together, you can see how the game produced a deeply immersive environment for Bond fans to lose themselves in for hours on end.
3 - GoldenEye 007 popularised split screen death matches
“Much has been made of Pokémon Go’s ability to get random people together… but Bond was the original common language” – Kevin Alexander, Thrillist
Clearly, one of my strongest associations with the GoldenEye game was its multiplayer offering. And given the frequent, passionate mentions made of it by reviewers, this was clearly a universal experience.
This four-screen deathmatch felt completely new at the time – creating an environment that was “more social and more immediate” than other multiplayer games.
While you could have created a LAN and shot away at demons with your friends in Doom on the PC for a few years at this point, there was something a bit more satisfying about crashing down onto a couch and setting up a quick game of Power Weapons on Facility.
But, funnily enough, this genre-defining mode was added in near the end of production, almost as an afterthought once the team at Rare realised that the N64 was shipping with 4 ports (the entire thing was programmed in a month by Steve Ellis). It wasn’t even signed off by Rare and Nintendo until it was practically ready to launch!
GoldenEye 007 – serendipity or skill?
With all of the above, I think some could argue that the GoldenEye 007 game was just lucky to be released when it was. Indeed, many of the innovations in the game were unlocked by the new N64 hardware.
At the same time, the developers clearly struck gold with the IP – the Bond brand was languishing until the film GoldenEye “made Bond cool again” – and it would be surprising if this didn’t play at least some role in initial pickup around the game.
However, I think that narrative does a disservice to the developers who – filled with the confidence of youth, and adoration of a much-loved brand – recognised what these new tech innovations could offer to players and implemented them into their game in a hugely addictive way.
I believe that they brought together the latest tech with their own passion to create something truly impressive – and it is this that has allowed the game to stand the test of time and become a true classic.
So, with that settled, anyone up for a game of Slaps on Temple?