When the N64 was released in 1996, Sonys’ incredible debut console, the Playstation had already been out over a year dominating the market. Nintendos’ fledgling console was not expected to do well against the mighty Playstation as Sony had many exclusive titles ported directly from the arcades; games such as Tekken and Ridge Racer went a long way to ensuring Sonys’ grasp on the market.
Rare, a talented UK developer had for years produced high quality games for Nintendo. Games such as Conkers Bad Fur Day and Banjo Kazooie are of note, but these games had a very young feel and mainly appealed to younger markets. In 1997 they surprised the industry by producing a game for the N64 which, despite being a movie-tie-in game, became one of the most popular games of the 1990’s. When it was released it caused such a massive surge in N64 sales that the console was surely saved from an early retirement. Goldeneye was a First-Person-Shooter using Ian Flemmings’ James Bond as inspiration to create one of the most surprisingly accomplished games ever seen. The game featured all the characters from the film, levels designed and inspired from the movie, gadgets, timed missions, intelligent enemies, tonnes of un-lockable extras and game-play that was incredibly fluid yet challenging.
Graphically it was solid, the animation was top-rate and the game had an amazing multiplayer suite including death-match for up to four players on one console. It really set the bar for all other FPS games to follow and was one of the top selling games of the decade, helping Nintendo maintain a strong foothold on the market. The game was so addictive I can remember playing this game for such long periods that upon unplugging, I could still see the gun sight hovering in front of my eyes!
Rare went on to produce the equally excellent Perfect Dark for the N64 which was also an FPS, more of the same but more refined, and have since been bought by Microsoft. They continued to produce high quality games for the X-Box, games of note are the excellent Grabbed by the Ghoulies and the re-released Conkers Bad Fur Day Reloaded, but they have failed to match the success they had with Goldeneye on the N64.
Goldeneye truly is an iconic game and one which is firmly placed in my mind as one of the finest games ever made, no great games collection is complete without it.
Rare, a talented UK developer had for years produced high quality games for Nintendo. Games such as Conkers Bad Fur Day and Banjo Kazooie are of note, but these games had a very young feel and mainly appealed to younger markets. In 1997 they surprised the industry by producing a game for the N64 which, despite being a movie-tie-in game, became one of the most popular games of the 1990’s. When it was released it caused such a massive surge in N64 sales that the console was surely saved from an early retirement. Goldeneye was a First-Person-Shooter using Ian Flemmings’ James Bond as inspiration to create one of the most surprisingly accomplished games ever seen. The game featured all the characters from the film, levels designed and inspired from the movie, gadgets, timed missions, intelligent enemies, tonnes of un-lockable extras and game-play that was incredibly fluid yet challenging.
Graphically it was solid, the animation was top-rate and the game had an amazing multiplayer suite including death-match for up to four players on one console. It really set the bar for all other FPS games to follow and was one of the top selling games of the decade, helping Nintendo maintain a strong foothold on the market. The game was so addictive I can remember playing this game for such long periods that upon unplugging, I could still see the gun sight hovering in front of my eyes!
Rare went on to produce the equally excellent Perfect Dark for the N64 which was also an FPS, more of the same but more refined, and have since been bought by Microsoft. They continued to produce high quality games for the X-Box, games of note are the excellent Grabbed by the Ghoulies and the re-released Conkers Bad Fur Day Reloaded, but they have failed to match the success they had with Goldeneye on the N64.
Goldeneye truly is an iconic game and one which is firmly placed in my mind as one of the finest games ever made, no great games collection is complete without it.
Related Links
Buy Goldeneye
www.GoldeneyeForever.com
