The big issue about Goldeneye 007 (for people who did not live through 1997) is that everyone thought it was impossible. The FPS (First Person Shooter) genre had traditionally been associated with PC gaming. Doom showed that it was possible to make a first person shooter on a computer. Quake followed with a better version of Doom and a much better engine. Then, everyone laughed at the idea that you could make a first person shooter on a console controller.
Rare then released Goldeneye and proved that everyone was wrong about how ridiculous it was to think you could release a first person shooter on a console controller. It was great, and more importantly for console gaming history, it changed what was possible on dedicated hardware. I include this in my history classes. Goldeneye’s success was not just that it was a fun game, it was also a matter of timing, positioning, and knowing that sometimes the impossible is simply the unattempted.
What Goldeneye Actually Proved
Goldeneye came with a single-player campaign that was a love letter to the James Bond film franchise. Each mission in the campaign was structured like a movie scene. You were sneaking through a Russian missile base, entering a weapons factory to steal plans for a helicopter, getting plans for a stolen helicopter. The missions all had specific objectives. Get into the base quietly, or charge in guns blazing. Find the specific object you needed to find to complete the mission, or simply survive the mission. The game let you approach the mission objectives in whatever way you liked.
You were shooting down a helicopter piloted by Sean Bean firing missiles at you. You were running from tanks in a tank base. You were navigating a dam level requiring precision and observation. The campaign was 5-8 hours depending on difficulty, which is very generous by modern standards. It was not padding. It was not grinding. It was focused, story-driven, and driven by the concept of being a James Bond adventure.
However, the reason Goldeneye was such a historical milestone was its multiplayer mode. 4 players, side-by-side, simultaneous combat in arenas that were large enough to encourage local play and small enough to provide genuine strategy depth. The “Facility” level was a laboratory with two floors, and there were weapons scattered throughout. The respawn locations were placed in areas that would prevent one player from dominating the same area of the map forever. Where you found items (the golden gun), and where you found the body armor, and where you found the machine guns, and the best weapon was in an area that required some amount of risk to reach.
The weapon balance in that multiplayer was somehow perfect. The Golden Gun is overpowered, but you only had a few shots with it. The plasma rifle was useful, but slow. The SMG was effective, but only at close range. The sniper rifle was powerful, but if you missed, it would cost you dearly. Every player, regardless of how well-equipped they were, had a legitimate chance at winning due to the game’s respect for randomness providing opportunities for comebacks, and rewarding skill with victory.
The Technical Achievements That Most People Forget
I teach game history and I always have to say — Goldeneye was not technically impressive compared to 1997 standards. The graphics were blocky. The frame rate was capped at lower levels. The draw distance was limited. However, what most people forget is that it was technically impressive compared to a console. PCs had been doing first person shooter games for years. Consoles had not. The fact that Rare was able to get it to work was the achievement. The fact that they got it to work well, was amazing.
The control scheme was the biggest factor in how well the game worked. Two players using the controller in two completely different ways — one player would use one stick for movement and camera, and the second player would use the second stick for targeting and aiming. Or, if you were playing alone, or playing online, you could use the button for camera control, and the stick for movement. It took some effort to adjust to, but once you did, it worked flawlessly.
This is where I have to get philosophical about gaming history — Goldeneye proved that innovation does not come from trying to push technical boundaries. Innovation comes from understanding your specific constraints and finding creative solutions to those constraints. Rare did not have the capability to process information of a top-of-the-line PC. They had a cartridge-based console, and limited RAM. Yet, they created a game that was brilliant despite those limitations. That is the lesson most people seem to have forgotten.
Why Oddjob Was Broken And Why That Matters
Oddjob is banned in every multiplayer match-up of Goldeneye. His “hat” weapon is basically too powerful — it fires quickly, hits well, and is extremely difficult to aim at. Everyone knew this. No one cared. This is because the truly great aspect of Goldeneye’s multiplayer was the implicit understanding that players could create their own rulesets. Which weapons were allowed, which characters were banned, which levels were vetoed. The game came with enough flexibility that players could determine their own balance.
This is actually important to understanding how gaming communities function. Goldeneye did not have an online matchmaking service to enforce the official ruleset. Players had to agree among themselves. Therefore, the game could be intentionally imbalanced in certain ways, and it didn’t matter because the players would simply ban the broken elements. This is a feature, not a bug — the game was robust enough to allow players to intentionally make it imbalanced, because the human element was a fundamental part of the game.
Compare this to the current state of online gaming where balance patches occur constantly, and if a weapon is broken, players will freak out. Goldeneye worked because it trusted players to develop their own rulesets. That is either naive, or brilliant — I believe it is both.
The Multiplayer That Broke Friendships
As a history professor, I focus on the most culturally significant events. I firmly place Goldeneye’s multiplayer as one of these events — it is the game that proved that local multiplayer FPS was viable, and therefore defined console gaming for the next decade. Prior to Goldeneye, you would fight games and Mario Kart with friends. After Goldeneye, you fought first-person shooters with friends.
There is a difference between competing with someone on the same screen, watching each other, trash-talking, and competing with someone online. The immediate feedback is different. You cannot blame lag. You cannot rage quit without everyone seeing you do it. In-person gaming provides an accountability that is more difficult to establish online.
I witnessed friendships actually break apart because of repeated losses to friends in Goldeneye. I am not kidding. People became angry. People became angry because the game was competitive enough that losing was perceived as a talent deficit, and not just bad luck. People do not become enraged when they lose at random games. They do become upset when they lose at something they are passionate about.
Is Goldeneye Still Relevant Today?
The single-player campaign remains relevant. The mission design is still solid. The objectives remain clearly defined. The level design rewards careful observation and planning. It is not a long game by modern standards, but it does not need to be — it told the story it wanted to tell and then stepped aside.
The multiplayer is less refined than modern FPSes, yes. The graphics are dated. The frame rate is inconsistent. But the fundamentals of the gameplay — the feel of the combat, the balance of the weapons, and the design of the arenas — are still enjoyable. You can still play Goldeneye on the original N64 today and enjoy a quality experience with friends.
Adjusting to the controls will require some practice if you are accustomed to modern controls, but they worked. They worked once you learned them. This is where I push back against the notion that older games are inherently less enjoyable than newer ones — Goldeneye is different, not less enjoyable.
How This Was Important For Gaming History
Goldeneye did not just prove that a console FPS could work — it demonstrated that First-Person Shooters belong on consoles. Pre-Goldeneye, FPS was a PC-only genre. Post-Goldeneye, every major publisher wanted to create console FPS franchises. Halo was created as a result of Goldeneye proving that there was a market for console FPS games. Console gaming as we know it today is built upon the platform that Goldeneye established.
This is fascinating to me as a historian — how a single game’s success can shift an entire industry. Goldeneye was technically impressive, but it was not revolutionary. It was based on an existing IP. It was not even the best-selling game for the Nintendo 64. But it was released at the perfect time when people were curious about what was possible with console hardware, and it addressed that curiosity perfectly.
Timing was everything. Had it been too early, the hardware may not have supported it. Had it been too late, everyone would have already assumed that consoles could not support FPS games. Goldeneye hit the sweet spot where it could change people’s minds.
Conclusion
Goldeneye 007 is not only the best FPS on the Nintendo 64 — it is one of the most historically significant games in gaming history. Not because it introduced new concepts, but because it demonstrated that established genres could be rewritten for new platforms as long as developers understood the constraints and creatively solved those constraints.
The single-player campaign is a solid Bond adventure. The multiplayer changed what could be done with console gaming. The controls became the standard for a generation. The balance was inspired. The level design was creative. All of the elements worked together to create a great FPS experience on a limited budget.
If you have never played Goldeneye, now is the time to try it, and appreciate why it was so important. If you have fond memories of battling Oddjob with your friends, and yelling trash talk across the controller divider, replay it and remember why that was so memorable.
Rating: 10/10 — The game that proved console FPS could be great. Click here to view our top 10 N64 games list
Joe’s a history teacher who treats the console wars like actual history. A lifelong Sega devotee from Phoenix, he writes with passion, humor, and lingering heartbreak over the Dreamcast. Expect strong opinions, bad puns, and plenty of “blast processing.”
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