GoldenEye 007

• Release Date: 1997
• Platform(s): Nintendo 64
• Developer: Rare
• Genre: Shoot 'Em Up

You could argue that the title of Best James Bond Game ironically sits with a series that has nothing to do with James Bond, the Metal Gear series. Less debatable, though, is the holder of the title of Most Important Console First-Person Shooter. Before GoldenEye 007, and adaptation that played fast and loose with the 1995, many would struggle with even the idea of such a thing.

Unlike contemporary Turok: Dinosaur Hunter, GoldenEye 007 proved that joy pad controls were not a disability. Both games featured precision aiming thanks to the N64 analog stick, but Rare knew best how to use it. Revelling in the lack of hyper-kinetic PC controls, it made a game in which every shot felt like something handmade. Hit a shoulder, and an enemy might pirouette to the floor; the groin -- an natural favourite -- and they'd fold and keel over; the head, and they'd drop as if hit with a pole-arm. Games like Virtua Cop got there sooner but, to borrow a phrase, nobody does it better than Bond.

In single-player mode, GoldenEye 007 features a rarely emulated difficulty method that switched objectives at each level, making it highly replayable even now. But the game's split-screen support for up to four players, as much as a testament to the N64's hardware layout, was the proof of concept for all console multiplayers. When games like Halo try to capture that feeling via Xbox Live, what they are referring to is the sight of your armchair buddy being dropped by the Golden Gun, on of umpteen weapons and modes that kept this game going for years.

Culling gadgets and characters from the entire Bond universe, GoldenEye 007 pounced on every opportunity its license could afford.

Posted in: 1990s, FPS, James Bond, Rare, Shoot 'Em Up