Goldeneye 64 (Nintendo 64)

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VideoGameCritic
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Goldeneye 64 (Nintendo 64)

Postby VideoGameCritic » October 2nd, 2021, 8:01 pm

So I'm working on a Bond review special to commemorate the new movie, but I was dismayed to discover that a lot of my 007 games have pretty low scores. Awwwwwkard...

I noticed the classic Goldeneye 64 has a C-! That can't be right... could it? Well I sat down to play a few missions and yeah... I like the game and the production values are great for the time. But the controls are kind of awkward and the interface is confusing. The people look like toy soldiers

Still, fun to look back on.

Zack Burner
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Re: Goldeneye 64 (Nintendo 64)

Postby Zack Burner » October 2nd, 2021, 8:24 pm

Thanks to emulation I was able to play Goldeneye years ago. I've played through it a bunch of times, it's pretty fun to play, especially in the Aztec level (my favorite level, thanks to the laser weapon, plus Jaws himself, and it's fun to chuck a grenade at the oblivious guards and watch them get blown sky high). I will agree that time has definitely not been kind to this important piece of gaming history. Everyone looks like toys and the scenery looks a little blocky. I only beat up to Secret Agent level, too hard on 00 Agent level.

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Retro STrife
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Re: Goldeneye 64 (Nintendo 64)

Postby Retro STrife » October 3rd, 2021, 5:58 am

I think it's really hard to return to any console FPS that came out before Halo. Your re-review of Goldeneye was in 2016, so the score makes sense in that context. Great product of its time, and it was the one "adult" game on the N64 that made PS1 owners like me jealous. It was definitely the main reason I finally bought an N64 sometime around 2000. Nowadays, I sometimes play the Dam level for nostalgia sake, but I'm done after that.

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ActRaiser
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Re: Goldeneye 64 (Nintendo 64)

Postby ActRaiser » October 3rd, 2021, 9:54 am

A+ rating all the way.

The joy outside of the excellent campaign is 4 player splitscreen. Pure bliss. And I'm 100% confident this statement is not shared through colored lenses of my past college days. Nope, not all.

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Matchstick
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Re: Goldeneye 64 (Nintendo 64)

Postby Matchstick » October 3rd, 2021, 10:56 pm

VideoGameCritic wrote:The people look like toy soldiers

And the cars in Ridge Racer look like Hot Wheels. So what??

I've seen so many contemporary criticisms of this game - mostly from the younger crowd - about how "bad" the graphics are, and how the game is nearly "unplayable" because of it. People like that can go eat a diiii... Diet Coke, for all I care. The choppiness and frame rate issues people like to complain about, I never noticed back in the day. Honestly, most of us never really noticed that sort of thing back then. Or cared. But try getting someone to play it for the first time these days, and all I tend to hear is, "MAH FRAMERATE!!" Whatever.

The controls are easy enough to adapt to once you realize that the C-Left and C-Right buttons can be used to strafe. The auto-aim is quite generous, too. It's still a very easy game to pick up and play - the hallmark of many titles published by Nintendo.

ActRaiser wrote:A+ rating all the way... And I'm 100% confident this statement is not shared through colored lenses of my past college days. Nope, not all.

Yeah, this is pretty much how I feel, too. So many happy memories of this one. For those that didn't grow up with console multiplayer gaming pre-Internet, they might not see what the big deal is. But I had never played 4-player deathmatch on a console before, and man, me and my buds had the time of our lives. I loved the single player, too, though it was tough. Beating any level felt like a major accomplishment.

I'd give this one a B, myself. Eclipsed by later titles, but still a landmark game, and a must-have for the N64. Keep in mind that this game released not even a year into the N64's North American lifespan, and that it preceded titles such as Ocarina of Time by more than a full year. When it came out, it was huge, and many of us playing the N64 were still fooling around with Mario 64 and Mario Kart.

VideoGameCritic wrote:Still, fun to look back on.

Indeed. Love it, hate it, or shrug it off, there's still plenty of fun to be had with this one.

Hagane
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Re: Goldeneye 64 (Nintendo 64)

Postby Hagane » October 4th, 2021, 12:19 am

Still a great game imo, yes graphics are dated and so are many 3D games from the same period, so what?

Goldeneye is not Doom where you're a marine running through corridors shooting countless aliens on the way, you're a secret agent it's more slow paced so its controls works just fine for the game, the auto-aim helps a lot too, you can say that there is only one analog stick on the N64 pad, and so the Dreamcast too, Quake 3 and Unreal tournament both still very playable on Dreamcast with only one alog stick.

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Re: Goldeneye 64 (Nintendo 64)

Postby Luigi & Peach » October 5th, 2021, 8:50 pm

You haven't lived until you've played multi-player in this game with one-hit kills and taken out someone with an automatic weapon with a karate chop...

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Matchstick
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Re: Goldeneye 64 (Nintendo 64)

Postby Matchstick » October 5th, 2021, 9:32 pm

Luigi & Peach wrote:You haven't lived until you've played multi-player in this game with one-hit kills and taken out someone with... a karate chop...

Slappers Only :lol:

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DrLitch
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Re: Goldeneye 64 (Nintendo 64)

Postby DrLitch » October 5th, 2021, 9:57 pm

Multiplayer, I insist that I pick Oddjob. Proximity mines as well, nothing more fun that watching someone get daisy chain killed respawning near the mines. Good times. Or pick grenade launchers, make sure to pick up your body armor, blow up the spare body armor to prevent the other player from getting it.

Yes Goldeneye is insanely dated by todays standards but in 1997 when it was released, nothing could touch it on PC or Console until perhaps System Shock 2 which is an entirely different sort of experience anyway. Not since perhaps Halo could as much fun be had with the format, particularly in multiplayer. Yes the frame rate stunk, the fps stunk in just about every N64 game, sometimes hitting slideshows. Easier to complain about fps in First Person Shooters given the perspective. You get used to it as well. Back then nobody cared, at least when we were kids.

I am curious Goldeneye got downgraded so much given it used to be an A on this site. I would have thought it self evident vintage games be judged against their peers of the time, not weighed up against more contemporary titles or judged in it's subgenre considering a plethora of titles propping up gaming lists since 1997. Goldeneye vs Half Life 2 or S.T.A.L.K.E.R Call of Pripyat would be extremely unfair let alone a modern title like Titanfall 2 or Doom Eternal. Lets be frank, if Pitfall never existed in the 1980's and was released today on PS5, in it's exact Atari 2600 shape, it would be worth a big fat F or one of Jim Sterlings 2/10 special's, and rightly so. Game might be fun, might be a classic, through contemporary eyes, a cute novelty, for modern kids, a junk game for a $10 toy watch. Not saying I think Pitfall is junk, after all, any kid growing up in the late 80's and early 90's would have fuzzy nostalgic feelings for this one. Just sayin...

ActRaiser wrote:A+ rating all the way.
The joy outside of the excellent campaign is 4 player splitscreen. Pure bliss. And I'm 100% confident this statement is not shared through colored lenses of my past college days. Nope, not all.


Partially agree although most games are not and cannot be timeless. Goldeneye is the poor hopeless sap saddled with mid 90's polygon rendering technology, fascinating as it is, modern lay waste to it's shortcomings. Conversely one can appreciate it's novelty and technological workarounds given very bottlenecked hardware, hard limits be damned. Nostalgia is an important factor. I rate Goldeneye a solid A perhaps even A+, rose tinted glasses indeed. My nephew of 16 years old told me it is one of the worst games he has ever played. Nephew proceeds for a mindless bit of Warzone online, a game I consider one of the worst of all time. Such is life.... do kids know nothing, or are us approaching mid life adopt the same rose tinted glasses our boomer parents did, oh it was so much better in the 60's ..... becoming as our parents, Ugly Kid Joe's Cat in the Cradle comes to mind....

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Re: Goldeneye 64 (Nintendo 64)

Postby Breaker » October 5th, 2021, 11:13 pm

VideoGameCritic wrote:So I'm working on a Bond review special to commemorate the new movie, but I was dismayed to discover that a lot of my 007 games have pretty low scores. Awwwwwkard...


It is just the curse of licensed games. Your Batman review section has more D's than any other grade, and 17 (of 43 - didn't realize there were so many Batman games!) are D+ or lower. 17 are also B- and higher (how's that for symmetry?), with the remaining 9 between C+ & C-. Only 2 A's, and no A+.

The Indiana Jones games are in even tougher shape. Only 11 games, but the highest grade are 2 B-'s, with 3 F's and 4 more between D+ & D-.

Star Wars fares better with plenty of A's & B's, but even there F is the most prevalent grade (12 of 53).

Long way to go to say that a James Bond special with lots of poor grades shouldn't really offend anyone or be a surprise!


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