Please note that this is the Goldeneye Wiki's article on on the original release in 1997. If you are looking for the article on the Wii remake in 2010 then you should head to GoldenEye 007 (Nintendo Wii). For other uses, see GoldenEye 007 (disambiguation)
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GoldenEye 007 (Nintendo 64)
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Release Date
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August 23, 1997 (Japan)
August 25, 1997 (North America) November 7, 1997 (Europe) |
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Developed By
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Published By
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GoldenEye 007 (sometimes called "GoldenEye 64" or simply GoldenEye by fans) is a First-Person Shooter video game developed by Rareware and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. It was released on August 23, 1997 and is based on the 1995 James Bond film GoldenEye.
By far the most successful video game of the Jame Bond franchise (though not the first, contrary to popular belief, as installments existed as early as 1982), GoldenEye 007 was critically acclaimed and sold over 8 million copies worldwide, making it the third best-selling game of the N64, and is listed among the greatest video games of all-time. It is widely considered one of the most important and influential titles of the first-person shooter genre, as it began the shift of PC to home console hardware, and established the general gameplay mechanics into more realistic graphics that has become standard since. It would pioneer later FPS series such as Call of Duty, Halo and more. GoldenEye remains popular to this day, due to its then-groundbreaking gameplay, 4-player multiplayer feature and iconic music, and even has a spiritual successor called Perfect Dark, also released for the Nintendo 64 in 2000 by Rare, which itself would also become another highly acclaimed first-person shooter in its own right. The game itself is still sometimes used in professional tournaments.
A remake developed by Eurocom, also titled GoldenEye 007, was released in 2010 for the Nintendo Wii. The original game was re-released in 2023, both as a standalone title and downloadable add-on for the compilation Rare Replay on Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S, as well as the Nintendo Classics service for Nintendo Switch Online, available on Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2.
Description[]
The game features three modes:
The first mode is the single player mode, where you control James Bond and complete missions roughly based on the movie's story. There is a variety of weapons in the game such as knives, pistols, rifles and others. To complete missions, the player must complete all objectives that are given when you select a mission. Examples include killing a specific enemy, retrieving documents and rescuing hostages. Usually, the number of objectives increase when you select harder difficulties.
The second mode is the multiplayer mode. Here, a player can play with their friends (up to 4 people in total) in different areas. The players can choose a character of their choice. Some of the characters are not even in the single player mode. Some characters need to be unlocked if you want to play as them, and that is done by completing missions in the single player mode.
The third mode is called Cheat Options. It is where you get to use cheats in the single player mode. A cheat is unlocked when the player completes a mission very quickly or when beaten it on a certain difficulty. Here are a few examples of the cheats:
- DK Mode - a cheat that allows you and other characters to have big heads and arms, looking similar to Donkey Kong.
- Infinite Ammo - a cheat that allows you to have endless ammo, but still must reload.
- All Guns - a cheat that gives you every single weapon in the game, including ones not normally found in missions such as the Shotgun or Silver PP7.
- Paintball Mode - a cheat that leaves paintball splats on walls instead of bullet holes.
Theme[]
Main theme
More info on Multiplayer mode[]
Five scenarios may be chosen. All the scenario names, except Normal and Team: - vs - , are names of Bond films.
- Normal: Classic deathmatch.
- You Only Live Twice: As the name suggests, players only have two lives. The last person alive wins.
- The Living Daylights [Flag Tag]: One of the players must find a flag, and then pick it up, without being killed by the other player(s).
- The Man with the Golden Gun: One of the players must find the Golden Gun, and then pick up the gun, without being killed by the other player(s). The name of the mode itself is reference to the James Bond novel and film of the same name.
- Licence to Kill: One hit kills a player and they lose right away.
All the scenarios.
There are also three team scenarios:
-Team: 2 vs 2
-Team: 3 vs 1
-Team: 2 vs 1
Gameplay[]
Gameplay screenshot of Bunker 2, with James Bond shooting down several enemy guards with the KF7 Soviet
Although rather outdated in comparison to modern 3D first-person shooter games today, the gameplay of GoldenEye 007 was revolutionary for its time of release in 1997, as it introduced a more grounded and realistic style over run-and-gun PC games before it such as Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Duke Nukem 3D and Quake, shifted the overall genre into the home console platform, and set the standard for some later James Bond-based titles, Perfect Dark, and many other games inspired by it. Some of its innovations include precise movement and aiming controls, the use of real-world firearms, distinctive sound effects and music, motion capture animation of characters, more intelligent artificial intelligence of enemies, stealth, fully exploreable large maps, the player able to choose and play unlocked levels freely, and a multiplayer death match mode.
As aforementioned, the main goal of the game's singleplayer mode is to complete a set of objectives of each mission while gunning down enemy solders to progress safely, taking the role of MI6 00 Agent James Bond, codenamed "007". The objectives themselves depend on three difficulty levels - Agent (easy), Secret Agent (normal), or 00 Agent (hard). These difficulties also affect the available weaponry and how tough enemies will become (higher settings increase health, damage inflicted, and sometimes reaction speed). If James Bond is killed by enemies or hazards such as explosions, the game is over. If any objective fails, the player must abort and restart the level. Objectives range from recovering items to destroying objects, defeating antagonists (eg. Xenia Onatopp), or rescuing hostages. Some objectives may also require the player to use high-tech gadgets. Many of the weapons (over 20 in total) in GoldenEye 007 are generally pistols, sub-machine guns and assault rifles, but also include knives, grenades, mines, sniper rifles, rocket launchers, and even a tank. It is possible to dual-wield firearms if Bond manages to pick up two of the same weapon to gain an advantage in combat. In rare cases, even enemies can also dual-wield weapons, usually in later missions. Certain gadgets or firearms from other James Bond media such as the electromagnetic watch or Francisco Scaramanga's Golden Gun are also featured in a few missions. Unlike most other FPS games, there are no health recovery items, though a body armor pick up can be acquired to provide a secondary health bar.
The player can unlock cheats by completing missions under a set time limit in certain difficulties. Two bonus levels - Aztec and Egyptian, are unlocked after completing the main storyline in Secret Agent and 00 Agent, respectively. A fourth, special difficulty setting known as 007 (often called "007 Mode" by fans) is unlocked upon completing the entire game on 00 Agent, which allows the player to customize the challenge by manually adjusting the health, damage, and reaction speed of enemies, adding replayability. It should be noted, however, that missions will still play in the same objective style as in 00 Agent.
Trivia[]
- Surprisingly, the game's iconic multiplayer mode was never originally intended during development, and was actually an afterthought.
- The game was the 1998 AIAS game of the year.
- Originally, the 4 save file slots, in addition to Pierce Brosnan were to be represented by previous Bond actors (with the exception of George Lazenby) Sean Connery, Roger Moore, and Timothy Dalton. However, because Rare did not have the permission to use the likeness of any of the actors except for Brosnan, this was scrapped, and all of the save files had Brosnan's picture in the final game. The Bonds were also planned to be in the multiplayer mode as playable characters. This was the target of the hoax, known as the 4 Bonds Code.
- During development, there was an idea by Rare where if the player had to reload, he/she had to pull out the Rumble Pak and re-insert it into the controller, similar to putting a magazine into an actual gun, but that was quickly scrapped, at the request of Nintendo.
One of the beta screenshots from the back of the game's box shows a higher level of violence but is ultimately toned down by Nintendo's request at the final release.
- GoldenEye 007 was originally intended to be more violent, as a beta screenshot with blood impacts on the back of the game's box can be seen, but this was scrapped during development, at the request of Nintendo forcing Rare to tone it down. This resulted in the released game having enemies being shot unrealistically showing sparks as if bullets hit other objects. A Gameshark code can be used to bring back the blood, but in the final game it is unfinished and shown as larger red glitched sparks. The game's spiritual successor Perfect Dark, however, has GoldenEye's original planned level of violence restored.
- The faces of the enemy soldiers in the game (excluding movie-based characters such as Trevelyan, Xenia, Ourumov and Boris) are actually faces of Rareware staff members, including the game's main developers, such as David Doak. This would repeat for Perfect Dark.
- The sky graphics used for outdoor levels in GoldenEye 007 (and Perfect Dark) are taken from Rare's critically acclaimed 1994 arcade fighting game Killer Instinct. This particular game also shares GoldenEye's music composers, Robin Beanland and Graeme Norgate.
- GoldenEye 007 was originally going to be in the style of a rail-shooter, like Virtua Cop. This is also evident from the E3 videos of the game in 1996-'97. It was also originally planned to be released on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, the Nintendo 64's predecessor.
- GoldenEye is not the first fully 3D first-person shooter title to have mission objectives or become critically acclaimed through innovation, as Turok: Dinosaur Hunter, also released on the Nintendo 64 and in 1997, predates it by 5 months.
- Pierce Brosnan, the actor of James Bond in the GoldenEye film, actually played the game and admits he is not very skilled.
- The same sound effects for gunshots were also used in the 1961 film, Mysterious Island.
See Also[]
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Gallery[]
Screenshots[]
_snap0006.jpg "GoldenEye 007 (U) snap0006.jpg (174 KB)")
