Inducted: 2025
In 1994, Rare and Nintendo began development of a video game inspired by the upcoming James Bond Film GoldenEye(1995). Based on the popular MI6 intelligence agent created by author Ian Fleming, GoldenEye 007 is a first-person shooting game with heavy stealth elements. The game includes a single-player story mode and a split-screen multiplayer mode for up to four players. The game ultimately sold more than eight million units worldwide and became known as a “killer app” for the Nintendo 64 console.
While games like Doom (1993) ensured that first-person shooting games enjoyed massive popularity by the mid-1990s, the genre was confined almost exclusively to personal computers. The genre was also not known for its detailed plots and multi-faceted characters. All of this changed with GoldenEye 007. Thanks to the rich history embedded in the James Bond universe, players entered a world filled with engaging stories and familiar faces. The Nintendo 64’s 3D graphics, while limited by today’s standards, added a heightened sense of realism with detailed environments and special effects. The game’s heavy emphasis on stealth also added a highly strategic layer previously unseen in FPS games, with players needing to focus just as much on intelligence as firepower.
The game’s multiplayer mode, however, is what truly made the game significant. The split-screen mode allowed up to four players to engage simultaneously in various deathmatch-style battles. This mode included five different game styles, four of which were based on other James Bond titles, such as “You Only Live Twice,” with players given two lives, and “License to Kill,” where players died from a single shot from any weapon. As players advanced in the single mode, additional maps and characters unlocked in multiplayer mode.
GoldenEye surpassed its contemporaries to become the third best-selling game on the Nintendo 64, beaten only by Super Mario 64 and Mario Kart 64. Critics lauded it as the premier example of a first-person shooter to succeed on a console rather than a PC, and it is still considered one of the best multiplayer experiences ever produced on a Nintendo system. Its impact can be felt in nearly all console FPS games that followed, including Microsoft’s epic Halo franchise that launched in 2001.In 2010, Activision published a reimagining of GoldenEye based on the Daniel Craig embodiment of James Bond, rather than the original game’s Pierce Brosnan. A fan remake under production for the game’s 25th anniversary in 2022 was cancelled by a cease-and-desist order from the IP-holders, but the existence of such an effort testified to the game’s popularity with its fans.
Did You Know?
The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences (AIAS) awarded GoldenEye 007 the organization’s first ever game of the year honor at its 1998 D.I.C.E. (Design Innovate Communicate Entertain) Awards.
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