GoldenEye 007

The Good
Consoles have never really been about first person shooters. Gamepads don't make the greatest of shooter controls, and multiplayer shooters are best played on a network of PCs instead of a split-screen TV.

Goldeneye 007 had the interesting distinction of being the greatest first person shooter on any console, and also an average (at best) game in the genre.

Goldeneye 007 has two strengths: a well-designed single player campaign, and a multitude of clever multiplayer modes. However, fundamental failings in the game hamper both from being all they could be.

The mission-based single-player mode is well designed. Objectives are varied and interesting, and while the gameplay doesn't go far beyond shooting, good design keeps things compelling.

Multiplayer is also loaded with many different game modes. From different weapons to team play to You Only Live Twice (get killed twice, and you're eliminated), there's no shortage of things to do to keep multiplayer games fresh.

The Bad
The graphics are atrociously fuzzy. Many Nintendo 64 titles suffered from this. The visuals look pretty decent otherwise, but it's like viewing everything through a haze. Nothing looks sharp. The game also suffers from slowdown frequently, especially in multiplayer shootouts.

Multiplayer is accomplished via split-screen view. The first person shooter genre loses a lot in multiplayer mode when you can see exactly what each player is doing. The fuzzy graphics are many times worse when each person's view is limited to a fragment of the screen. Some of the multiplayer levels are too large - even with 4 players.

Play control is abysmal. Just being able to aim your gun well takes far more effort than it should, and the slow moving speed doesn't work well in gunfights. Again, this is something that gets far worse when trying to manipulate the game from a small quarter-screen view in multiplayer mode. A second joystick would've helped, as the C-buttons are just too unwieldy.

The Bottom Line
So, why is this game so popular if it's so bad? Well, it's not a bad game. It's a pretty good game that is mostly ruined by some bad flaws. Anyone that has played some first person shooters on the PC will not be impressed. Compared to a mouse-and-keyboard, the Nintendo 64 controller is horrid. 4-player split screen multiplayer simply doesn't compare to the kind of online Quake II play that was going on at the time as well.

But, some gamers don't know the joys of PC shooters, and Goldeneye 007 was as good as it got for console first person shooters. Still, when all is said and done, it is an average game - and one of the most overrated games ever released.