Truly amazing

User Rating: 9 | GoldenEye 007 N64
Before Halo: Combat Evolved rocked the gaming world, FPS games tried to make a name for themselves on consoles. Whether it was ports of PC games or shoddy controlled original fare, few games stood out. Turok managed to make an early name for itself on the N64, but few games stood out as much as Rare's FPS magnum opus, Goldeneye 007 did.

At the time, Goldeneye's gameplay astounded like no other console FPS. It wasn't simply run and gun, it was about getting a bit more tactical. Stand back, pull out your sniper and start capping your enemies from hundreds of yards away. Prior to that, no console FPS had even had a sniper like that. Turok for instance had you running around with some quad-rocket launcher to fire at Triceratops running straight at you. But Goldeneye had one more ace up its sleeve.

Sure, great gameplay in the single-player mode is great, but a console with four controller ports and a genre that begs to be played competitively meant that Goldeneye had easily the best FPS action on the N64 for competing against your friends. Nothing's more fun than sitting with three friends and killing one another while trash talking and pushing one another, and Goldeneye was the first console FPS to truly capture that.

The graphics are rather stunning for an N64 game as well. You'll be taken across a wide variety of locales from snowy bases to underground waterways. The characters themselves resemble blocky versions of the film's characters. The music in the game is very 007, playing on the catchy tunes of the film series and the sound effects are rather powerful for an N64 game.

Final word: Most people will often complain that film-based games are never really that good, but if Goldeneye has taught gamers anything, it's that the game is better then the forgettable film it's based on. With exciting and fun gameplay, Goldeneye was indeed one of the best N64 games, coming after Super Mario 64 and Star Fox 64, it marked one of the high points for the N64 and one of the high points for console FPS in general. If you love shooters then play this game, you owe it yourself.