Top 50 Video Games of All-Time...
1. Goldeneye 007
Platform: N64
Year Released: 1997
Publisher: Nintendo
Est. Hours Played: 250-300
Why It Made The List: Three times in my life I have bought an entire Nintendo 64 system for the sole purpose of playing Goldeneye. The first time was after I played Goldeneye at a friend's house, the next week, I bought an N64 with all of my saved up birthday money. I didn't have enough to buy Goldeneye, so the folks at Premeire Video rentals soon saw me every three days, as I think I set a record for renting the same game upwards to 20 times in a row until I could afford it (there was no way I was going to wait and save up without playing it in the meantime!). I later sold everything N64 related as I got my PS2, only to find myself missing "klobbing" people once I got to college, so I bought everything all again from a used video game store. When eBay really took off, and I realized that was the only way I could easily make money without actually getting a job, I sold it all again. 6 months later, I bought it all again. It just seemed so justified.
Year Released: 1997
Publisher: Nintendo
Est. Hours Played: 250-300
Why It Made The List: Three times in my life I have bought an entire Nintendo 64 system for the sole purpose of playing Goldeneye. The first time was after I played Goldeneye at a friend's house, the next week, I bought an N64 with all of my saved up birthday money. I didn't have enough to buy Goldeneye, so the folks at Premeire Video rentals soon saw me every three days, as I think I set a record for renting the same game upwards to 20 times in a row until I could afford it (there was no way I was going to wait and save up without playing it in the meantime!). I later sold everything N64 related as I got my PS2, only to find myself missing "klobbing" people once I got to college, so I bought everything all again from a used video game store. When eBay really took off, and I realized that was the only way I could easily make money without actually getting a job, I sold it all again. 6 months later, I bought it all again. It just seemed so justified.
My addiction level of Goldeneye was unprecedented. I once had some friends over to stay the night starting at 2:00 PM on a Saturday afternoon. My friend's parents got worried at 4:00 Sunday when they hadn't heard from him. We had played through the night, 26 hours straight without turning the game off. We would use pizza boxes and other skinny items to cut the tv screen into quadrants and turn radar off. That way, you could only see your screen, and couldn't learn where your opponents were by looking at their screens. If you played with my group of friends, and didn't know how to c-walk, prepare to get destroyed. I once had three of my "rookie" friends take me on in a 3-1 match, and beat them 25-1. Remote mining the Archives, prox mining armor, rocket launching someone from the basement, headshotting noobs who think being Oddjob makes them harder to hit!!....I really need to stop before I hyperventilate.
I have always been in love with the Bond movies. Adding that universe to one of the cleanest first-person shooters was a match made in heaven for me. God, even Goldeneye made "Moonraker" awesome by incorporating the "Aztec" level and the lazers. Have you noticed I haven't even mentioned the single-player campaign yet? With a story-line directly from the movie (a rarity in video game ports of movies), the single-player campaign only enhanced the multiplayer by learning new areas to hide, snipe, or prox mine an enemy. Not only that, with the varying difficulties (from Agent to 007) and time challenges for each level, the replayability factor was enormous.
Goldeneye is a game that will forever be with me. My love for the Bond universe alone will make sure that happens. Everytime I watch a Bond movie, I can see something that was either in, or reminds me of, Goldeneye.