"GoldenEye 007" was a first person shooter genre video-game based on the James Bond movie "GoldenEye" for the Nintendo 64 platform. The game was released in 1997 while the movie was released in 1995, so there is no visible relation between the film’s launching promotion and the game itself. [1] "GoldenEye 007" was very successful in the opinion of both critics and consumers. It sold 8 million copies and is one of the best selling games of the Nintendo 64 platform. "GoldenEye’s" biggest competitors in 1997 were "Quake II" for computer platform (same genre), which sold 1 million copies, and "Mario Kart 64" for Nintendo 64 platform, which sold 8.4 million copies[2]. It also received great reviews and awards from critics, between 90 and 100 percent score as it is shown on the table below:
The story is the same as the one told in the movie and the players have no objections to that, since most of them like what they saw on the big screen. Although the story is the same, the game definitely does not follow it strictly, as many parts of the story were extended and even some places that Bond had not been to were part of real missions in the game.
The sound is well-recorded, with classic Bond songs as well as interesting sound effects. However voice acting, was pretty limited.
Much of the "GoldenEye" success came because of the innovation in gameplay, that it differs from "Quake" and "Doom" in the sense that the game is not focused only on chasing enemies, there are several other exciting objetives in the game, such as finding a key or launching a rocket.
In fact, this idea was one of the pillars to the making of "GoldenEye 007", innovation in the gameplay instead of simly delivering a copycat, as the main designer Martin Hollis says: “the gameplay model was Virtua Cop with a bit of Doom, plus some Mario 64 […] We ended up with innovative gameplay, in part because we had Virtua Cop features in a FPS: A gun that only holds 7 bullets and a reload button, lots of position dependant hit animations, innocents you shouldn’t kill, and an aiming mode […] From Mario 64, I took the idea of 5 missions per level. Yes, we changed it from the Mario format, which was attempt-one-mission-per-play, but the idea for the huge variety of missions within a level came from Mario 64”[1].
Innovation with puzzles, missions and gameplay were keys for sucess
It is important to observe the multiplayer development present in the game. "GoldenEye" has the best Nintendo 64 multiplayer platform. Differently from "Quake", "GoldenEye" uses a split-screen multiplayer and at that time video-game consoles did not have any internet or long distance capability. This game could entertain groups of close people, like a family or neighbors in a very innovative way.
Other James Bond games were produced, but none hit the spot like "GoldenEye" did. "The World is Not Enough" (1999), which was developed into different game consoles and by other producing studios, received an overall mark of 70% by consumers[4]. Major complaints evolve around the premature and forced release of the game due to schedule problems[5], which brought an unfinished game to the market. Multiplayer capability, just to mention one example, was almost nonexistent.
"GoldenEye", on the other hand, missed its original release deadline in order to ensure the final product quality, a decision that proved to be right. In conclusion, developers or film studios should pay attention to rushing and forcing unfinished game releases, which can result in major commercial failures. One example of this mistake was "E.T. The extraterrestrial" game, released by following a very short schedule to fit the film theatrical release.
[2] http://www.listal.com/list/bestselling-pc-games
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