On September 29, 1996, the Nintendo 64 was released in stores across the US. Its competitors, the Playstation and the Saturn, had a huge head start. However, Nintendo was still counting on its success during the previous two generations to push it to the front of the pack. We all know that this would be the generation where Nintendo lost its crown as the king of the gaming world, but it was still an amazing generation nonetheless.

This was the generation where 3D gaming was introduced to the world. Although many of the titles released during that generation are difficult to even look at today, who can look back on Super Mario 64 and not look fondly upon their first experience in a three-dimensional world?

This week, we’ll be celebrating the anniversary of the Nintendo 64 by taking a look at some of the best games of that generation. Finally, on Saturday, we’ll all sit back and share our fondest memories of that generation.

Today, we’re going to take a look at Goldeneye and Perfect Dark, the two titles that brought first-person shooters to a console audience.


The odds were stacked against Goldeneye from the beginning. First, it was a movie tie-in, a type of game that was almost universally horrible. Second, it was a first-person shooter, a genre that was very much PC-only. When it was released in August of 1997, nobody thought that Rare’s new game would change the medium forever.

For the time, the graphics were very good. All of the locations from the movie were represented very accurately and enlarged in ways that made perfect sense. Characters actually vaguely resembled their movie counterparts. It all just looked good. The graphics haven’t exactly aged gracefully, but they aren’t as painful to look at as many other titles of that generation. The music was also surprisingly good. Tracks from the movie were faithfully recreated and the new music fit very well. It was an excellent soundtrack for an exciting game.

Gameplay, however, is where this title really shines. Despite it being one of the first first-person shooters on consoles, Rare succeeded in creating one of the best control schemes ever for the game. The N64 controller was perfect for first-person shooters, and Rare took advantage of that when creating the game. More importantly, there was a whole lot of “game” in this game. Even after completing missions, there was more to unlock and complete. Goldeneye introduced the concept of mission objectives to console games. Each difficulty level would add additional goals to complete, adding whole new areas or storyline bits to each level when you replayed it on a harder difficulty. Completing levels within a certain time limit or completing special objectives would unlock extras outside of the game. You could get extra multiplayer levels, additional characters, new guns, and a huge menu of cheats by completing these goals.

Multiplayer was really where this title shined. Goldeneye brought the four-player deathmatch to living rooms across the globe. Almost every level from the game was available in some form or another in the multiplayer mode. You could play as any of several dozen unlockable characters from the entire James Bond timeline. Ever wanted to know if Jaws could beat Boris? You could find out. The addictive nature of Goldeneye’s multiplayer made it a hit at parties well into our current generation of games.

In Goldeneye, Rare created a title that would not only change the medium, but would be a game that could still be enjoyed today. It is single-handedly responsible for bringing the first-person shooter to consoles and for catapulting Rare into the spotlight as a first rate developer.

Then – 4/5
A technological marvel, Goldeneye was one of the best games of its time.
Now – 3/5
It hasn’t aged very well and better games have come out, but the core gameplay still holds its own.


When Rare lost the James Bond license to EA, gamers everywhere were dismayed. Goldeneye had just come out and fans were already looking forward to a sequel. The answer came when Rare announced Perfect Dark, an original game using an improved version of the Goldeneye engine.

Delay after delay followed, but gamers didn’t lose interest. Instead, anticipation grew and grew as each new preview hit magazines and the internet. When the game was finally released in May of 2000, it promptly proved that the wait was worth it. The game improved on Goldeneye in every conceivable way.

The story dealt with Joanna Dark, a secret agent with the mysterious Carrington Institute. The Institute was working with an alien race to prevent the invasion of the evil Skedar, who have allied with the corporation Datadyne. The mature plotline, well-written script, and the believable characters all delivered and dealt a blow to the image of Nintendo as a “kiddie” company.

The graphics were a considerable improvement on those in Goldeneye, but they still fall apart by today’s standards. In fact, Perfect Dark may have been ahead of its time, offering gamers the choice of high resolution and widescreen modes. All of this did hurt the game’s framerate considerably. The required memory expansion didn’t quite give it the power it needed to run smoothly. When it ran well, it looked amazing for its time.

The basic gameplay of Goldeneye was kept and improved upon. The control scheme was and still is one of the best ever created in this genre. Everything felt natural, and the N64 gamepad was very well designed for this task. Like in Goldeneye, playing each level on a higher difficulty level would add additional objectives and areas to explore. It would also occasionally change entire sequences of the storyline or add more to the plot. Perfect Dark also puts Goldeneye to shame with the sheer amount of things that you can do and unlock. In addition to the full singleplayer campaign, there are also a number of extra modes. When not in the menu, you walk around the full grounds of the Carrington Institute where you can engage in minigames and interact with NPCs. There’s a firing range where you can improve your skill with each weapon and unlock additional ones. There are training missions where you take on bots (called “sims”) in deathmatch scenarios. We haven’t even gotten to multiplayer yet.

Multiplayer is what defined both this and Goldeneye. In addition to a huge selection of new levels, Perfect Dark also featured updated versions of Goldeneye’s best levels. The sheer array of options in Perfect Dark’s multiplayer leaves it feeling fresh even today. There are several multiplayer modes with all sorts of adjustable options. You can even fully customize which weapons will be available. There are about a dozen different types of bots with adjustable AI to add a few more allies or opponents to the experience. All of this adds up to one of the best multiplayer modes ever created, even if it does tend to chug when you have four players and eight bots going at it. This was also one of the first console games to keep track of all of your statistics in multiplayer. The stat tracking proved to be very addictive in a sadistic sort of way.

Some of the most interesting quirks of Perfect Dark were the glitches and hidden features. A few of the glitches had hilarious effects in multiplayer, like the floating mines. Most famous, however, is the cheese. Every level of the game has a piece of cheese carefully hidden. You can’t actually get to them; they always fall just outside of reach. For years, gamers tried to find a way to collect those delicious pieces of cheese. They would debate over the nature of the mysterious dairy product. It turns out that there is no way to get to them and that they have no actual purpose, but were left in just to confound players.

The very fact that Perfect Dark hasn’t left my N64 for some time now shows just how much staying power that this game has. Despite having all of the latest technology in one place, we still almost inevitably break this game out at parties. It may be hard to look at by today’s standards, but Perfect Dark is still one of the best games ever made.

Then – 5/5
It improved on Goldeneye in every way, an absolutely amazing game.
Now – 4/5
The graphics haven’t aged gracefully, but the gameplay is as fun as ever.

Tell us what you think. Did you like these games? What were your favorite games of the N64 era? Let us know in the comments below.