GoldenEye 007 is a 1997 first-person shooter game created by Rare and released by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. It is based on the 1995 James Bond movie GoldenEye. Players control James Bond, a secret agent, to stop a criminal group from using a satellite weapon. Players move through different levels to complete tasks, such as finding or destroying items, while fighting enemies. In a multiplayer mode, up to four players compete in deathmatch games using a split-screen display.
Development started in January 1995. A team led by Martin Hollis worked on the game for over two and a half years. The game was first planned as a side-scrolling platform game for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. However, it changed into a 3D shooter for the Nintendo 64, inspired by games like Doom (1993) and Virtua Cop (1994). Rare visited the set of the GoldenEye movie for ideas, and Eon Productions and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) allowed them to add scenes and characters not in the film.
GoldenEye 007 was released in Japan on August 23, 1997, in North America on August 25, 1997, and in the United Kingdom on November 7, 1997. This was two years after the movie came out but just before the release of its sequel, Tomorrow Never Dies. At first, media expected the game to be less successful. However, it received high praise and sold over eight million copies, becoming the third-best-selling Nintendo 64 game. The game was recognized for its graphics, variety of gameplay, and multiplayer mode. In 1998, it won the BAFTA Interactive Entertainment Award and four awards from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences.
GoldenEye 007 showed that home consoles could be used for first-person shooter games and marked a shift from games like Doom to a more realistic style. It introduced features such as atmospheric single-player missions, widescreen gameplay, stealth actions, and multiplayer deathmatch. The game is considered one of the most important and greatest video games ever made. Its elements, like the Klobb gun, have had a lasting impact on video game culture. A follow-up game, Perfect Dark, was released in 2000. A remake by Eurocom, also called GoldenEye 007, came out in 2010. The original game was released again in January 2023 on Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S via Xbox Game Pass, and on Nintendo Switch through the Nintendo Classics service.
Gameplay
GoldenEye 007 is a first-person shooter game in which the player controls James Bond, a Secret Intelligence Service agent, through a series of levels. In each level, the player must complete specific objectives, such as retrieving items, destroying objects, defeating enemies, or rescuing hostages. Some objectives require the use of high-tech gadgets. For example, in one level, the player must use Bond's electromagnetic watch to obtain a jail cell key. Players begin each level with limited supplies, but can collect additional weapons and ammunition from defeated enemies. There are no health-recovery items, but body armor can be obtained to provide a secondary health bar.
The game includes more than 20 weapons, such as pistols, submachine guns, assault rifles, a sniper rifle, grenades, and throwing knives. Most weapons have limited ammunition and must be reloaded after a certain number of shots. While each weapon has unique features, some types share the same ammunition. For example, pistols and submachine guns use the same type of bullets. Weapons cause different amounts of damage depending on which body part they hit. Head shots cause the most damage, while shots to the arms or legs cause the least. The Klobb, a submachine gun with a folding stock, has a high rate of fire and a wide bullet spread compared to other weapons. However, it has heavy recoil and is not very powerful. The Klobb can be used with both hands to increase firepower. Stealth is often encouraged, as frequent gunfire can alert distant guards and trigger the appearance of more enemies. Some weapons include a suppressor to reduce noise or a telescopic sight to help players aim discreetly.
Each level can be played on three difficulty settings: Agent, Secret Agent, and 00 Agent. These settings affect how much damage enemies can take and deal, the amount of ammunition available, and the number of objectives required to complete. Two bonus levels can be unlocked by completing the game on Secret Agent and then on 00 Agent. Players can replay completed levels within specific time limits to unlock bonus cheat options, such as infinite ammunition or invincibility. After completing the game on all three difficulty settings, an additional mode is unlocked, allowing players to manually adjust enemy health, reaction times, aiming accuracy, and damage for each level.
GoldenEye 007 includes a multiplayer mode where up to four players can compete in several deathmatch scenarios using split-screen. These scenarios include Normal, You Only Live Twice, The Living Daylights, The Man With the Golden Gun, and Licence to Kill. In Normal mode, players earn points by killing opponents and can compete individually or in teams. You Only Live Twice allows players two lives before being eliminated, with the last surviving player winning. In Licence to Kill, players are eliminated with a single hit from any weapon. Due to its high rate of fire and wide bullet spread, the Klobb is especially useful in this mode.
In The Man With the Golden Gun, a single Golden Gun is placed in a fixed location. Once picked up, the only way to retrieve it is by defeating the player holding it. In The Living Daylights, a flag is placed in a fixed location, and the player who holds it the longest wins. The flag carrier cannot use weapons but can collect them to prevent opponents from obtaining ammunition. Players can customize options such as the chosen level, characters, available weapons, and game length for each scenario. Additional levels and characters can be unlocked by progressing through the single-player game.
Plot
In 1986, in Arkhangelsk, Soviet Union, MI6 discovered a secret chemical weapons facility at the Byelomorye Dam. James Bond and fellow 00-agent Alec Trevelyan were sent to enter the facility and place explosive charges. During the mission, Trevelyan was shot by General Arkady Ourumov, while Bond escaped by taking control of an airplane.
Five years later, in 1991, Bond was sent to investigate a satellite control station in Severnaya, Russia, where programmer Boris Grishenko worked. In 1993, Bond looked into an unscheduled missile test in Kyrgyzstan, which was suspected to hide the launch of a satellite called GoldenEye. This satellite weapon uses a strong electromagnetic pulse (EMP) to disable electrical systems on Earth. As Bond left the missile silo, he was attacked by Ourumov and a group of Russian soldiers. Ourumov escaped during the attack.
In 1995, Bond traveled to Monte Carlo to investigate the frigate La Fayette, where he rescued hostages and placed a tracking device on a Pirate helicopter before it was stolen by the Janus crime syndicate. Bond was later sent again to Severnaya, but during the mission, he was captured and locked in the bunker’s cells with Natalya Simonova, a computer programmer who refused to work with Janus. They both escaped moments before the facility was destroyed by the GoldenEye satellite’s EMP, as ordered by Ourumov. Bond then went to Saint Petersburg, where he met with ex-KGB agent Valentin Zukovsky to arrange a meeting with the leader of Janus. This person was revealed to be Alec Trevelyan, whose earlier death at the Arkhangelsk facility had been faked.
Bond and Natalya escaped from Trevelyan but were arrested by Russian police and taken to military archives for questioning. Bond eventually escaped, rescued Natalya, and spoke with Defence Minister Dimitri Mishkin, who confirmed Bond’s claim about Ourumov’s betrayal. Natalya was recaptured by General Ourumov, and Bond chased him through the streets of St. Petersburg, reaching an arms depot used by Janus. There, Bond destroyed the weapons and boarded Trevelyan’s ex-Soviet missile train, where he killed Ourumov and rescued Natalya. However, Alec Trevelyan and his ally Xenia Onatopp fled to their secret base in Cuba.
Natalya joined Bond in the Caribbean. From the air, they spotted the Cuban jungle, but their small plane was shot down. Unharmed, Bond and Natalya searched the heavily guarded jungle but were attacked by Xenia, who was killed by Bond. Bond guided Natalya into a control center to disrupt signals to the GoldenEye satellite, forcing it to burn up in Earth’s atmosphere. He then followed Trevelyan through flooded caves to the antenna of the control center’s radio telescope. Trevelyan tried to realign the antenna to restore contact with GoldenEye, but Bond destroyed key equipment and defeated Trevelyan in a gunfight on a platform above the dish.
Development
GoldenEye 007 was created by the British game studio Rare and directed by Martin Hollis, who had previously worked as a second programmer on the coin-op version of Killer Instinct. In November 1994, after Nintendo and Rare discussed making a game based on the upcoming James Bond film GoldenEye, Hollis told Tim Stamper, Rare's managing director, that he was interested in the project. Because of the success of Rare's 1994 game Donkey Kong Country, GoldenEye 007 was originally planned as a 2D platformer for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. However, Hollis suggested a 3D shooting game for the Nintendo 64 console. He created a document with design ideas, including gadgets, weapons, characters, story changes from the film, and artificial intelligence (AI) that would react to the player.
Rare cited Sega's 1994 light gun shooter Virtua Cop, id Software's 1993 first-person shooter Doom, and the Nintendo 64 launch game Super Mario 64 as influences. Features such as gun reloading, position-dependent hit reaction animations, penalties for killing innocent characters, and the aiming system activated by the R button on the Nintendo 64 controller were taken from Virtua Cop. The developers considered having players reload weapons by unplugging and reinserting the Rumble Pak on the controller, but Nintendo opposed the idea. The concept of varied objectives within each mission was inspired by the multiple tasks in each stage of Super Mario 64.
The team visited the GoldenEye film studios several times to collect photographs and blueprints of the sets. Eon Productions and MGM, the companies that own the James Bond films, gave the team a broad license to use the material. Many levels were changed or added to let players experience scenes not in the film. Though the team used reference material for authenticity, they also added details to improve the game design. John Woo's films, such as Hard Boiled, influenced the visual effects and action scenes. Details like bullet marks on walls, ejected cartridge cases from guns, and exploding objects were included in the design. Hollis wanted players to receive clear feedback from the environment when they shot.
The team considered both on-rails and free-roaming gameplay modes because they were unsure how the Nintendo 64 controller would work. The gas plant level was designed with a predetermined path in mind. A modified Sega Saturn controller was used for early playtesting. The designers first focused on creating interesting spaces, and level design and balance considerations, such as placing start and exit points, characters, and objectives, came later. According to Hollis, this approach gave levels a realistic and non-linear feel, with some rooms unrelated to the main mission. After completing the levels, the developers created around 40 James Bond gadgets from the films and found ways to use them in each level.
Work on GoldenEye 007 began in January 1995 with a team hired by Hollis: programmer Mark Edmonds, background artist Karl Hilton, and character artist B. Jones. Edmonds worked on creating a game engine that could render 3D graphics from art packages into Nintendo 64 data structures. Hilton designed levels based on the film's material, while Jones created characters using photos and costumes. Since Nintendo 64 specifications and development kits were not available to Rare at first, the team estimated the console's capabilities using an SGI Onyx workstation and Nintendo's NINGEN software. Later, designer Duncan Botwood joined the team to build the levels. The first year was spent making art assets and developing the engine, which originally only allowed the player and enemies to move in a virtual environment.
After the first year, Rare added more staff to the project. Designer David Doak helped with level design and AI scripting. He explained how stealth elements worked: "Whenever you fired a gun, it had a radius test and alerted nearby enemies. If you fired the same gun again within a certain time, it did a larger radius test, and a third even larger one after that. If you shot one enemy and stopped firing, the timer would reset." Windows in the game were programmed so enemies could not see through them. Though unrealistic, this encouraged players to use windows to spy on enemies.
Six months later, Hollis hired a second programmer, Steve Ellis, who helped with many areas and programmed cheat options. Ellis was mainly responsible for the multiplayer mode, added about six months before release. According to Doak, Ellis "took the code from the single-player game and turned GoldenEye into a multiplayer game." The team tested it late into the night. The multiplayer levels were based on single-player missions, and some levels did not support four players because they were not designed for multiplayer action. A firing range was modeled but not added.
The team assumed they could use anything from the James Bond universe, so the multiplayer mode included characters from previous Bond films. Actors who played Bond in earlier films were playable during development, but they were removed because Rare could not get permission to use Sean Connery's likeness. However, the player select screen with the actors' likenesses remained in the game, though it could only be accessed with cheat devices. Most weapons were modeled after real-world firearms, such as the Walther PPK, AK-74, and FN P90. The Klobb was inspired by the Škorpion, a Czechoslovak submachine gun with a folding stock. Its name honored Ken Lobb, Rare's Nintendo-side producer. Another weapon, the DD44 Dostovei (modeled after the Tokarev pistol), was named after Doak's initials. Adrian Smith, the game's third artist, created visual effects like muzzle flashes and explosions. He cited the 1995 film Heat as an influence.
The final Nintendo 64 hardware could render 3D shapes faster than the S
Reception
GoldenEye 007 was not expected to do well by many in the gaming industry, and it did not perform strongly at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Atlanta in 1997. However, the game received praise from critics and became a commercial success. In its first month of release in the United States, it was the second best-selling home console video game by unit sales, behind Star Fox 64. It stayed in the top five best-selling video games for the rest of 1997. In 1998, the game remained in the top ten best-selling video games in the United States, selling about 2.1 million copies. By 1999, it was still in the top 20 best-selling video games in the United States through July. By 2001, it had sold over seven million copies worldwide. Overall, GoldenEye 007 sold more than eight million units worldwide, making it the third best-selling Nintendo 64 game, behind Super Mario 64 and Mario Kart 64. According to a report from the Entertainment Software Association, the game earned $250 million worldwide, more than 70% of the movie’s box office revenue despite having only 3.3% of the movie’s budget.
The game’s graphics were praised for showing varied and detailed environments, realistic movements, and special effects like transparent glass and lingering smoke. Nintendo Power said the multiplayer game had a smooth frame rate, while Electronic Gaming Monthly described it as somewhat slow and uneven. The zoomable sniper rifle was highlighted as an impressive and fun feature, with Edge calling it a "novel twist" and Jeff Gerstmann of GameSpot noting its ability to reduce the fog that made distant objects hard to see. The music was praised for including the "James Bond Theme" and for creating a sense of atmosphere. Some levels begin in elevators and transition from elevator music to full soundtracks, which Gerstmann said showed attention to detail.
The gameplay was noted for its complexity and the need for more stealth and strategy than earlier first-person shooters. IGN’s Doug Perry called GoldenEye 007 an immersive game that "blends smart strategy gameplay with fast-action gunmanship." Greg Sewart of Gaming Age said players had "a bit of freedom" in choosing how to complete missions. Reviewers also liked the wide variety of weapons and missions with multiple goals, which kept the game interesting. The controls were praised for being easier to use than those in Acclaim’s earlier game Turok: Dinosaur Hunter, though some found the cursor targeting difficult. GameRevolution said the gameplay felt realistic and different from other shooters but criticized the campaign for being poorly paced. The publication noted that the game assumes players have seen the movie and may leave players confused due to a lack of clear directions.
At the time, GoldenEye 007 was considered the best multiplayer game on the system, "beating Mario Kart 64 by a small margin" according to IGN. Edge called it addictive and praised the originality of some scenarios, like You Only Live Twice. GamePro said the multiplayer modes "will have you shooting your friends for the rest of the year," while Next Generation highlighted the number of multiplayer options, calling GoldenEye 007 "a surprising killer app, if only for the smashing multiplayer options. The excellent single-player game backing it up makes it well worth buying indeed." The game was also praised for accurately adapting the film, with GamePro calling it "one of the best movie-to-game translations ever." The ability to use many signature Bond gadgets and weapons was seen as a strong part of this adaptation. Crispin Boyer of Electronic Gaming Monthly said Rare "has packed everything that's cool about 007 into this game."
GoldenEye 007 received many awards, including the BAFTA Interactive Entertainment Award in 1998 and four awards from the first AIAS Interactive Achievement Awards: "Interactive Title of the Year," "Console Game of the Year," "Console Action Game of the Year," and "Outstanding Achievement in Software Engineering." It also received nominations for "Outstanding Achievement in Art/Graphics" and "Outstanding Achievement in Interactive Design." Electronic Gaming Monthly named it both Most Addictive Game and Best Movie to Game in their 1998 Video Game Buyer’s Guide and Game of the Year in their Editor’s Choice Awards. Rare won the BAFTA award for Best UK Developer.
Legacy
GoldenEye 007 is known for showing that it is possible to make a fun first-person shooter game for home consoles in both single-player and multiplayer modes. When the game was released, first-person shooter games were mostly played on computers. GoldenEye 007 helped bring this genre to consoles and made it popular, paving the way for later games like Halo and Call of Duty. The game introduced a multiplayer deathmatch mode on a console, which many say changed the genre. Edge magazine said this mode set a standard for multiplayer console combat until Halo: Combat Evolved in 2001 improved upon it. The game also added stealth elements that were new for first-person shooters. It used realistic gameplay, which was different from earlier games like Doom clones. GoldenEye 007 also had hit locations on enemies that depended on where the player aimed, adding realism. Earlier, a 1996 computer mod for Quake had introduced headshots. Alongside Shiny Entertainment's 1997 game MDK, GoldenEye 007 helped make scoped sniper rifles a common feature in video games. The game's mission design, enemy AI, and stealth gameplay influenced later titles like Half-Life, Thief: The Dark Project, Syphon Filter, and Deus Ex.
GoldenEye 007 is often called one of the greatest video games of all time. In 1997, Electronic Gaming Monthly ranked it as the 25th-best console game, calling it "easily the best movie game and the best first-person game ever." In 1999, Next Generation editors placed it at No. 10 on their list of Top 50 Games of All Time, saying it combined Doom-style shooting with Bond-style missions. In 2000, Computer and Video Games readers ranked it first in their poll of 100 Greatest Games, and fifth in a similar poll the next year. In 2001, Game Informer ranked it 16th on its list of Top 100 Games. In 2004, Retro Gamer readers voted it the 33rd-greatest retro game, calling it "easily the best Bond game to date." In 2005, IGN editors ranked it 29th on their list of Top 100 Games, while readers placed it seventh. In 2009, Official Nintendo Magazine ranked it 55th on a list of greatest Nintendo games.
Edge magazine has included GoldenEye 007 in several "greatest game" lists. It was ranked third in a 2000 poll, listed as one of the top ten shooters in 2003, and placed at No. 17 in a 2007 poll. Edge originally gave the game a 9 out of 10 score but later said it should have received the highest score. With eight million copies sold, GoldenEye 007 helped the Nintendo 64 compete with the PlayStation, though Nintendo eventually lost market share. GamePro called it the "console killer app" of the 1990s and the greatest licensed film game ever. Nintendo Power said its multiplayer mode was one of the greatest multiplayer experiences in Nintendo history.
In a review, Nintendo Life editor Mark Reece gave GoldenEye 007 an 8 out of 10, noting that its multiplayer mode still stands out, but its graphics, audio, and aiming system are outdated. He said the game's difficulty settings add replay value, a feature rarely used in modern first-person shooters. NME journalist Mark Beaumont praised the game's immersive graphics, enemy damage based on location, and multiplayer mode, saying it "helped introduce gaming as a group activity."
In 2011, the game was included in the Art of Video Games exhibit at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. In 2023, Hard Drive ranked GoldenEye the best N64 game, calling it "an era-defining game that set the gold standard for the FPS genre and opened the door for many later games." In 2025, The Strong National Museum of Play inducted GoldenEye 007 into its World Video Game Hall of Fame, noting its role in proving that first-person shooters could succeed on consoles.
During development, the weapon known as the Klobb was originally called the Skorpion VZ/61 but was renamed due to legal issues. It was later called "Spyder," then "Klobb" after Rare's Nintendo contact, Ken Lobb. Critics later described the Klobb as a memorable but flawed weapon. It had a high rate of fire but dealt little damage and was inaccurate. Edge magazine said dual-wielding the Klobb was satisfying, adding that its imperfections made the game more realistic. Eurogamer noted that the Klobb's name was one of the first times real-world gun names were used in a console game, which later became common in military-themed games. The Klobb appeared in other games, such as Perfect Dark, GoldenEye 007: Reloaded, and 007 Legends, with variations of its name. It was also referenced in State of Decay as a nickname for the Skorpion.
An Xbox Live Arcade remaster of GoldenEye 007 was planned in 2008 by Rare and 4J Studios. The remaster was to include online multiplayer and other features, but it was never completed.