So after writing about Ocarina of Time, I really felt like another revolutionary game that came out on the Nintendo 64 deserves a mention on the overrated list. I really thought about mentioning this game in my last journal, but I really didn't think about it took much until I had already published it, so I'm going to do more writing in the form of a series called Overrated and Understated. Overrated and Understated will be a series of talks (read: logical rants) where I talk about a game that is overrated nowadays and not a lot of people take off their rose-tinted glasses to see that it's not as great as it once was. Today's game will be Goldeneye 007 for the Nintendo 64, hereon referred to as Goldeneye 64.

I never played Goldeneye 64 until around a year ago. It wasn't bad, just hard to play. Not in the way that requires skill (like a lot of fighting games), but in a way that felt clunky. After years of having PC shooters (Counter Strike 1.6 FTW) with mouse and keyboard controls, and Halo popularizing the dual analog format, I found the control scheme of Goldeneye 64 strange. It may have been fine back in 1997, but nowadays just doesn't really work. I could play the game, but I only completed a couple levels before I stopped. I did try the multiplayer, but I would rather play Halo. Not to say that this game isn't important. Very much the opposite. This game was revolutionary. It had zoomable sniper rifles, areas to explore, and helped many college students forget they had homework with its multiplayer. It is an important piece of gaming history, and it should be recognized as such. But a quick browse of the interwebs will show you that a lot of people aren't content with that. They still remember it as that amazing game where you beat the crap out of anyone who played as Oddjob.

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What irks me the most is the use of the word "best." As with Ocarina of Time, this implies that no game that has been made since is better. Memories of a great time staying up all night playing the multiplayer may be some of the best memories you have, but when observed from an objective stance, the game just doesn't compare to modern first person shooters. Just look at Halo Reach. You can't look at both of those games and honestly tell me that Goldeneye 64 is better. You can say that you personally enjoy it more. That's different. Halo: Reach and Modern Warfare 3 are both games that are better than Goldeneye 64. Some people may get mad and call it blasphemous, but it's truth. Once we got the dual analogs, first person shooters were made better. Now it's still up in the air which first person shooter you prefer, be it Halo, Call of Duty, Borderlands, Counter Strike, etc. That is up to each person to decide for themselves. But saying that Goldeneye 64 is better than Borderlands is not fact. If the people who still love Goldeneye 64 were using the word "favorite" then I wouldn't have a problem. That would be expressing an opinion, not stating it as fact.

Now to step aside for a second and say that this is still a good game. Great even. Definitely marvelous back in 1997, but not today. I'm not bashing the game. The word "overrated" isn't implying poor quality, just an over-exaggeration of how good it is. There were little things like being able to shoot the hat off of an enemy officer, or the animation that displayed the effort put into this game. The controls (while outdated and kinda clumsy), were built around the Nintendo 64. You could tell that Rare really cared when putting the game together. If you can adjust to the odd control layout, then you can enjoy this game. But it was hindered by they fact that it was on the Nintendo 64, so the controller wasn't exactly optimized for first person shooters. Rare made it work as best as they could, though. If the game used an XBox 360 controller, it would be easier to move and shoot at the same time, which I found odd in the game. Having to stop and then aim since there was only one analog stick felt odd, since I was brought into first person shooters with Counter Strike. It didn't really make since that I HAD to stop in order to aim higher to hit an enemy who was on higher ground. All in all, the game (and in turn its spiritual successor Perfect Dark) is deserving of a legendary reputation in gaming history. But it's not the best game ever made. It's good, but it's not that good. Goldeneye 64 hasn't aged particularly well, so it can be a bit of a chore to play it if you don't have fond memories of it from 1997.

I next plan to tackle one of my favorite games series, Pokemon! That will be the topic of the next Overrated and Understated, focusing mostly on the first two generations.