In a few minutes, midnight will hit and it will be August 25th, 2016 ... which is almost 20 years since the release of GoldenEye on the Nintendo 64!

This was a huge surprise hit that sold N64s on its own almost and was huge on college campuses of its day. 

It sold a whopping 8.09 million and topped the best sellers chart for months and months, which is impressive when you consider it didn't get many sales from Japan as Western developed FPS' weren't exactly big there. 

Nintendo has never had a blockbuster title in the vein of GoldenEye since that fateful day in 1997. Sure Perfect Dark came a few years later, but it sold far less and then Rare was sold after that and then we got ... uh Geist, which sold like 10 copies ;). Since then Nintendo's never really had a game that was considered "cool" the way GoldenEye was. It's been that elusive part of a console library that Nintendo's never really been able to replicate, sure Resident Evil 4 and Perfect Dark and Bayonetta 2 others were hyped to fill that role, but nobody did it better than 007 and nothing was close in terms of sales. 

My memories of the game were renting it and taking it over to some friends house and we all started playing 4-player, and I remember Mr. Miyamoto had specifically mentioned that the multiplayer in GoldenEye was really fun. And within 5 minutes I remember thinking "yeah this is fun!". Keep in mind in those days multiplayer console shooters weren't really a thing. 

The other odd memory I have is that once I came home I turned on the TV and Princess Diana had been involved in a car crash, which would lead to her death. So oddly enough I always associate the game GoldenEye with the late Princess of Wales. 

I had fun with it, we also rented this game from time to time. Though, as far as coolest game.. nope. Not for me at least.

Fun game. Came out at the right moment. Cool indeed. Not the coolest tho. Not even close.

I guess I should quantify "cool" as being the must have "it" game for teeangers/college aged kids. 

Like imagine Nintendo having GTA or COD exclusive ... like that's sorta what it was like, as hard as that might be to picture for people here who weren't around at that time. 

I remember even hardcore Playstation gamer types who wouldn't be caught dead playing Mario sucking it up and having to buy an N64. I remember very clearly a buddy of mine saying in frustration "fuck now I gotta buy an N64 for Bond".

Even Barbara Broccoli, who's family owns the James Bond movie rights cites this game as been integral to making the new Bond popular with a new generation. 

It also probably saved the N64 from an early death, for those who don't remember, due to development problems virtually all of Nintendo's fall 1997 lineup basically was delayed (Zelda, Banjo-Kazooie, F-Zero 64, etc.). They had to pull Diddy Kong Racing out of nowhere, but even that wasn't ideally because Mario Kart 64 had just launched a few months prior. 

GoldenEye came out of nowhere and carried the N64 well into 1998 until Nintendo could get their act together and start getting games like Zelda: OoT out. If it wasn't for this game, the N64 might've really suffered badly in those long months between September 1997 and November 1998. Rare really saved the day. 

One wonders how differently perhaps the GameCube might've gone had Nintendo secured the Bond rights for life, I believe when they bought the rights to GoldenEye they were given the option to basically have the license forever, but they opted not to spend a little extra money to do so, lol. 

I liked the game. The movie itself was my favorite Pierce Brosnan Bond film.

Yeah, it's a shame Brosnan never got a good script for a Bond movie after GoldenEye again, I still like him as Bond a lot. That last one, Die Another Day started off promising but then devolved into the shittiest Brosnan Bond ever. 

I remember when this game came out, it was freaking amazing, nothing similar exist on market, even it aged poorly it's still one mine favorite games off all time. Multiplayer was very fun.

Great game, still is. 19 years already, wow.

It was ahead of its time, and a very good game.

Excellent game.It was certainly ahead of its time.Happy birthsday!