You got me. I stated your argument incorrectly.
I guess it's about factual information now when it serves you.
But let's go back and see what you did say:

"but that's because it is still a great game almost 2 decades later, unlike GoldenEye which has dated horribly and is definitely only a product of its own generation."

And so, logically, that would suggest that Metroid Prime should be played more today than GE007 since Metroid Prime was released almost 20 years ago, but GE007 was released 5.5 years before that (I guess almost 25.5 years ago). GE007 also saw no re-release, while Metroid Prime has been re-released twice since, the last time just in 2015. But that doesn't seem to be the case, so thus I am using evidence to suggest your opinion is ultimately meaningless.

@bold 

Metroid Prime outsold Goldeneye on the Wii.  Metroid Prime also outsold Perfect Dark on the N64.  

Retro's Donkey Kong Country Returns on the Wii is the second best selling Donkey Kong Country game.

I'm guessing more let's play videos are partly due to older games on the SNES and N64 being (1) easier, (2) shorter and (3) more accessible through emulation on the PC.

The closest thing to Rare for Nintendo is Insomniac for Sony. A great comany that constantly puts out creative hits. Retro is good, but they arent Rare at their height. They have to potential to be a Rare though. I would take a current Retro game over the current Microsoft run Rare anyday now.

Nope it haven't. Each dev have their own charm.