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Golden Eye 007

Nintendo
GoldenEye 007 has been a huge success for Rareware, and it's easy to see why. More than a simple movie translation, this has earned its top-seller status on its own. Fans of Doom and Quake will recognize the first-person shooter perspective, but there the similarity ends. James Bond 007 has too much style to simply blast everything in sight and move to the next level. No, as 007, the player has a variety of different missions to perform, each with its own specific objectives. Each mission follows the film closely, and so James must use stealth and cunning as much as brute force. But if you see a Kalashnikov rifle lying around, by all means pick it up.
Controls are easy to master, which is impressive considering the variety of actions the onscreen hero can perform. James can run and walk at variable speeds, duck, pivot, hide, attach mines to enemy helicopters, block doors from opening, and more. The optional auto-aim feature is especially nice. Of course, James Bond is proficient in a wide variety of weapons. You get to use them all, from the trusty Walther PPK (with silencer) to double sets of full-auto machine guns.
The game's faithful tribute to the Bond legacy includes briefing dossiers on each mission, complete with wisecracks from Q and flirtatious comments from Moneypenny. And the 3-D representation of locations and characters from the movie is very impressive. The Rareware team spent time on the set with digital cameras, and it shows.
One of the distinguishing features of the game is the outstanding artificial intelligence of the enemies. When attacked, squads will rush to hit the alarm. If they make it, reinforcements come running. Enemy soldiers respond to being shot or blown up with chilling realism. According to Rareware, there are over 30 different animation routines that come into play, depending on where the soldier is hit. For those who prefer the challenge of human opponents, there are six clever multiplayer modes where up to four players can shoot it out, as teams or solo agents.
With excellent gameplay, intelligence, and style, GoldenEye 007 is a first-person shooter that'll keep you coming back for more. --Jeanne Uy
Pros:
- Built-in save capability for up to 4 players
- Auto-aim feature helps novice players feel like a sharpshooter
- Rich, complex game world filled with detail and variety
- Great bonus missions
Cons:
- Sometimes cinematic scenes for fulfilling mission objectives are a bit anticlimactic
Perfect Dark

Rareware
A first-person shooter that mixes spy and sci-fi, Perfect Dark is both a thoroughly engrossing one-player experience and a riotously fun multiplayer romp. Easily one of the best games of its genre on any video game console, this long-awaited follow-up to GoldenEye 007 is a must-have for Nintendo 64 owners--and a damn good reason to be one if you're not.
The futuristic Perfect Dark casts players as Joanna Dark, a secret agent who becomes embroiled in a sinister conspiracy involving aliens and an evil corporation. Gameplay is broken down into missions, each with objectives that must be unerringly completed before progressing to the next mission. This is not your typical kill-anything-that-moves game: putting a bullet in the wrong person, not keeping the right one alive, or perforating a seemingly unimportant inanimate object can often result in mission failure.
While Perfect Dark's solo missions play out much like those in GoldenEye 007, the game's fantastic multiplayer options are another matter entirely. Cooperative and counteroperative simultaneous-play modes allow for another player to join in on a mission as, respectively, a teammate or the enemy. However, the real fun here is in the highly customizable Combat Simulator, a one-to-four-player simultaneous-play mode that features both free-for-alls and team-based challenges and can include up to eight Simulants, computer-controlled combatants of varying behavior.
Although Simulants make for decent adversaries or teammates, you'll want to grab a friend--and an Expansion Pak, as only 35 percent of the game is available without one--to fully enjoy Perfect Dark. --Joe Hon
Pros:
- One of the best first-person shooters on any video game console
- Outstanding multiplayer game with huge replay value
- Bevy of game options, cheats, and secret features
- Excellent training mode with challenges all of its own
Cons:
- Graphics get ugly when playing with more than two players
Star Fox without Rumble Pak

SPIG
007: The World Is Not Enough

Electronic Arts
Doom 64

Nintendo
Resident Evil 2

Capcom
Jet Force Gemini

Nintendo
Duke Nukem 64

GT Interactive Software
Duke Nukem has been ridding the world of alien scum for some time now on the PC, so his move to the Nintendo 64 was highly anticipated. The result is a nearly direct translation of the infamous PC game to the N64. The entry is a welcome one, since Duke injects a healthy amount of politically incorrect humor into the painfully serious first-person shooter market.
Gamers shoot their way through a variety of levels modeled after real-world locales, such as movie theaters and office buildings. The action is fast and bloody, courtesy of your arsenal of powerful weapons. Call us crazy, but we especially liked the grenade launcher. This weapon shoots delayed-fuse projectiles that can bounce around corners to dislodge lurking enemies.
When you tire of the single-player levels, you can partake in a fun deathmatch with up to three other players. Thanks to some adept computer-controlled "Dukebots," you don't even need to round up any friends to enjoy this portion of the game.
The game's major fault is its poor graphics. Levels and explosions are rendered in 3-D, but everything from monsters to weapons are depicted as flat, pixilated 2-D sprites. Duke Nukem certainly isn't the prettiest shooter on the N64, but it is among the funniest. --T. Byrl Baker
Pros:
- Deathmatch offers a fun alternative to solo play
- Realistic environments add to gameplay
Cons:
- Poor graphics
- Occasional slowdown
Turok: Dinosaur Hunter

Acclaim Entertainment Inc.
Star Fox w/Rumble Pack

Nintendo
Turok 2: Seeds of Evil

Acclaim Entertainment Inc.
Who said sequels are never as good as the original? Acclaim's Turok 2: Seeds of Evil blows that theory right out of the water. In this first-person shooter you will find yourself taking aim at a formidable army of dinosaurs while saving children, freeing prisoners, blowing up enemy ammo dumps, and more. Expect to devote a significant chunk of time to this title: the estimated completion time for this game is 45 hours, which rivals The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time in game size. If you tire of a frustrating puzzle in the single-player mode, turn to your buddies to liven things up: Turok 2 offers three different game modes for multiplayer mayhem. --Hugh Arnold
Pros:
- Fantastic graphics
- Long play time, good replay value
- Enormous worlds to explore
- Never boring--plenty of challenging enemies and varied missions
Cons:
- Graphic violence may be too intense for kids
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six

Ubi Soft
Every once in awhile, a game comes along that pulls elements of popular game genres together in a refreshing new way. Rainbow Six is such a game, taking the engrossing realism of a first-person action game, such as GoldenEye 007, and adding a strategy element that brings enormous depth to the gameplay.
Tom Clancy authored the Rainbow Six game while drafting the novel of the same name, and the attention to detail shows in the depth and maturity of the story and game design. Players take command of an elite anti-terrorist team through 12 missions that vary from saving hostages to disarming bombs. A plot unravels along the way that literally leaves the fate of the world in the player's shaking hands (a rumble pack works wonders here).
Before jumping into the mission, players can read briefings and bios of the terrorists, choose team members based on specialty, and strategize each move using an overhead map of the area or building they must infiltrate. Setting waypoints in the planning stage allows the computer-controlled team members to, say, infiltrate a back door while the player leads another team through the front door in the first-person view. A few button pushes shifts the player's control to the other team. Realism is key here, and 20 minutes of planning may end with one bad move. That is, if the terrorist responds intelligently--the artificial intelligence (AI) is a bit buggy at times. Two players can complete missions together, creating a multiplayer option that sure is a welcome change from running around with guns blazin'. --Eric Twelker
Pros:
- An engrossing game, paced as one might expect from a novelist
- Effective ambient sound effects
- An excellent port from the acclaimed PC version
Cons:
- Realism is sometimes compromised by buggy AI
- Graphics are a bit plain in some areas
Quake 64 N64

Midway Entertainment
Army Men - Sarge's Heroes 2

3DO
Winback: Covert Operations

KOEI
Metal Gear Solid and Goldeneye 007 fans take note: you need this game. Sure, main character Jean-Luc Cougar has a silly name, but his covert moves and daunting assignment rival that of a better-known, suit-wearing spy. Winback: Covert Operations is one of those games--you know, the hyper-engrossing, atmospheric type that suck you in until the graveyard shifters' lunch breaks.
As S.C.A.T. (Strategic Covert Actions Team) members, players must disable a rash of terrorists who've taken over a powerful laser satellite defense system capable of leveling large regions with one burst. Jean-Luc stealthily plunges into the control center, buried deep in a mountainside, lined with bad guys. This isn't a first-person shooter; the over-the-shoulder view provides plenty of screen space to plan each sneaky move, going for surprise attacks rather than all-out, bullets-flying action.
Once the player learns the somewhat complex, though natural and intuitive controls, manipulating Jean-Luc becomes an unconscious act. The fluid combination of The Matrix-style moves is entirely impressive: nothing like slinking silently against a wall, somersaulting into the open, picking off a terrorist, and then rolling into a crouch behind a crate. Just beautiful. --Eric Twelker
Pros:
- Excellent player controls, though difficult to master
- Nice animation
- Well-paced storyline
Cons:
- Simple weapons
- Camera often errant, getting stuck behind walls or at bad angles at the worst possible times
- Game saves only after reaching checkpoints, resulting in frequent restarts
Duke Nukem: Zero Hour

Unknown
Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion (Nintendo 64, 2000)

Acclaim Entertainment, Inc.
Space Invaders

Unknown
Forsaken

Acclaim Entertainment Inc.
Chopper Attack

Midway Entertainment