Goldeneye wasn't good when it came out, either. Like, Quake 2 is on this list. Quake 1 already existed. Goldeneye's controls were dated as soon as it was released.
Goldeneye was one of the first games to popularize split-screen and console FPS. The controls were garbage, but the map design, game modes, weapons, campaign, etc. were all very enjoyable. Besides, you don't need good controls to play proximity/remote mines. I think the control issue wasn't as bad at the time because, relatively speaking, console shooters were awful so the bar was set very low.
Goldeneye wasn't good when it came out, either. Like, Quake 2 is on this list. Quake 1 already existed. Goldeneye's controls were dated as soon as it was released.
Agreed. Visuals were poor too. Meeting the standards of technology doesn't mean a whole lot when those standards are poor and can't stand the test of time, IMO.
It just means that, at the time, people overlooked its flaws based on what the standard was rather than what was actually good. If, in 1997, you looked at the game, and all of its contemporaries that looked and felt similar, and thought "This actually all looks and feels really ugly", you'd be absolutely right.
With the possible exception of Half-Life (also overlooked I see), FF7 is probably the most important and influential game of the 90's. These results are strange.
Goldeneye, a shooter with abysmal controls and no draw distance which takes any precision or skill out of the game?
MK64, still years away from the fine tuning required to make the Mario Kart franchise actually fun?
FF7 was a pioneer in FMV and CGI. It had an insane $40 million marketing budget and the commercials made it seem like an action movie. It tricked people like me into trying it and falling in love with this new form of intelligent gamplay, cinematic storytelling and Japanese eccentricities. 21 years later and I still vastly prefer Japanese made games over Western ones, it all started with FF7. I know that's not an uncommon story either.
Squaresoft leaving Nintendo and developing Final Fantasy for the Playstation was the biggest coup in that generation of console wars. It kicked off a golden age of RPG's on the Playstation and established Sony as the home for interesting Japanese developers, a distinction they still hold 20 years later. FF7 has the most famous plot twist in gaming history. The game is so iconic that the remake announcement is still the biggest moment in E3 history.
If you're having a sleepover at 10 years old, yeah I guess Goldeneye is better. But FF7 was the game of the year and arguably the game of the 90's.
MK64. Me and a couple of friends still play that pretty much every time we hang out. We tried playing Goldeneye again a few weeks ago actually, but had to shut it down after a few rounds of multiplayer. At the time of release it was super great though, not so much anymore.
To me, Mario Kart 64 is still the game that I could play any time. There are plenty of games that I like more, but I could definitely see myself in a mood to not want to play them. Mario Kart 64? Always up for that one.
I think I was spoiled back in 96/97 because the first two RPG's I ever played were Final Fantasy VI and Final Fantasy VII. Every other RPG has been a huge let down in comparison.
I am surprised it's not in first place but understand (goldeneye was incredible playing back in the day, and while I never played MK64 much at all I was obsessed with the original and get the love)
If anyone has not played FFVII please do. The story really is incredible. I know the graphics have not aged well but that first moment once outside of Midgar was incredible back in the day!!
I think the overall thrust and the individual moments of FFVII feel inspired. The music is easily the strongest and most consistent/timeless aspect of that game. But there are certainly flaws that can become deal-breakers, and it isn't anything close to a perfect game, so I can definitely understand dissent there. The translation/script is terrible, leading to convolution and easily misunderstood storytelling, and the mini-games are overbearing and terrible.
There are also alot of false perceptions based on the expanded universe and how Cloud is presented in the beginning of the game that gives people the wrong impression. Personally, I love how that character unfolds--
It's basically a story about an insecure try-hard dork/loser who learns to fake it until he makes it, not one about an angsty bad-*** silent introvert.
It's also unreasonably criticized visually, I find. Sure the partially up-scaled PC/PS4 versions highlight how bad the lego polygons look up close, but the original version on a CRT filter focuses your attention on the rendered backgrounds, which hold up beautifully.
It had a huge impact on me as a kid, but honestly, I don't care about impact/influence. The only measuring stick should be the actual quality of the game today, without nostalgia glasses, and more importantly, without recency bias. While it's not one of the greatest games of all time, it's certainly one of the better ones to come out of the underwhelming PSX/N64 era where barely anything holds up.
With the possible exception of Half-Life (also overlooked I see), FF7 is probably the most important and influential game of the 90's. These results are strange.
Goldeneye, a shooter with abysmal controls and no draw distance which takes any precision or skill out of the game?
MK64, still years away from the fine tuning required to make the Mario Kart franchise actually fun?
FF7 was a pioneer in FMV and CGI. It had an insane $40 million marketing budget and the commercials made it seem like an action movie. It tricked people like me into trying it and falling in love with this new form of intelligent gamplay, cinematic storytelling and Japanese eccentricities. 21 years later and I still vastly prefer Japanese made games over Western ones, it all started with FF7. I know that's not an uncommon story either.
Squaresoft leaving Nintendo and developing Final Fantasy for the Playstation was the biggest coup in that generation of console wars. It kicked off a golden age of RPG's on the Playstation and established Sony as the home for interesting Japanese developers, a distinction they still hold 20 years later. FF7 has the most famous plot twist in gaming history. The game is so iconic that the remake announcement is still the biggest moment in E3 history.
If you're having a sleepover at 10 years old, yeah I guess Goldeneye is better. But FF7 was the game of the year and arguably the game of the 90's.
I don't understand this?
Mario Kart 64 had arguably the best maps, the best battle mode, the controls and drifting work very well and are easy to learn but difficult to master, etc.
Agreed. Visuals were poor too. Meeting the standards of technology doesn't mean a whole lot when those standards are poor and can't stand the test of time, IMO.
It just means that, at the time, people overlooked its flaws based on what the standard was rather than what was actually good. If, in 1997, you looked at the game, and all of its contemporaries that looked and felt similar, and thought "This actually all looks and feels really ugly", you'd be absolutely right.
One thing that probably never gets credit when talking about Goldeneye is the simple fact that it was Goldeneye. The Bond franchise had been on a six year hiatus since Timothy Dalton's License to Kill, before it was resurrected by Brosnan in Goldeneye. For many of us in the 'Nintendo' generation it may have been our introduction to James Bond, was widely popular and a damn good movie to boot. Movie's and video games rarely mixed well, back then and even today, but this is one that nailed it.
So personally what first drew me into the game was the fact that I was playing James ****ing Bond. While the graphics weren't there it still had the music, the sound, the plot, the locations, and all that, straight from the actual James Bond movie.
(Disclaimer: I discovered and became a huge James Bond fan a year or two before Goldeneye came out)
This might be the closest one yet for me...between Age of Empires and Mario Kart. Sunk a ton of hours into both.
Ended up going with MK64. The nostalgia value from the playing with friends aspect won me over, despite the personal absurdity of voting for a racing game over an RTS.
I'm not a racing fan, but Mario Kart 64 defines the genre for me in a weird way. I didn't enjoy a racing game before, and haven't enjoyed one nearly as much since. It truly is the exception for me.
This one was tough.
Castlevania was amazing
FF7 I've played over and over so many times.
Mario kart64 was just so much fun....
Not only did this crop have good games, but some of my fav soundtracks as well.
Goldeneye is super overrated, but it is still a fun game but in no way it is a better game than MK64, AoE, Q2 or Ultima Online. Story based games like FF7 are often just so meh to me, I don't know why. Very rarely will it grab me and stick with me long after.
In the end, I think it's between MK64 and AoE because those games are still fantastic even today. I finally went with AoE (I prefer the first game than AoE2).
I hate choosing against Fallout, but Age of Empires has to be one of my favorite games ever. It wasn't exactly all that special as an RTS, but the setting was. Having always been a fan of history with an interest in ancient history, I was finally able to play with and against civilizations that I'd only read or seen documentaries about. It was a lot like Civilization in that way, except that Civilization was a macro strategy game that skipped the battles, and AoE was nothing but battles and tactics, so it very nicely scratched the half of the ancient warfare itch that Civilization didn't touch.
I, too, was a UO beta tester and can confirm this. If more than half a dozen players were on screen (to say nothing of more than a dozen crowded into one area, like a bank), it became a slide show. Of course, it wasn't all the game's fault. MMOs and dial-up modems were not a good combination. You could play FPSes and RTSes reasonably well on dial-up modems, but MMOs were a problem. It's a good thing that DSL and cable modems were just around the corner.
FF7 was a pioneer in FMV and CGI. It had an insane $40 million marketing budget and the commercials made it seem like an action movie. It tricked people like me into trying it and falling in love with this new form of intelligent gamplay, cinematic storytelling and Japanese eccentricities. 21 years later and I still vastly prefer Japanese made games over Western ones, it all started with FF7. I know that's not an uncommon story either.
Squaresoft leaving Nintendo and developing Final Fantasy for the Playstation was the biggest coup in that generation of console wars. It kicked off a golden age of RPG's on the Playstation and established Sony as the home for interesting Japanese developers, a distinction they still hold 20 years later. FF7 has the most famous plot twist in gaming history. The game is so iconic that the remake announcement is still the biggest moment in E3 history.
FFVII has an interesting part in gaming history. For people like yourself: "tricked people like me into trying it", which is a number several million strong, FFVII was like a massive religious conversion experience where to this day people are still nostalgia infused believers. But looking at the broader gaming community as a whole and how the JRPG game fits into it, there are/were plenty of people who got into JRPG's before FFVII and plenty of people who got into it after. And now that it hasn't been an 'in' genre for 10+ years, even more people who just never got into it at all.
I believe with all my heart that MarioKart 64 is among, and perhaps the, very best game in the history of gaming. It can be enjoyed by any level of gamer for its beauty, its zaniness, its vitality, and the fact that it just never gets old. It can be picked up by a 5 year old; it can be refined to such a degree that it becomes sharply competitive. The game can be won or lost in an instant and not infrequently is. It stretches emotions from elated to volcanic in each match. It builds friendships by shredding them. It is tremendous good clean fun and there are many days where I wish for nothing more in life than three good friends in my living room to play it with. I love MarioKart 64.
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