The GoldenEye movie may not be ranked among James Bond‘s greatest adventures, but GoldenEye 007 is an all-time great among video game fans. Rare brought 007 to the Nintendo 64 and helped popularize first-person shooters among console gamers. GoldenEye 64 not only had a fun single player campaign, its multiplayer deathmatch mode was legendary. But there’s been one divisive character who stands out in the multiplayer mode: Oddjob. Today’s Nerdist News is revisiting a piece of gaming history as we explain why using Oddjob in GoldenEye is officially cheating.
Join the host with the Golden Gun, Jessica Chobot, as she explains why selecting Oddjob puts everyone else at a disadvantage in the game. Oddjob wasn’t even in the GoldenEye movie, he was just one of the unlockable characters from the previous 007 films (Goldfinger, obviously). While the cinematic Oddjob was best known for his (literally) killer hat, his gaming counterpart was much shorter than the other characters. The automatic targeting icon always went over his head. That made it very difficult to get an accurate shot off at Oddjob before he could finish off the other players.
For years, Oddjob has been a point of contention between GoldenEye fans. There’s either a race to grab Oddjob in the character select screen or an agreement in place that no one should use him. Some enthusiasts have argued that using Oddjob can’t be considered cheating simply because he’s in the game. However, Mel-Magazine‘s recent oral history of GoldenEye 007 features Engine Programmer Mark Edmonds and Lead Enviroment Artist Karl Hilton confirming what most fans already believed: “It’s definitely cheating to play as Oddjob!”
Edmonds and Hilton went on to explain that the developers were well aware of the advantage Oddjob had in multiplayer. However, they decided not to take it out because he was too much fun to use, and no one ordered them to address it. It’s a perfect imperfection that was even touched upon in Ready Player One, which simply solidified its legend.
How do you feel about using Oddjob in GoldenEye 64? Let us know in the comment section below!
Images: MGM/Rare
