Let’s Play Goldeneye! 
Ah Goldeneye, a game which undoubtedly restored faith in the on-the-line game designers who weren’t sure if first person shooters for consoles were a waste of time. Rare made some great games in the late 80’s and early 90’s for the NES and other systems, in fact I’m still learning about the great games they were involved in to this day, but they made their mark on the Nintendo 64 in a big way with this title.
Let’s Play Goldeneye:
It came out in the summer of 1997, right at the end. I was in middle school at the time and my love for Nintendo 64 was at an all time high. Two great games bookended that summer, the first being Starfox 64 which I had tracked for months and bought on the day it came out (for $80 or more if memory serves which is kind of insane in retrospect). That game was great, but all the while I had my eye on Goldeneye 64. Something told me this game would be special. I was an avid subscriber to Nintendo Power at the time, and they had been praising and getting everyone ready for Goldeneye 64. I had just gotten seriously into James Bond as a franchise, having seen all of the movies, so the timing was basically perfect when it “dropped” as far as I was concerned.
Everyone played this game when it came out. I even have a vague memory of playing it with my brother when visiting him at college, joined by future OC and Gotham star Ben McKenzie. I played it to death with friends over and over and prided myself on being particularly good at it to the point where on one else would play it with me anymore, though it enjoyed a brief Renaissance period near the end of and post college with a couple of friends.
I don’t really know what made the game so good in retrospect. Maybe just the fact that it was one of the first really good first person shooters for any console. The gameplay was tight, the music was good enough, and there was seemingly infinite replayability in the single player mode alone. I also prided myself on my ability to beat every single level under the challenge time which unlocked the cheat for that level, and yes that includes the Facility.
I haven’t even mentioned multiplayer mode, yet, but for a lot of people that’s where the game really shined. A huge cast of characters to choose from, a huge gun selection, and lots of levels, some of which they didn’t even have in the single player game. It was a bit crude graphically, by today’s standards especially, but at the time it actually looked pretty good and is one of the few movie based games which got it right. People still play this one today for a reason.