Essentially a battle between the two sides of nostalgia’s collectable coin: on one there’s the ugly and hollow self-perpetuation of “oddjob slappers-only natalya AI bad” that the Nintendo-Microsoft marketing machine is currently indulging in - cravenly memeing about the pause menu music while the game’s original developers call foul of an emulator’s exhumation in the replies column; but on the other side, despite it all, there remains a more sincere evocation of random-access memory here, one that arrives in unexpected moments - on this playthrough I was struck by the sound of Natalya shooting a guard off-screen in the eerie silence of Jungle, the way the cartoon violence suddenly veers towards reality in a rainforest soundscape that thrives upon an absentia of Kirkhope’s otherwise-welcome elevator-electrofunk. It felt good to be reminded of a time when this game felt so real to us and there was genuine fear in Xenia barrelling across a rope bridge with a grenade launcher… I don’t want to go back, but I do like to visit.
Like Pokémon Red & Blue, this is a game that’s ultimately doomed to be misunderstood and maligned by those that came after us. Despite playing this game for days and years on end, I’ve never been able to perceive the all-consuming glitches, bugs and jank these games apparently stink of. A recent Twitter thread recommended switching the control scheme to 2.3 Mode and then using the Switch’s built-in accessibility settings to swap stick and button inputs around in order to get the conventional twin-stick shooter experience; many replies praised the OP for “fixing” the game on behalf of Nintendo - but in what way was the game broken? Why afford yourself precision aiming in a game that is best left in the hands of a frankly glorious Auto-Aim? Why deny yourself the James Bond Musou experience of running down Control’s corridors with dual RPKs on full auto? Why not indulge in a couple of thoughts about how game designers in the 1990s overcame technical limitations that they didn’t even know existed yet? Other gamers in proximity to the thread lamented the fact that the re-release does not include upscaled or redone textures and character models, but I’m not going to get into the Midjourneyification of preexisting art because I don’t like to write mean things about consumers who just want to hitch a ride on a Ship of Theseus that bears the false flag of Goldeneye: 007. It aged poorly? So will you, soon enough.
Like Pokémon Red & Blue, this is a game that’s ultimately doomed to be misunderstood and maligned by those that came after us. Despite playing this game for days and years on end, I’ve never been able to perceive the all-consuming glitches, bugs and jank these games apparently stink of. A recent Twitter thread recommended switching the control scheme to 2.3 Mode and then using the Switch’s built-in accessibility settings to swap stick and button inputs around in order to get the conventional twin-stick shooter experience; many replies praised the OP for “fixing” the game on behalf of Nintendo - but in what way was the game broken? Why afford yourself precision aiming in a game that is best left in the hands of a frankly glorious Auto-Aim? Why deny yourself the James Bond Musou experience of running down Control’s corridors with dual RPKs on full auto? Why not indulge in a couple of thoughts about how game designers in the 1990s overcame technical limitations that they didn’t even know existed yet? Other gamers in proximity to the thread lamented the fact that the re-release does not include upscaled or redone textures and character models, but I’m not going to get into the Midjourneyification of preexisting art because I don’t like to write mean things about consumers who just want to hitch a ride on a Ship of Theseus that bears the false flag of Goldeneye: 007. It aged poorly? So will you, soon enough.
7 Comments
I do think the controls on the rerelease are "broken" in the sense that they were designed for a controller that--unless you're one of the few with that wireless N64 controller or some other jerry-rigged setup--isn't really comparable to what people are playing it on. By extension, I don't know that playing in the default settings conveys an appreciation for the game as it was or how it was designed. I completely agree that making something control more like a 2023 game of its genre does not equal "fixing" it, but I also feel like tinkering with the controls in a game that had four schemes based around a single player dual-wielding controllers isn't that out of line with the spirit of the original. If you're revisiting it (as I'd guess the majority of its player base are if they last beyond fifteen minutes on NSO or Game Pass), why not try something new?
Agreed 100% - I may have come across too harsh in my need to inject some drama into the prose lol. I’ve always played on 1.1 Mode so it may be my Default privilege showing, but the only real adjustment between the 64 pad and a Switch one is that B and A are flipped - everything else works the exact same way as it did on 1997. I’m mostly taking umbrage with the need to homogenise every shooter into the same old interactive pulp.
Happily living in that second camp. I'll never understand anyone who says this has aged poorly, we don't say that about Doom or Quake. There are loads of control options, especially with button remapping ideas shared on social media. Anyone should be able to find one that works for them, though I do believe that 1.1 Honey is probably only gonna be used by those of us who played the game in its original state 25 years ago.
Great writeup!
Great writeup!
(FYI, the sonar hit is there in the final release, on both platforms, and the music is emulated correctly. It was really just that one twitter marketing vid that had it missing for some reason)
Ya I know, but I do think Nintendo posting “remember pause music???” while not even posting the correct pause music is emblematic of the fake-nostalgia miasma that this game is constantly shrouded in
Oh for sure lol
Yultimona
1 year ago