A night with Bond.

For the first time in months, I was able to play two and a half hours of Nintendo.

How did I accomplish that? Well I have the house to myself until Sunday, as my mother and father went to Texas to visit my sister. Feeling the need to splurge a little, I picked up a Nintendo 64 from Game Exchange in Greenwood, AR on Thursday.

Except it didn't work. So I took it back, and the second one wasn't working. It was a little frustrating to me, as I had made plans for an exciting return to 1996-1999, only to see technology turn its back on me. The problem? I'd turn on the system, and get a black screen, or even a notice saying "No Signal." What? This can't be happening on the second N64! Are all of my TVs conspiring against me?

I finally remembered that games occasionally need cleaning, and took the Q-tip and Windex to the carts. Dirty as can be. Pop the game back into the system and still nothing. Then as if by some stroke of chance, the system finally registered the game.

I'm just pretending that the N64, without being turned on for years (hey-oh!), just needed to be warmed up. So I finally got it to work.

My game of choice this evening? Two actually, WCW vs. NWO World Tour and....Goldeneye 007. The greatest game ever made by a man.

Both games brought back so many memories. For some reason during Spring Break 1998, our youth pastor at Waldron First Baptist Church let us hook up the N64 to the projector in the Fellowship Hall. None of us used the WCW wrestlers in World Tour: It was so much more fun to play as the fictional characters like Black Ninja, Hannibal, etc. The game is insanely easy to pick up and play (simple commands: A to grapple, B to punch, etc), and had the kids who didn't care about pro wrestling getting in on the 4-player action.

But then, after a five year absence, I plugged in Goldeneye. With nobody home but me at our farmhouse, I cranked up the speakers and relished this opening.




Good gravy, that gives me chills. Anyways, playing through the first three levels of Goldeneye, it was the first time in years that a game had my pulse racing, heart ticking at warp speed, and entire body, mind and soul clouded in the same suspense you get from watching The Dark Knight or Black Hawk Down for the very first time.

That's the mark of a great game: when it can alter your body chemistry and transport you into the virtual world that you see on television.

The controls did take some getting used to, and the controller that came with the N64 has an analog stick that isn't in the best shape (my character couldn't sprint without me pressing the stick so hard that my thumb nearly fell off). Still, tonight's experience was one of two best video game moments I've had since college (the other was playing Mario Kart Wii with my nephew Brent and now fianceé Allicia this summer).

Hat tip to you Rare. I encourage you to go out and get a N64 if you want to relive the classic, as it's highly unlikely that it will ever see a Virtual Console release on the Wii.

Or, you could just wait for the new Goldeneye 007 that's coming this November exclusively on the Wii. The trailer looks amazing, and this game looks like it might very well capture the spirit of the original.



I should also add that I've only got a few months to master this game. My brother-in-law Shane, for whom I purchased this game a few weeks ago, said he didn't need any practice when it came to beating me, that he played it so much as a child that he could beat me.

The fight is on!