Goldeneye

Oh, GoldenEye 007. The memories of that music, the "pew pew pew" of the gunfire, that bit where you brutally murder someone sitting on the toilet, and that one friend who you wanted to throw out of the house for playing as Oddjob over and over again. Wonderful times.

Yes, if you spent many an evening playing this N64 Bond movie tie-in, you'll no doubt remember the playable character Oddjob. Selectable in the game's multiplayer offerings, Oddjob was an incredibly short character - so short, in fact, that he pretty much broke the game by standing just under the natural line of your weapon's fire - forcing you to stop, stand still, and manually aim down (which wasn't quite as fluid back then). Many players even made their own house rules to ban Oddjob as a result, but others believed that he was completely fair as he was officially included in the roster, and therefore just a part of the game.

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Now, 21 years since the game was first released, the question of whether or not playing as Oddjob was cheating has finally been officially answered. In an article published on Mel Magazine, the game's lead environment artist Karl Hilton, and gameplay and engine programmer Mark Edmonds, have said that, yes, it "definitely" was.

Hilton: "We all thought it was kind of cheating when we were play-testing with Oddjob, but it was too much fun to take out and there was no impetus from any of us to change it. It’s clearly become part of the culture and folklore of the game — I noticed playing GoldenEye as Oddjob was mentioned in Ready Player One, so ultimately, I think it’s fine."

Edmonds: "It’s definitely cheating to play as Oddjob! But that can just add to the fun when you’re all sitting there next to each other and berating/poking/hitting the person who chooses him... We could have put something in to stop this blatant cheating, but why not just let players decide on their own rules?"

The man in question - Oddjob in GoldenEye 007

So we finally have our answer. If you have any friends who remain adamant that playing as Oddjob is 100% innocent, make sure to point them in the direction of this story. Having said that, we do still think that it's an interesting little quirk of the game and maybe playing the odd game with the character once in a while isn't too bad.

Do you have any memories of GoldenEye 007 to share with us? Feel free to tell us your thoughts in the comments below.

[source melmagazine.com, via eurogamer.net]