'Goldeneye' Video Game Creators Confirm Playing As Oddjob Makes You A Dirty Cheater

One of the best video game adaptations of all time is undoubtedly GoldenEye 64. The game took the first James Bond movie starring Pierce Brosnan and turned it into a polygonal first-person shooter that also gave us one of the most endlessly entertaining multiplayer experiences of any video game in history. But it wasn't always fun, especially when some jerk decided to play as the signature, short James Bond villain Oddjob.

Thankfully, if you ever find yourself plugging in the ol' Nintendo 64 for a round of GoldenEye 64, now you can stop anyone from playing as Oddjob because it's totally unfair. A couple of the game's creators recently took part in an oral history of GoldenEye 64, and they confirm that playing as the hat-throwing henchman from Goldfinger is cheating.

The problem with Oddjob, as any GoldenEye 64 player will tell you, is that his small stature makes him much more difficult to land a shot. Even when you're using larger explosives, he seems to be able to evade them much easier. It's always maddening and will inevitably lead to a shouting match in the middle of a game.

MEL Magazine has posted an oral history of the creation of GoldenEye 64, and during their dig into the endlessly replayable multiplayer mode (which was a late addition to the game), the game's lead environment artist Karl Hilton addressed what many of the game's creators thought about using Oddjob in a match, but he's somewhat forgiving of it:

"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."

Meanwhile, gameplay and engine programmer Mark Edmonds also dubbed Oddjob as a cheating move:

"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. Personally, I like to pick Jaws and then beat the person with Oddjob just to show them! We could have put something in to stop this blatant cheating, but why not just let players decide on their own rules?"

At the end of the day, it's up to you and your friends to decide whether or not you want to allow someone to play as Oddjob. You're the one choosing to be friends with someone who thinks it's perfectly fine to cheat by playing as Oddjob, so maybe you should get better friends.