While the Marvel Cinematic Universe gets a lot of praise for post credits surprises, they were not the first ones to do it, as the Muppets beat them to the punch decades before hand.


When worlds collide: the thought of Animal being apart of The Avengers initiative holds great interest for me

With 007 finally coming out victorious, after landing the final blow on 006, sending him careening towards the chasm below, Natalya swiftly flies to Bond’s rescue in his time of need, with the secret agent jumping from the platform, and hanging on to the bottom of the helicopter for deal life, as they both drift away from the Cradle, looking forward to an intimate celebration for a mission accomplished. Roll credits.

So, that should wrap it up for our “Bonding Experience”, yeah? The whole thing done and dusted? Well, not quite. As I mentioned many articles back, when I was lamenting just how much I hated the level Depot, not unlike Anakin Skywalker hates sand, I had a moment of super charged ambition following the end of the Depot’s completion on Agent, as I felt a lot of repressed skill and energy I needed to get out of my system just raring to go. With that in tow, I sat down the very same night, and in one fail swoop, beat all of 00 Agent in one session, which ended up being a mighty fine time.

Aside from the thankful challenge this little excursion provided, it also ended up unlocking the way towards the two secret levels, Aztec and Egypt, which are no less part of the GoldenEye 64 experience than any other part of the game, though, going by achievement % completion, with only 1% of players finishing Aztec on any difficulty on Xbox Live, I’m guessing a part of the GoldenEye experience a scant few ended up enjoying. Admittedly, beating 00 Agent is a big ask, and the reason I was able to down it so easily is the amount of practice I had already accrued in the past three decades, so I definitely had the upper hand. Factor in newer players, who might be terrified at the absence of quality of life features, like no regenerating health, no checkpoints, and extremely limited mobility, and no doubt, many from gen Z would struggle not to pull their hair out in failing to best this beastly difficulty mode.

With that in mind, and while I still have you here, let’s take a look at the first of the two secret levels, Aztec, which still sees Brosnan’s Bond at the helm, though the mission is based off of the 1979 film Moonraker, which starred Roger Moore, so developer Rare kind of did a mish-mash of Bond cannon in setting up the level, but as we’ve covered, they took extreme liberties with the main story, so a side mission after the fact when the credits have already rolled would be an absurd time to start caring about such frivolities.

I suppose it makes sense Rare decided to go with a sendup to Moonraker, as it lets them accomplish putting two different things in their game: laser beams, which, of course, who wouldn’t, right? It also gave Rare an excuse to use one of the few reoccurring villains in the franchise to make an appearance, with Jaws acting as a “mini-boss” cameo, as you must defeat him to obtain a keycard to finish the mission. While I’ve read that the Moonraker film ended up doing well financially for the series, I feel as if the critical reception for the movie was fairly rough. Though anecdotal, I feel as if all of the random moments I’ve read listicles about ranking all of the Bond movies, Moonraker is routinely in the bottom five, as the film veers too much into parody territory for many Bond fans comfort. The mission in the game doesn’t retain any of that over the top goofiness the film counterpart does, but its a damn good bonus for beating the game on 00 Agent, so let’s reflect as to why.

As most long time players will no doubt appreciate from moment one, the theme for Aztec is an absolute banger, with even the achievement for beating the level entitled “That Music, Though…”, reinforcing my point that it has been a known known withinin the community for awhile that this tune is hot fire, and it’s a tragedy to think more people didn’t hear it due to its obscured nature as a secret level track with a demanding win condition associated with it.

In relation to this musical praise, I’m often quite bad at not spending more time giving props to audio design or soundtrack respects more directly, which is something I’ve been working to improve upon. To that effect, I give praise to Rare’s in-house composers, whether it be Grant Kirkhope (who did much of the music for this game), Graeme Norgate, or Robin Beanland, who all helped provide OST’s for nostalgic 90s gamers the world over, and their work definitely helped to make Rare games stand out as a result. I’ve mentioned in the past that one of the big dividing lines between a B tier game and a AAA title is the audio design and soundtrack work, and looking at the quality of Rare titles over the years, I think I have substantial evidence to back up my claim.

It’s good news that the backing track for the mission is top notch, too, as you will likely be hearing it quite a lot, as you are very probably going to be eating shit real fast in Aztec. Like most secret levels/extra content in video games, the assumption made for players going in relates to the notion that, if they were able to get to this area, or are playing this specific content, there is an excellent chance they are well traveled vets, and have already cut their teeth on many of the games challenges. Aztec, thusly, ends up being a surprising endurance test, even on Agent difficulty, so you have your work cut out for you.

.Your starting point is this precarious nook on the edge of the massive structure, and nearly immediately as you step out, you will be shot from both sides by AR-33’s, letting you know exactly what kind of mission this is going to be. The troops in this level are wearing the same goofy yellow jumpsuits from the Moonraker film, and the pre-mission briefing even mentions the disappearance of a NASA rocket, of which the Drax Corporation is implicated in the theft of, a reference to the organization run by the main bad guy from Moonraker, Hugo Drax, so a lot of the larger elements of the mission truly are just lifted out of the film wholesale for our enjoyment, rationale be damned.

Refocusing on the mission objective at hand, you’ll need to make your way to the heart of the ruins to reprogram the onboard navigational systems, so MI6 can take control of the stolen rocket once you launch it. Easier said than done, of course, as the entire base is crawling with AR jockey’s just itching to test their trigger finger. As mentioned, even on Agent, these guys are seemingly super charged in contrast to guards in the rest of the game. They react a lot faster, do a ton of damage due to wielding AR’s, and most of the time, they’re waiting for you, with guns pointed at the door, so you will likely need to have several go’s at this one, as it doesn’t take a whole hell of a lot to reduce your health to zero. Did I mention how grenade happy they are? Cause they are absolutely fucking ecstatic in that regard.

Aside from being a secret level, in terms of where the jump in difficulty is concerned, I do wager that another mitigating factor that helped to dictate why the enemies are so chaotically cracked out in this mission, is due to the fact that at some point in the level, you’ll come face to face with troops carrying Moonraker Lasers, which are as cool as they sound. Not only do they fire rather strong laser beams at a rapid pace, but due to the gun’s non-led based methodology and energy focused capabilities, it also has infinite ammo, making you dynamite with a laser beam once you get your hands on one. Combine this with the notion that you are also able to pick up a 2nd laser at some point, effectively allowing you to dual wield them, all of this points to the reality that if the enemies on this level were only regularly capable or mid, like many of the other missions prior to this one, this level would feel like a walk in the park.

Luckily, the enemies don’t use the lasers they wield to the most effective degree as the player can; if that were the case, I think this mission would become next to impossible to complete, so props to Rare for not being complete bastards about the missions difficulty level. Another unfortunate point of interest is the many, many drone guns you will have to face before missions end, and while the lasers do make short work of them (on Agent, at least), they’re there, and they still suck just as much as they always do. Aztec is a more demanding sort, in that it really pushes the player to utilize cover whenever possible, or say goodbye to your health for your lack of defensive observance; bleeding out and dying within the blink of an eye punishment for your casual hubris.

You do eventually fight Jaws in this mission, which is as cool as it is a pain in the ass, if you zig when you should have zagged. He’s dual wielding AR’s, so he can shred you down to nothingness in a mere instant, so a straight up fight is certainly not advised, as he has plenty of health to spare. One of the only saving graces in the fight against him is that the troops in the room with him are grenade happy like so many others in this level, and can become more of a liability for the metal teethed menace as a result, costing him a great amount of health, due to said troops screwing up their grenade throws, the resulting collateral damage cutting down what is otherwise a sharp little skirmish into an awkward wash within a scant few seconds, which comes in handily on higher difficulties.

Another cool feature of this level is that it is sort of in the shape of a big horseshoe turned sideways, with both points touching at the ends, allowing you to choose whether or not you want to go “backwards” through the level, by jumping down off a ledge at the beginning, or taking it on in a more straight forward affair by just heading straight from the start. You’ll see the same shit going both ways of course, but going backwards feels kind of like a hard mode, as you end up fighting Jaws much sooner, without the help of body armor, and no way to start the fight with a sneak attack, so choosing “backwards” definitely ups the ante.

Once you’ve defeated Jaws, you will have to backtrack to a control room, as he gives you a keycard, with which you are then able to reprogram the shuttle. Though “reinforcements” will have already started appearing before this moment, you will most certainly start to notice them now, as Aztec pulls a Severnaya on you, and just lets loose with the infinitely spawning guards, so launching the shuttle while remaining unscathed is the equivalent of a snow balls chance in hell, so you’ll have to move fast to claim victory.

After what seems like an endless horde of laser toting baddies, you will eventually see the rocket blast off, with a cinematic showing a hilariously too close to the launch pad Bond, standing in a ridiculously stiff looking manner, as the Rocket takes off to the stars. A job well done, and a challenging secret level in the bag.

Aztec ends up being a nice little bonus, as it is quite minimalist in its design, so nothing overly complicated, while giving the player plenty to do. I know secret levels still exist in modern day games, but the way GoldenEye 64 has it setup, does feel quite old school, with the level select screen and the image for Aztec blacked out…it was definitely a cool slice of time and place when they did it, that’s for sure. A bygone era from a different portion of history; a great reminder why we revisit these experiences every now and again.

That about wraps it up for Aztec, which provides a great challenge for players still raring to go after beating 00 Agent. Next time, we look at the last mission available in the game, Egypt, as we consider the ramifications of what happens when you cross Voodoo Magic and gaudy weaponry.

~Pashford