According to the Devs, Picking Oddjob is Cheating in Goldeneye 64

Despite the long history of licensed games being pretty terrible, it’s universally agreed upon that the best FPS of the N64’s history – and one of the best FPS titles of all time – is Goldeneye 64. This is in no small part to a pretty great multiplayer mode, where up to four people could have deathmatches with iconic bond characters and fight over who got to play Oddjob, whom many considered to be cheating on account of his, ahem, short stature.

And among those who consider him to be cheating? Goldeneye devs themselves. Speaking with Mel Magazine, ex-Rare developer Karl Hilton had this to say:

"We all thought it was kind of cheating when we were play-testing with Oddjob [due to his short stature, the auto-aim of the weapons goes above the head], 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."

And another developer, David Doak, even talked about why Oddjob was even in the game: as it turned out, they assumed (sort of incorrectly) that they could pillage everything from the James Bond universe to put into the game. That wasn’t quite the case, as MGM studio heads told them late into development after they saw the Bond models (because Connery would definitely want money, which meant the others would want money, so they couldn’t afford it), but the cheating jerk stayed in all the same.

In any case, it’s a long and really cool article, so if you’re any sort of fan of the game it’s definitely worth the read. You’ll learn a lot more than just about Oddjob. Promise.