After 20 Years Of Attempts, 'Impossible' Goldeneye Trick Hails New World Record

The 'body armor skip' helped Gus Riolo best the Aztec level in record time

For more than two decades, GoldenEye 007 players have been trying to figure out how to get the fastest time on the game’s hardest level without grabbing an out of the way piece of body armor to help them survive. Turns out all speedrunner Gus Riolo needed to skip the body armor and claim the new world record was a little bit of trickery.

Based on the film Moonraker, the Aztec bonus in GoldenEye level requires players to run through a gauntlet of elite soldiers and turrets while waiting for a shuttle to launch. The yellow-suited guards are everywhere, backed up by powerful robotic guns that can even be found in the level’s air ducts. It’s a tough level to beat on any of the game’s three difficulty levels, but particularly brutal at the highest, 00 Agent. Each enemy hit drops Mr. Bond’s health by two levels, which means he can take five hits total before it’s game over.

As speedrunning documentarian Karl Jobst explains in his exhaustive video on the subject, the only salvation runners had for over 20 years was a bit of body armor located in one of the level’s ventilation shafts. Grabbing it wasted precious seconds, but it effectively doubles the player’s health making surviving the final gauntlet more feasible.

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