MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE
NINTENDO 64, 1998
Despite its troubled development, this movie licence was an appropriate release for one of Ocean’s final games. Originally planned and developed on PC, when it switched to an early Nintendo 64 release, difficulties over the new technology and what it could (or more pertinently, couldn’t) achieve meant that Mission: Impossible didn’t appear until 1998, two years after the release of the Tom Cruise film. Fortunately, talk of a sequel kept the franchise active, and when Infogrames bought Ocean in 1997, development shifted to a new team based in France. A 3D action adventure in the mould of Rare’s GoldenEye, Mission: Impossible houses 20 third-person levels based around a range of exotic locations. The player is Ethan Hunt, utilising inventive gadgets and deadly weapons as he tackles various threats to world peace. Bearing little resemblance to the original movie’s plot, Mission: Impossible nevertheless follows its spirit well, becoming a medium-sized hit for Ocean. A PlayStation port followed in 1999, but by then, Ocean was absorbed into the Infogrames empire as Infogrames UK.