If you played 'Goldeneye' on the Nintendo 64 in the early part of the '00s and you knew the cheat code to access the extra characters and play as Oddjob, then you had an argument about the character.

Essentially, Oddjob was a much smaller playable character and meant that you had a distinct advantage over playing as someone like, say, Ouromov or Xenia Onatopp. It meant that you could sneak your way through an arena, pop off people quickly and without being seen, and basically cause your older brother to slap you in the ear for cheating.

You might have argued the point that it wasn't cheating, that they could have picked Oddjob but they didn't, but the point still stands and your ear is still ringing from the slap. Any of this sound familiar?

Well, the designers of 'Goldeneye' were interviewed recently by Mel Magazine and the answer is that playing as Oddjob is 100% cheating and you deserved that slap too, probably. "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," explained Karl Hilton, one of the game's designers and lead environment artist.

"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," added Hilton. This view was shared by Mark Edmonds, the gameplay and engine programmer, who put it in way more blunt terms. "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."

Another point which the feature touched on, however, was how the game's cheat modes - DK Mode, God Mode, Paintball Mode - were activated by clearing levels as quickly as possible, which contributed to the rise of speed-running in games. As David Doak, one of the game's lead designers explained, the cheat mode "inadvertently invited speedrunning from very early on, because we had the timed unlocks."

Here's an example of one of the fastest runs, just to give you an idea.