If somebody told me they were going to play GoldenEye 007 on a piano, I’d probably just assume that they planned to play a song or two from the classic Nintendo 64 gem using a piano.
Never in my dizziest daydreams would I have guessed that they were then going to literally play GoldenEye 007 using a piano as the controller, but YouTube’s Jackson Parodi is clearly a visionary. The YouTuber/musician/wizard recently uploaded footage of himself beating the first level of Rare’s 1997 classic, simply by tickling the old ivories.
Check him out in action below.
With certain keys on the piano standing in for buttons on an N64 pad, I expected the attempt would sound fairly… chaotic. I was wrong, as the end result is actually fairly tranquil, and not a million miles away from the gentle piano that floats through The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
To be fair, Jackson does seem to breeze through the level with a minimum of fuss, not really stopping to engage in combat. I suspect if he tried to take on enemies, the sound – and outcome – would have been a lot messier.
While Jackon’s novel approach to Goldeneye 007 certainly makes for relaxing viewing, it’s far from the first time a gamer has decided to ramp up the challenge by playing through a game with a less than conventional controller.
You’ve probably seen countless playthroughs of games using dance mats, guitar hero controllers, and even potatoes. Hell, back in 2015, some guy actually beat Dark Souls using a Rock Band microphone , because he found it too easy with the other instruments.
It might have taken him 30 hours 485 deaths, but I’d argue that’s an entirely reasonable run even if you’re using a normal controller, let alone the sheer power of your vocal chords.
In 2016, an even more intrepid adventurer beat Dark Souls 3 using nothing but his feet, utilizing his flexible toes to work the PlayStation 4 controller in a way I never imagine possible with my own two hands, let alone my goddamn feet.
To be clear, I’m not saying any of this to make Jackson look bad – I’m just saying try and beat Dark Souls using a piano next, because I reckon that would make for one hell of an improvisational jazz record.
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Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.