GoldenEye was the third best selling Nintendo 64 games of all time and it is hailed as the game which proved that first person shooters were viable on consoles. Interestingly enough, this success was only achieved because developer Rare ignored Nintendo's advices.
Set in the violent world of James Bond, GoldenEye originally included too much violence and gore to fit with Nintendo's family-friendly nature. Even after game director Martin Hollis toned down the blood effects, Nintendo still felt the game was too violent for its audience.
Speaking at the GameCity festival in Nottingham, the game director said that – near the end of development – he received a fax from Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto, with a series of suggestions for GoldenEye.
"One point was that there was too much close-up killing – he found it a bit too horrible. I don’t think I did anything with that input" said Hollis. "The second point was, he felt the game was too tragic, with all the killing. He suggested that it might be nice if, at the end of the game, you got to shake hands with all your enemies in the hospital."
As an answer to Miyamoto's concerns, Hollis added a credits sequence to the game showing all characters as if they were portrayed by actors. "It was very filmic, and the key thing was, it underlined that this was artifice," he explained. "The sequence told people that this was not real killing."
VIA: The Guardian.
