“One point was that there was too much close-up killing – he found it a bit too horrible.
He went on to explain that, towards the end of development, the team received a fax from Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto, with a series of suggestions for the game. Apparently, Nintendo was concerned about the violence. Martin Hollis (right) talking to Gary Penn about the genesis of legendary shooter, GoldenEye. Then I thought, hmm, this might be a bit too much red.” When I saw it the first time, I thought it was awesome, it was a fountain of blood, like that moment in the Shining when the lift doors open. For a while we had some gore, it was just a flipbook of about 40 textures, beautifully rendered gore that would explode out. “Bond is a violent franchise and making that fit with Nintendo, which is very much family-friendly, was a challenge. And then I was making GoldenEye.”Īccording to Hollis, the game was originally much more graphic in its depiction of violence.
“So I went away and thought about it for a month and wrote a ten-page document. “Tim Stamper told me to write a design document,” says Hollis. I imagine it impressed him a great deal.” A development deal was duly offered.Īfter producing the fighting game Killer Instinct, Rare was then offered the chance to make a game based around the GoldenEye movie, or “Bond 17” as it was known at the time.
“He went back to his hotel room, and when he came back for more meetings the next day, Rare had made a new version of Punch-Out!! over night, using their Silicon Graphics workstations and featuring huge rendered sprites. After several approaches, the studio was finally visited by Genyo Takeda, the director behind the Punch-Out!! titles. In a fascinating talk at the GameCity festival in Nottingham, the veteran designer explained how Twycross-based developer Rare was determined to forge a creative partnership with the Japanese company. G oldenEye 007 was one of the greatest games of the 90s, and revolutionised the idea of the first-person shooter on consoles – but Nintendo was hugely concerned about its depiction of violence, game director Martin Hollis has revealed.