bond 1

Nintendo’s last cartridge-based home console, the Nintendo 64, was home to a long list of games that no doubt played a big part in many of our lives, and none more so than GoldenEye 007. A first-person shooter that followed the storyline of the James Bond movie of the same name, GoldenEye’s all-guns-blazing split-screen multiplayer mode made and broke many a friendship over the years, and was considered the epitome of fun in back in 1997 when it launched.

But the game was an odd choice to appear exclusively on a console made by Nintendo—a company with a reputation for squeaky-clean fun and family-friendly software. And it turns out that the violent nature of GoldenEye was a matter of deep concern for Shigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo’s most influential director and producer and the creator of Super Mario. So much, in fact, that he suggested an alternate ending to the game: one where everyone shook hands and made up.

Shigeru Miyamoto, the amazing talent behind franchises such as Super Mario Bros., Donkey Kong, The Legend of Zelda, Star Fox, and Pikmin, has always had a big hand in shaping the way Nintendo projects itself by creating characters that aren’t too serious and, most importantly, are family-friendly. It’s understandable, then, that after viewing a near-finished build of GoldenEye, Miyamoto had some apprehensions about how violent the game was—especially all the up-close killing.

▼ That’s not blood! It’s…uh…a mountain range in front of a beautiful sunset…

bond 2

According to an article over at Eurogamer, Martin Hollis—then producer and director at Rare, the developer of GoldenEye—received a fax from Mr. Miyamoto himself saying that the ending of the game especially was “too tragic” for Nintendo’s typical audience, and suggesting that Rare include a final scene in which Bond, having riddled them with bullets, visits his enemies in the hospital and shakes hands with them. As anyone who has played the game will know, Mr. Miyamoto’s alternative ending never made it into the finished game, despite his tremendous influence in the industry.

▼ Can you imagine…

bond 3

▼ …that guy and these three…

bond 4

▼ …just shaking hands politely in a hospital…

bond 5

▼ …after everything they’ve been through?!?

bond 6

Perhaps Miyamoto had simply forgotten that there are only three things Ian Fleming’s secret agent does: thwart his enemies, drink martinis, and tell cringe-inducing to beautiful girls who are somehow still completely charmed by him. Bond is always ready to press the flesh, just not in the way the Nintendo game designer envisioned.

Despite rejecting Miyamoto’s hospital scene idea, Hollis did include a credits sequence at the end of the game to emphasize that it was all a work of fiction and that no polygons were harmed in the making of this video game. Clearly Miyamoto’s advice didn’t fall completely on deaf ears.

▼ We probably could have done without the make-out scene, though

GoldenEye 007 would have been a very different game had they made it “friendlier”; who knows if it would have been as influential to first-person shooters if everyone turned out to be best buds. We do know Nintendo still values the non-violent, whimsical outings, as one of their most recent games, Splatoon, features the fast-paced action of a shooter with the non-lethal ammo of brightly colored paint. Mr. Miyamoto isn’t listed as having anything to do with that particular game, but we wouldn’t be surprised to learn that he made a few family-friendly suggestions somewhere along the way.

Source: Eurogamer
Featured Image: Amazon
Inset Images: YouTube/BreadCrustCouncil