GoldenEye 007
GoldenEye 007
August 23, 1997
Collection
Franchises
Platforms
Companies
Genres
Add Trivia

subdirectory_arrow_right Nintendo (Company)
2
In the Xbox One version of GoldenEye 007, the DK Mode - named after Donkey Kong for changing the proportions of in-game models to those of DK's from Donkey Kong 64 - retains its name. Given that Nintendo were directly involved in the project to re-release GoldenEye 007, with the game having a simultaneous relaunch on Nintendo Switch Online and Microsoft Store, this could be the first time Nintendo has officially allowed their IP to be referenced on a direct rival console.
2
A common debate among GoldenEye 007 fans is whether playing as Oddjob in the multiplayer mode is cheating due to his short stature going below the auto-aim bullet radius. This would be addressed by lead environmental artist Karl Hilton and gameplay and engine programmer Mark Edmonds in an oral history article released by Mel Magazine in 2018, 21 years after the game, who stated that they too thought playing as Oddjob was cheating, and they were aware of this during development:

Hilton: "We all thought it was kind of cheating when we were play-testing with Oddjob [due to his short stature, the auto-aim of the weapons goes above his head], but it was too much fun to take out and there was no impetus from any of us to change it. 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."

Edmonds: "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. Personally I like to pick Jaws [who originally appeared in 1977’s The Spy Who Loved Me] and then beat the person with Oddjob just to show them! We could have put something in to stop this blatant cheating, but why not just let players decide on their own rules?"
2
Attachment Censored Gaming asked 'Martin Molls', the game's director, why the 'Hunting Knife' was removed from the Japanese localisation. He stated that it was related to the 'Kobe Child Murders', an incident in Japan, involving child murder and knives.

This change is believed to have affected Rare's later game 'Perfect Dark' for the same reason.
1
As of 2023, only 4 licensed IP adapted games have been released on Nintendo's retro game digital download services: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for NES on Wii (which was later delisted on January 26, 2012), Transformers: Mystery of Convoy for NES on Wii, Quest for Camelot for Game Boy Color and GoldenEye 007 for N64, the latter two being on Switch.

Additionally, J.J. & Jeff, Punch-Out!! Featuring Mr. Dream, and Super Mario Bros. 2, all reskins of licensed titles, have been available in their license-less formats.
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month October 25, 2023
subdirectory_arrow_right Rare Replay (Game)
1
GoldenEye 007 was originally planned to be included in Rare Replay, even going so far as having a "Rare Revealed" documentary video focused on the making of the game produced for it, but was scrapped due to licensing issues. This video would later be leaked online in 2019 by a former Rare employee, and the game would eventually be re-released separately in 2023, with previous owners of Rare Replay being gifted the game free of charge.
1
The version of GoldenEye 007 that was released was technically a ROM hack of the version submitted to Nintendo for final certification. While the game was undergoing said last-minute testing, an issue was discovered with the game's memory that caused glitches in the textures featured in the Frigate level. To combat this, programmer Mark Edmonds wrote a tool to extract the game's code and data from the ROM, adjusted the hex values in the game's memory to improve the performance in the level, recompressed it, and directly added it back into the ROM image without recompiling. This version was sent back to Nintendo and certified for release as the final version of the game.
1
Attachment Creator of Mario, Shigeru Miyamoto, sent the game's developers a fax with suggestions for the game. The first suggestion was that there was too much close-up killing, which Miyamoto found to be unbearable. The second was to have the player to shake the hands of all the hospitalized enemies at the end of the game.

This suggestion gave the developers the idea of having all of the game's characters appear in a curtain call during the end credits, as if portrayed by real actors. This was meant to explain that the game did not involve real killing.
1
Originally the violence in the game was to be more graphic with "beautifully" rendered gore that would explode, but the game's director, Martin Hollis, thought it later to be a bit too much.
1
Attachment The Japanese version curiously removes the hunting knife weapon, which in other versions is only available through the use of cheat codes. Instead, the Japanese version has a cheat code that gives Bond a paired rocket launcher and sniper rifle (with full ammo for each weapon). When using the two weapons together, the sniper rifle's adjustable scope can be used. Unlike the 2x weapon cheats, each weapon can also be used separately.
1
Attachment If the player hurries through the Dam level quickly enough, they will be able to see a guard walking through the first set of security gates. Since he's animated on a pre-set path, he'll actually ignore Bond until he reaches his destination, at which point he'll react and start shooting.
sell
1
Attachment The Terrorist multiplayer character cannot be found anywhere in the single player game. However, the instruction manual for the game lists the Phantom weapon as a 'terrorist favorite', and the Phantom is only found on the Frigate level. The Frigate level is also the only level with hostages, which would likely indicate the involvement of terrorists. This suggests that the Terrorist was once used as an enemy on the Frigate, but was removed and kept in multiplayer.
1
Many of the levels in the game were first designed without any objective set in mind. Only after the levels were created did the designers go back and try to decide the player's starting positions, enemy locations, and objective placements. This is the reason many levels in the game seem to have rooms or areas without any obvious purpose. According to Martin Hollis of Rare,

The benefit of this sloppy unplanned approach was that many of the levels in the game have a realistic and non-linear feel. There are rooms with no direct relevance to the level. There are multiple routes across the level. This is an anti-game design approach, frankly. It is inefficient because much of the level is unnecessary to the gameplay. But it contributes to a greater sense of freedom, and also realism. And in turn this sense of freedom and realism contributed enormously to the success of the game.
1
During a speech made in 2004, Martin Hollis from Rare revealed that GoldenEye 007 was expected to fail miserably upon launch, after a poor reception at E3. Not only was the game a first-person shooter on a console system (unheard of at the time), it was also a movie license (which were frequently garbage) and was being released over two years after the actual movie came out. The game went on to become the best-selling game on the N64, beating Mario Kart 64, Super Mario 64, and Ocarina of Time.
1
According to Martin Hollis of Rare, the concept of adding multiple objectives per level was inspired by the level design of Super Mario 64.
1
The game's entire multiplayer mode was made in a month as a complete afterthought by programmer Steve Ellis. The management at Rare did not even know they were developing a multiplayer mode until they were shown a complete, working product. According to Ellis, 'since the game was already late by that time, if we hadn't done it that way, it probably never would have happened.'
1
Attachment A placeholder model for objects that were not finished yet is still in the game. Strangely, it is a Borg cube from Star Trek: The Next Generation.
1
Attachment Alec Trevelyan is seen being right-handed in all solo missions except for "Control".
1
The theme music of the level "Frigate" features parts taken from the theme of the James Bond film "A View to a Kill" by Duran Duran, and other parts inspired by the song "We Care A Lot" by Faith No More.
1
During development, the Silo mission was originally slated to be a Casino level to tie-in better with the movie. Various items can be found though the games code such as a gold bar, a token, and money.
1
Goldeneye was originally going to be an on-rails shooter before making the jump to full player control.
keyboard_double_arrow_leftFirst keyboard_arrow_leftPrev Page 1 of 3 Nextkeyboard_arrow_right Lastkeyboard_double_arrow_right

Related Games