(Published on July 11th 2016)
Due to the success of Donkey Kong Country it was suggested that Goldeneye should be a 2D side-scrolling game to be made for the super Nintendo.
The developers originally wanted the player to remove and reinsert the Rumble Pak into the N64 controller to reload guns in the game. Nintendo wouldn’t allow it.
Eight million units of Goldeneye were sold worldwide. It was the third bestselling N64 game behind Mario 64 and Mario Kart 64.
The intention during the first few months of development was to make the game an on-rail shooter similar to Virtua Cop. This was obviously scrapped, but Virtua Cop still influenced the final version of the game.
Rare did not receive a final version of the Nintendo 64 developer kits from Nintendo. This caused them to use a modified Sega Saturn controller to develop and test Goldeneye in hopes that when the N64 was released, Goldeneye would play without issue.
Windows in the game were designed so that the enemies could not see through them while the player could. This was done to encourage the player to spy on enemies and use stealthier tactics.
In addition to the N64 game, a Goldeneye racing game was in development for the Virtual Boy but was canceled before release.
Towards the end of Goldeneye’s development, Shigeru Miyamoto sent a fax to Rare suggesting that the game had too much killing and was too tragic. Miyamoto’s suggestion was to have James Bond shake the hands of all his enemies while in a hospital at the end of the game.
