Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto had serious misgivings about GoldenEye 007's violence, according to game director Martin Hollis.

In a discussion at Nottingham's GameCity festival, Hollis explained some details of the relationship between Rare and its Japanese publisher.

Originally, the game was more graphic in its violence, featuring "beautifully rendered gore that would explode out [...] a fountain of blood, like that moment in The Shining when the lift doors open."

"Then I thought, hmm, this might be a bit too much red."

Nintendo was also worried, and Rare received several suggestions from Super Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto via fax.

According to Hollis, "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."

Hollis and his ten-person GoldenEye team met Miyamoto halfway with a credits sequence highlighting the characters in all their artificiality.

When asked how Nintendo maintains its quality and innovation, Hollis replied, "the secret of Nintendo is simple: always do good games."