Donald Trump’s meeting on video game violence at the White House was a big nothingburger, as expected, but the renewed discussions on gaming violence have unearthed a fascinating and bizarre tidbit about the Nintendo 64 era.
In a fantastic New Yorker piece by Simon Parkin on the “non-existent link between violent video games and mass shootings,” an anecdote from Martin Hollis, a development team member from the classic Goldeneye 007, revealed a strange request from Mario-creator Shigeru Miyamoto.
“…He once received a fax from Shigeru Miyamoto, the inventor of Super Mario, calling the game “tragic” and “horrible.” Miyamoto proposed that, at the end of GoldenEye, players should be forced to shake hands with their victims as they lay recovering in hospital beds. (The idea was never implemented.)”
Miyamoto has long been on the side of only killing strange mushroom men by jumping on their heads until they’re no longer breathing (so you can steal their money), and his influence at Nintendo knows no bounds, but it’s incredible to hear he went so far as to suggest something like this. Not only would it make the James Bond adaptation a strange joke without consequences, but it would mean a secret agent eventually visits men he shot point blank with a rocket launcher to… What? Discuss the bungie jump off the dam in level 1?
Anyway, here’s the compilation of mostly Wolfenstein (Nazis being butchered is offensive to the White House?) and Call of Duty moments the White House cut together in their presentation on video game violence. It’s unintentionally gone viral with the comment section mostly wondering where Manhunt is.
(Via The New Yorker)