GoldenEye 007

Rare named the 1994 light gun shooter as a direct influence on GoldenEye's design. Features like gun reloading, position-dependent hit reaction animations, and the R-button aiming system were adopted from Virtua Cop. Early in development, the game was even intended as an on-rails shooter in Virtua Cop's style before evolving into a full first-person shooter.

“Rare named Sega's 1994 light gun shooter Virtua Cop, id Software's seminal 1993 first-person shooter Doom and the Nintendo 64 launch game Super Mario 64 as influences.”

Rare cited the 1993 first-person shooter as an influence on GoldenEye's overall design and gameplay direction. The game was evolved to be a 3D shooter for N64 inspired by Doom's FPS mechanics.

“The game was conceived as a side-scrolling platform game for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, but evolved into a 3D shooter for the Nintendo 64 inspired by Doom (1993) and Virtua Cop (1994).”

Martin Hollis of Rare cited Super Mario 64's level design as inspiration for GoldenEye's mission structure. The concept of multiple varied objectives within each level was directly inspired by the multiple tasks in each stage of Super Mario 64.

“The concept of several varied objectives within each mission was inspired by the multiple tasks in each stage of Super Mario 64.”

Adrian Smith, the game's third and last artist, cited the 1995 film Heat as an influence on the game's visual effects. He was responsible for producing visual effects such as muzzle flashes and explosions.

“He mentioned the 1995 film Heat as an influence.”

The sky graphics used for outdoor levels in GoldenEye 007 were taken directly from Rare's 1994 arcade fighting game Killer Instinct. The two games also shared the same music composers, Robin Beanland and Graeme Norgate.

“The sky graphics used for outdoor levels in GoldenEye 007 (and Perfect Dark) are taken from Rare's critically acclaimed 1994 arcade fighting game Killer Instinct.”

Rare visited the GoldenEye film set and collected photographs and blueprints of the sets to use as reference material for level design. The team built levels based on these original film sets and expansions licensed by Eon Productions and MGM.

“The team visited the studios of the GoldenEye film several times to collect photographs and blueprints of the sets.”