GoldenEye 007 is easily the best James Bond video game adaptation ever made, not to mention one of the best FPS games of all time. It's set to be re-released on modern consoles on January 27, though one European country will be experiencing it for the first time. Despite the game having only been rated T for Teen back when it was released in 1997, Germany outright banned it based on its content.
Video game violence has long been a contentious subject, although GoldenEye has rarely been the subject of ongoing controversy. Nevertheless, the game has only recently been allowed to be released in Deutschland, showing the varying degrees to which video game content is received. Here's how the new release of the 007 classic recalls its scandalous history in Germany.
Germany Banned Sales of GoldenEye 007 for Years
In late 2021, Nintendo 64 classic GoldenEye 007 was taken off the German BPjM list of "Media Harmful to Young Persons." Its inclusion on the list was due to the game's violent content, as it obviously involved gunplay like the movie on which it was based. The death scenes and perceived glorification of violence were huge sticking points for the country's authorities, especially since it could potentially be played by minors. At the same time, GoldenEye 007 wasn't even the most violent video game of its era or the following gaming generation.
For instance, two other titles on the German BPjM list, Bloodrayne and Bloodrayne 2, were far more graphic and salacious in nature. The same happened with many of the classic entries in the Mortal Kombat series, which were incredibly graphic in their violence. Thus, these games couldn't be brought to Germany when they were originally released, or else the distributors would have faced legal trouble.
The BPjM is revised every 25 years, and it was likely that GoldenEye 007 would have been removed from the list in 2023 anyway. Thankfully, gamers didn't have to wait quite that long, with a request directly from Nintendo's partners seeing it removed in 2021.
Video Game Violence Has Evolved Since the Days of GoldenEye 007
GoldenEye really isn't that bad in the grand scheme of things, with video games since then having more than upped the ante in terms of gratuitous violence. This saw calls for censorship come to a fever pitch in the '00s, with titles such as the crime-based Grand Theft Auto games and the fighting game series Dead or Alive bringing up questions concerning their violent and sexual content.
However, in the years since, there are far fewer cases of large-scale controversy over specific instances of video game violence the way there were in the '90s and '00s. There are still some who blame games for real instances of violence, but they are more often met with skepticism rather than sparking mass outrage. For example, the Call of Duty games are also more violent than GoldenEye, and yet they're far more popular among mainstream gamers, including kids and teens. Add to this the fact that they're actually rated M for Mature, and it certainly puts the supposedly scandalous nature of GoldenEye into perspective and shows how attitudes have changes regarding video game violence.
Another interesting point is that Nintendo is sometimes regarded as a "kiddy video game developer," with the company and its first-party titles having a family-friendly connotation. Nevertheless, it was the very console where this reputation started that hosted a banned game. Nintendo legend, Shigeru Miyamoto, even suggested that 007 shake hands with the enemies he had made along the way in the game. While that might have changed the game entirely, it might have kept it from being banned in Germany for so long.