Perfect Dark

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Perfect Dark is a first person shooter for the Nintendo 64 with gameplay similar to GoldenEye 007 . It was developed and published by Rare and distributed by Nintendo. The player plays as Joanna Dark, an agent that works for Daniel Carrington of the Carrington Institute. The game begins with the mission of recovering an artificial intelligent sapient from the DataDyne Corp.

With 21 missions, dozens of cheats to unlock (without the help of button codes), a co-op mode as well as a counter-op mode (player 2 plays the enemy), a shooting range, and many different multi-player features made Perfect Dark one of the more popular games at the time.

Although the Nintendo 64 version was given an "M" rating and distributed by Nintendo, Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem was considered to be the first M-rated Nintendo published game.

Gameplay[ ]

Development[ ]

Perfect Dark was developed by Rare and released for the Nintendo 64 in 2000, as a spiritual successor to their 1997 hit GoldenEye 007. Development began in 1998 with a team led by Martin Hollis (though he left partway through the project), aiming to create a more ambitious first-person shooter with a science fiction narrative and advanced AI. The developers pushed the N64 hardware to its limits, using advanced lighting effects, high-resolution modes with the Expansion Pak, and motion-captured animations to create immersive environments and detailed characters. The game’s setting and tone were inspired by cyberpunk and spy fiction, leading to a darker, more mature atmosphere. Rare also designed an expansive single-player campaign, fully voiced characters, and numerous customizable multiplayer modes, including AI bots—one of its most innovative features. Technical challenges included managing memory limitations and ensuring smooth performance with the Expansion Pak. Despite these hurdles, Perfect Dark was acclaimed for its depth, visuals, and feature-rich gameplay, cementing its place as one of the most technically impressive and influential shooters on the N64.

Reception[ ]

Trivia[ ]

• Originally, the core development team from GoldenEye 007 (including Martin Hollis, David Doak, Karl Hilton, Steve Ellis, and Graeme Norgate) was involved with the development of Perfect Dark; however, many of them left Rare later on due to disagreements with the company and established Free Radical Design. As a result, they are not credited in the final release.
• Perfect Dark is the most-acclaimed game with an "M" rating from the ESRB to be released on a Nintendo platform, according to Metacritic.
  • It is also the Nintendo 64's best-selling game with that rating, selling 2.52 million copies.

External links[ ]

• Perfect Dark at Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• Perfect Dark at GameFAQs
• Perfect Dark at MobyGames