Perfect Dark

This article is about the Nintendo 64 video game. For other uses, see Perfect Dark (disambiguation).

Perfect Dark
The face of a woman holding a gun occupies a black background while a grey alien is reflected on her right eye. At the top of the image, the title "Perfect Dark" is displayed with a double slash symbol after the word "Dark". Game specifications are shown on the right side of the image.
North American box art
Developer(s)Rare
Publisher(s)Rare
Designer(s)
Programmer(s)Mark Edmonds
Composer(s)
SeriesPerfect Dark
Platform(s)Nintendo 64
Release
  • NA: 22 May 2000
  • EU: 30 June 2000
  • JP: 21 October 2000
Genre(s)First-person shooter, stealth
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Perfect Dark is a 2000 first-person shooter developed and published by Rare for the Nintendo 64. The first game of the Perfect Dark series, it follows Joanna Dark, an agent of the Carrington Institute research centre, as she attempts to stop an extraterrestrial conspiracy by rival corporation dataDyne. The game features a campaign mode where the player must complete a series of levels to progress through the story, as well as a range of multiplayer options, including a co-operative mode and traditional deathmatch settings with computer-controlled bots.

As a spiritual successor to Rare's 1997 first-person shooter GoldenEye 007, Perfect Dark shares many features with its predecessor and runs on an upgraded version of its game engine. GoldenEye 007 director Martin Hollis led the game's production for the first fourteen months of its near three-year development cycle before he left Rare to pursue other interests. The game is one of the most technically-advanced titles for the Nintendo 64, and requires an Expansion Pak to access the campaign mode and most of the multiplayer features. Shortly before the game's release, a feature that would have allowed players to place a photograph of their choice onto the face of their multiplayer character was cut due to sensitive issues surrounding the ability for players to attack images of real people.

Upon release, Perfect Dark received critical acclaim and sold relatively well, eventually joining Nintendo's "Player's Choice" game selection. Critics widely praised its graphics, artificial intelligence, and number of multiplayer options, but some criticised its inconsistent frame rate. The game received the BAFTA Interactive Entertainment Moving Images Award for 2000 and the Golden Satellite Award for Best Interactive Product in 2001. The game is occasionally cited as one of the greatest games of all time. It was supplemented by a Game Boy Color counterpart, which allows some gameplay options to alternatively be unlocked via a Transfer Pak. A remaster, also titled Perfect Dark, featuring enhanced graphics and online multiplayer, was released in 2010 for the Xbox 360. The game was re-released on the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack via the Mature 17+ app in June 2024.[1]

  1. ^ Cooper, Dalton (18 June 2024). "Surprise Nintendo Switch Online Update Adding 4 Classic Games". Game Rant. Retrieved 19 June 2024.