In 1997, in terms of first-person shooters on console games, it was impossible to beat the James Bond game GoldenEye 007 for Nintendo 64. But in the year 2000, five years after GoldenEye, N64 dropped a game that essentially tried to outdo Bond without actually being a Bond game outright. And, it basically succeeded. The game was Perfect Dark, and in many ways, it perfected the concept of a first-person shooter. Here’s why the game was incredible for its time, how it basically topped GoldenEye, and why it still holds up today.
Released just three years after GoldenEye 007, and created by the same developer, Rare, N64 players were well aware that Perfect Dark was supposed to be a big deal. Oddly enough, Rare wanted to do a follow-up shooter based on the 1998 Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies, but Electronic Arts got the contract and created a forgettable third-person Bond game instead. Would Perfect Dark have seen the light of day had that not happened? It’s unclear. Some reports indicate that the developers weren’t too upset and were eager to move on from the Bond universe.
