It’s here! It’s finally here! After mounds of delays and months of previews, Perfect Dark finally gives Nintendo 64 gamers a reason to taunt PlayStation and Dreamcast owners. Sure, it’s pretty to look at and flaunts more options than Goldeneye fans could ever dream of, but is it really worth all the hype?

Let’s just put it this way: every single aspect that sucked with Goldeneye has been improved to the point where you just can’t think of any possible way to make it better. It makes sense that since Perfect Dark is the pseudo-sequel to Goldeneye that it should build on its strengths. I’m very glad that Rare made the control identical to 007, and that

there are even a myriad of classic Goldeneye levels and weapons that can be unlocked and used in multiplayer! PD introduces over 40 weapons, each with a main and secondary functions. But newcomers need not worry to get accustomed to the complex controls: you get the added bonus of a gigantic training hall that has primers on every weapon and move.

The weapons’ secondary functions are all unbearably cool, and fix some of the flaws from Goldeneye.

The Laptop gun is especially fun with its use as a computer-controlled turret to cover your back, and the Farsight can actually snipe people through walls and floors! Heck, the proximity mines can even be used as a danger

detector, to make sure you don’t tread too close to the little buggers! This all makes combat a lot more fun than in Goldeneye. There’s no more hit recoil when damaged, which is much more realistic and fair in multiplayer. That means unlike in 007, a slew of bullets will not hit only once, but steadily drain an opponent’s life gauge.

The visuals are stunning, using high-calibur graphics and lighting effects that would rival the best PC video cards. There’s even a surprising amount of voice clips: guards will cuss at you when startled, soldiers will whine when hit, and secretaries will carry on normal conversations with each other as you blast through their offices. The

sounds of action are all very realistic and are simply stunning when heard through a decent surround system.

Multiplayer. Anyone and everyone knew that Perfect Dark would just kick ass in this category. And it does. There are options galore, including the excellent 2-player Cooperative and innovative Counter-Operative modes. There are huge amount of multiplayer exercises to play through, and an even bigger variety of Simulant personalities, which range from the wussy “Paci” to the dangerous “Kaze”. Deathmatch possibilities are truly endless, with every little option and detail being able to be customized. Just make sure you have an Expansion Pak in your N64 or you’ll be missing out on all the multiplayer modes and lose around 65% of the gameplay.

It’s been a while since Rare announced the dropping of the face-mapping feature that would use the Game Boy Camera, and the thought of such an addition would still make for some added replay, but the lack of face-mapping is such a little concern when you can pick and choose from the bodies and heads from all the characters in the game. Speaking of Nintendo’s monochrome handheld, the Game Boy Color version of Perfect Dark will somehow interface with this one, and it’s interesting to think how Rare will pull off such a plan.

I hate myself for having to point it out, but Perfect Dark has one glaring flaw: the framerate. At times, the action gets extremely choppy to the point where controlling your character is impossible, but this is only an issue in two-player Counter and Co-op modes, not to mention when more than 4 characters square off in a deathmatch. Normal four-player deathmatches can run without a hitch, even with a few Simulants for good measure.

All these factors contribute to making Perfect Dark the best first-person shooter in existence, the best Nintendo 64 game to date, and easily the front-runner for 2000’s game of the year. I simply cannot recommend this game enough. Buy it now, before every store in town is sold out.