Perfect Dark

1001 Video Games

The N64 version of Perfect Dark appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Bugs

The first release cartridges have more than their fair share of glitches and bugs. The most glaring example is this is that if you try to load up the Warehouse multiplayer level with three players, the game will crash. No exceptions. Worse than this however is that "Challenge 7" is a three person game on the warehouse level and simply impossible to play if you have one of these early cartridges.

Cheese

In each level there is a hidden piece of Swiss cheese. This was originally part of a plan to have a mega cheat activated when all the cheese was found, but it was scrapped in the final version.

Difficulty

Advancing trough the three basic skill levels (Agent, Special Agent, and Perfect Agent) not only increases the number of missions and reveals new areas, but also grants you access to the elite Perfect Dark skill level. Rare's development team has stated that nearly 95 percent of players will never be able to finish the game on this difficulty even if they somehow manage to get to it.

Game Boy Camera

During development, it was announced that Perfect Dark would use the Game Boy Camera in conjunction with the N64 Transfer Pak. Players would be able to use these two accessories to map their own faces on in-game character models for use in multiplayer modes. However, due to the potential of media controversy of 'being able to shoot your friends', this feature was removed prior to the game's release.

Japanese version

In the Japanese version, almost all blood was removed.

References

• The Carrington Institute has a display case with weapons from Goldeneye 007 in it.
• Some of the random head models/textures in the game are based on gaming journalist photographs taken at 1999's Electronics Entertainment Expo. This includes but is not limited to Ed McGlothlin, Matt Cassamassina, and Peer Schneider.
• The BAFTA Interactive Award which Rare was given for GoldenEye 007 can be seen in a safe in the G5 building level of Perfect Dark.

• On the Area 51 Rescue stage, there is a reference to the Pixies, the rock band popular for songs that usually mentioned aliens and UFOs. The following names are called on the loudspeakers:

• "Dr. Francis, please go to Cryo Lab A" - "Captain Santiago, go to Medical Bay 6" - "Lieutenant Deal, report to Containment" - "Dr. Lovering, please phone autopsy"

The band was formed by Black Francis, Joey Santiago, Kim Deal and David Lovering.

Awards

• EGM
  • February 2006 (Issue #200) - #170 out of 200 of the "Greatest Games of Their Time"

Information also contributed by atadota, Big John WV, Jeanne, Jiguryo, Joshua J. Slone and WildKard