Rare have released a new documentary in which they shine some light on the development of their N64 classic shooter, Perfect Dark. Perfect Dark was one of the final games Rare released on Nintendo’s console, and was meant as a spiritual successor to Goldeneye, though without utilizing the Bond IP. The game was marked for its excellent single player campaign, as well as its incredible multiplayer. It also utilized the Expansion Pak to deliver some of the most stunning graphics seen on consoles yet at the time.
However, Perfect Dark never did do as well as some of Rare’s earlier games, and it is widely believed to have been a victim of troubled development. Rare being notoriously secretive (which they probably got from Nintendo, to whom they were allied as a second party developer), we never knew for sure. However, the new documentary finally reveals some long held secrets about the development of Perfect Dark.
The biggest issue was Nintendo’s loss of the Bond license- this caused half the development team actually leaving the studio halfway into development . Another issue was trying to work with Nintendo and securing good, appropriate voice talent- remember, Nintendo had not had any voice acted games at the time.
You can check out the full feature for yourself below. Perfect Dark is available on the N64, as well as Xbox 360 and Xbox One. A follow up, Perfect Dark Zero, was also released on the Xbox 360.