Perfect Dark

One of the most anticipated titles for the Nintendo 64 of the Year 2000 has to be Rare's follow up to its still-incredible GoldenEye first-person shooter, Perfect Dark.. But what's more surprising is that Rare is extending the series beyond the console, bringing the license to the portable market in the form of Perfect Dark on the Game Boy Color. While it may not be the exact same game that the N64 gamers will be getting in April, read on below to find out why we're so excited about this title coming to the handheld.

Features

• Transfer Pak support
• Link cable support for two players
• Infra-red port for data transfer
• Rumble cartridge
• Only for Game Boy Color

Rare has been particularly hush-hush about any details on its portable action adventure ¿ that is, of course, until today. On the company's website, Rare unleashed a floodgate of information and screenshots for us to find, and we can finally bring that information to you. Hey, it's no problem whatsoever.

Like the Nintendo 64 game, Perfect Dark follows the exploits of secret agent Joanna Dark. In this edition, Agent Dark must complete seven huge missions that involve weapon play as well as puzzle solving ¿ these missions revolve around the destruction of an illegal cyborg manufacturing facilities. The game will feature full motion video cutscenes that will unfold the storyline for the gamer ¿ this is a technique that's being used more and more in Game Boy Color games. God bless good video compression.

The game itself won't utilize a first-person perspective for the action ¿ instead, the game will feature a pseudo-overhead viewpoint, much like what Konami is doing with Metal Gear: Ghost Babel and what Rebellion did with Mission: Impossible. From the looks of things, in certain points of the game you'll be placed in a through-the-eyes perspective, possibly like the sniper mode in Nintendo's Game Boy Color version of Bionic Commando.

What's exciting about this game is how many features are being put into the game. First of all, the game will interface with the Nintendo 64 version of the game in some fashion. While it hasn't been announced what will be accomplished here, we do know that the Transfer Pak will be used to have the Game Boy Color cartridge transfer data back and forth between the N64 version of the game. We already knew that Perfect Dark would utilize the Game Boy Camera for face-mapping in multiplayer games using the Transfer Pak, but this is the first announcement about the two Perfect Darks trading data between each other. What's more, the game will also use the Game Boy Printer to print out hardcopies of data within the Game Boy Color game. Again, we don't know what exactly you will be able to print out, but we'll keep on it. And, the game will use the Infra-red port to transfer data between two Game Boy Colors.

Most excitingly is the fact that the game will feature a two-player deathmatch mode where two Game Boy Color owners can link up systems and go at each others' throats with the tons of weapons in the game. We're always for multiplayer on the Game Boy Color, and it's great to see a company like Rare put the link cable to good use. And it definitely looks like multiplayer is a main focus at Rare for the Game Boy Color version, too. Throughout the game you'll be able to unlock as many as 30 link-cable specific levels, and utilizing the infrared port on the system, you'll also have the ability to swap levels that your buddy may have uncovered in his copy of the game. Each of these 30 levels can be played in four different multiplayer modes:

• Deathmatch. It's a dog-eat-dog world. Kill the other person more than he kills you.
• Counter Force. In this mode, you'll defend against the other player's attempt to rescue your hostage.
• Flag Runner. It's like capture-the-flag, but for two people.
• Death Ball Run a soccer ball to the other person's goal ¿ but you both have guns. Neat!

Perfect Dark on the Game Boy Color has been delayed from its original June 12th date, now slated for release this December. We'll keep on this preview with first impressions of the game as well as new screenshots and details, as soon as we get our hands on it.

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E³ Impressions

It's definitely a contender for the Game Boy Color game of the show -- this morning I got up early with the specific excuse of actually sitting down with the Game Boy Color version of Perfect Dark. And I definitely wasn't disappointed.

For a game that's way early, Perfect Dark has a ton of stuff. The main adventure is a little lacking -- all I was able to do was wander through overhead levels and shoot randomly. Sometimes the level was completely bare, other times a random soldier wandered onto the screen to raise a little hell. Even though it was an early version, these levels showed off the smooth animation of Joanna Dark as she walked -- she was definitely rendered much like Donkey Kong is, judging by the amount of frames given to her sultry stroll.

But that's not the end of it. Oh, no. The game on display also had a ton of mini-games to show off the versatile nature of the Game Boy Color game. There were overhead driving levels much like Spy Hunter, a sniping mode like the one in Bionic Commando, a scrolling shooter like Operation Wolf, a reverse-Pong game where you have to avoid getting hit from a bouncing mink(?), and an action level much like the one in the arcade game Cabal.

It's still early -- the game won't see a release for another six months or so. If they did this much, I can't wait to see how much more they can do in a half year.

-- Craig Harris

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