13 – Perfect Dark
Although the console was already dying, 2000 was a great year for the Nintendo 64: Excitebike64, Mario Tennis, OgreBattle64, Banjo Tooie, Majora’s Mask and Perfect Dark, among others. Rare developers outdid themselves with this “spiritual sequel” of his previous success Goldeneye. The loss of the 007 license was more than enough compensated by the creation of a brand new universe, with a plot that introduced the player gradually in a science fiction conspiracy story. Graphical improvement over Goldeneye, at least with the N64 Expansion Pak, was very big, creating an impressive atmosphere for that generation.
The game maintained the mission structure and the gameplay style of its predecessor, enriched by the new weapons, which now have a primary and a secondary fire, and bigger levels. It kept, of course, the addictive multiplayer mode (made even crazier thanks to the damn slayer – a rocket launcher that allowed the player to control the rocket directly). It also added a cooperative multiplayer that allowed two players to play jointly through the story mode (and is the mode I beat the game at).
