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Perfect Dark, released in May 2000 for the Nintendo 64 by Rare was the inofficial sequel or spiritual successor to Goldeneye 007 and even used an upgraded version of the same engine. The story however had nothing to do with James Bond anymore and introduced the main protagonist Joanna Dark.

It is one of the few Nintendo 64 games that supported Dolby Surround sound and its graphics were also praised as some of the best looking ones on the system. Like Goldeneye 64, Perfect Dark had a large single player campaign with 17 levels but also a ton of options for its multiplayer mode that were not seen in other first person shooters on consoles at the time. It was in development for around three years.

Perfect Dark became a commercial success worldwide, over 3 million copies were sold. In 2005, Perfect Dark Zero was released on the Xbox 360, Perfect Dark was also re-released as a remastered version in 2010. 

“Dual Cyclone Technology” drawn by Tom “2DForever” Waterhouse

“Perfect Dark as it’s probably my favourite game of the Nintendo 64.

I wanted to draw protagonist Joanna Dark in some awesome fighting pose, but then remembered that giggling about ‘Dual Cyclone Technology’ was more fun (referring to the Cyclone weapon), so I wanted to make it into 60s style advert. Then I got side tracked somewhere and made it into a pin-up – eh, it happens.

Joanna was quite the opposite of a sexualised character, in fact she was a great example of female leads, but a girl wielding dual automatics with a wink was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up.”

Perfect Dark drawn by Chris “Xland333” Hegland

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