Perfect Dark is an action video game for the Game Boy Color developed by Rare and released in late 2000. Although this game shares the same name as the N64 title, it is actually a prequel which takes place in 2022. The game features full motion video cutscenes that unfold the storyline for the gamer. The game also has a built-in rumble feature, a rarity among Game Boy Color games. In addition, using the Nintendo 64 and the optional Transfer Pak, players could use the Game Boy Color Perfect Dark cartridge to unlock cheats in the N64 game. Players can also use the Game Boy Printer to print out character profiles.

PlotEdit

Perfect Dark for the Game Boy Color is set in early 2022. Joanna Dark is still a student at the Carrington Institute and she is eager to complete the final stages of her training. After completing her training successfully, scoring an A++, Daniel Carrington sends her to her first ever mission with the Carrington Institute: She must destroy an illegal cyborg manufacturing facility, deep into the South American jungle.

The facility is headed by Mink Hunter, a highly dangerous terrorist whose purpose is to produce high-tech weaponry for terrorist operations. Joanna completes her mission by eliminating Hunter and destroying the entire facility. When Carrington contacts Joanna she reports that, during her landing in the jungle, she witnessed an aircraft being shot down and made a note of the coordinates. Daniel Carrington starts investigating and he is soon reported that there is a UFO in the area at the time and that dataDyne is getting away with the alien wreckage.

Now, it is Joanna's duty is to snoop around the crash site. During the process, Joanna is captured and taken to the Pelagic I research vessel, along with the alien wreckage. Nevertheless, a mysterious alien (that resembles Elvis from the N64 game) rescues her and orders her that she must sink the Pelagic I vessel with the wreckage and escape. She succeeds and when she contacts Daniel Carrington, she tells him she discovered that the wreckage belonged to an alien race called the Skedar. When Joanna comes back to the Institute, she is suddenly ordered to defend it since dataDyne sent a strike team to destroy any clues of the conspiracy. Finally, she was able to protect the Insitute. From that point on, the Institute would carry out further investigations of dataDyne to find out what is at the bottom of this.

GameplayEdit

The gameplay of Perfect Dark features a 2D overhead perspective, similar to Konami's Metal Gear Solid for the Game Boy Color, where the player can move and shoot in eight directions. The player plays as Joanna Dark, who will initially have to complete a rather long training mode where she will be provided a fixed sequence of challenges so that the player learns the game mechanics. After completing the training, Joanna will have to complete four huge missions using stealth and action strategies. The player can pick up new weapons, health and ammunition dropped by enemies if necessary. The player also has to explore areas and find items which will allow the player to complete certain objectives, such as keycards, explosives or laptop computers which are useful to download certain data. In addition, the adventure features several mini-games, including a target range, and boss battles that the player has to defeat in order to progress through the next level.

The game also comes with a multiplayer mode. With the help of a game link cable, two players can link together and play up to eight different types of deathmatch modes, ranging from the standard kill-the-other-person on a pre-set time to the Counter Force mode, where the first player must rescue two hostages while the second player has to guard them. In addition, various maps are unlocked as the player progresses through the single player mode.

ReceptionEdit

Perfect Dark for the Game Boy Color received negative to mixed reviews from critics. GameSpot's Frank Provo gave it a 5.3 out of 10 under the tagline "Perfect Dark GBC does its Nintendo 64 counterpart justice, albeit haphazardly", criticizing that the game is too difficult due to the lack of health and ammunition, making it unplayable at times. Nevertheless, it got a 7/10 from IGN, which praised its extras and clean digitized voices.

Overall, Perfect Dark for the Game Boy Color has a Game Rankings rating of 66% (based on 8 reviews), which falls shortly below the average range.