Perfect Dark is quite possibly my favorite FPS game of all time. The number of times I have gone back to play it are too many for me to count. My brother and I spent hours and hours playing through the campaign and multiplayer modes, pushing our N64 to its processing limits.
One thing that many people seem to not know is that even on the N64 it's possible to play the game with a dual-analog setup. One control style allows for the player to use two N64 controllers to play the game using two joysticks. When using an emulator to play, I use this control style by mapping half of my Xbox controller to the second controller.
I loved that it was re-released for Xbox 360, but I hated that they changed the look of Joanna Dark. She had elegance in the N64 game. She looked like a mannequin in the Xbox 360 re-release. And let's not even mention the prequel where her character was completely changed and she lost all depth.
Wow, thanks for that tidbit on the controls. I was not aware you could do that with the N64 game. I just loaded it up and played with default controls as best I could (I never really got into console FPS games).
I agree, Microsoft ruined a golden goose of a franchise with their purchase of Rare. I am not sure if it was a difference in how Rare was allowed to operate or if it was a "we must have changes to differentiate our version" type mentality going forward on the Xbox platform. No matter what, the changes were not good.