Neat.
Not going to bother digging up my xbox in order to play it, IMO, goldeneye and perfect dark did not stand the test of time.
Unfortunately I think you're largely correct. The controls, especially the part that is built around stopping to move into a targeting mode, was simply a product of a by-gone era. You actually can run dual analog controls on a n64 with either game, if you're willing to hold 2 controllers. It's neat, and there's even been folks who have hacked controllers together for that purpose... but the game wasn't really designed around that.
Actually I'm surprised nobody has designed a 3d-printable bracket that you can clip 2 n64 controllers into. I'd spend a day printing that.
Both games can be fun today, but yeah you have to be willing to accept a certain amount of retro clunkiness. Games like Doom & Quake have aged much better.
Both Goldeneye & PD still have lots of elements that hold up. Both have great atmosphere and the graphics (mostly) hold up, especially if played in HD on an emulator... although Goldeneye still has a bit of that Saturn-era character modeling/animation. Perfect Dark has impeccable art direction, and imo looks particularly great in HD, especially if you can get it to run at a buttery smooth 60fps.
[yt]-L1x_u2UkNw[/yt]
Goldeneye local multiplayer is great simple fun... but I don't think I'd bother playing it online.
Perfect Dark's multiplayer though, I think could stand up well today. It's incredibly robust, with coop, counter-coop, multiplayer challenge missions, bot matches, lots of game modes, etc. That being said, PD online multiplayer has been available on xbox for years and I've never bothered to try it, so maybe it doesn't hold that much appeal.
One thing I loved about both games was how the mission requirements scaled with the difficulty level. On the easy difficulty, you basically just plow through to the exit and you win, whereas harder difficulty levels make you explore more of the level and accomplish additional tasks along the way. Unfortunately, those mission objectives came from the mario64 era, where missions could be pretty obtuse and difficult to decipher.
Anyways, I think both games still offer a ton of fun for players who are motivated to work for it. But yeah, neither have aged as gracefully as the top PC fps classics.
