There are many video games from our youth that we as gamers may introduce to our children. Few of them will be 3D titles from the Nintendo 64 era. While games like Mario 64 still stand up, trying to suffer through Goldeneye or Perfect Dark on the original hardware these days is a painful lesson in just how much nostalgia can distort our memories. The re-release of Perfect Dark on the Xbox 360 Live Arcade wants to fix that, and by updating some aspects of the game and leaving others alone the $10 title becomes a fun, if sometimes frustrating, look back at an earlier time in console first-person shooter history.

So what's better, and why is it hard to look back? Let's dig in.

The graphics and controls

The game now runs at 1080p, at a smooth 60 frames per second. The menus, and the character and gun models may have been redone, but they keep the overall look and feel of the original. What's left is a Perfect Dark that looks like the original, simply with clearer graphics and play that's as smooth as Joanna's wetsuit. This is how to do this sort of game: keep the aesthetic the same, but improve the fundamentals.

That doesn't mean the game doesn't look dated, however. You'll see repeating textures, clunky, angular models, and some very plain environments. If you were a fan of the original, this simply allows you to revisit the past without dealing with the horrid framerates of the original, and it will look nice on your HDTV.

The animations are likewise what you remember from the past, which makes the way characters move somewhat amusing to modern eyes. You'll also want to take the time to tweak the controls, as the auto-aim feature on the Xbox 360 controller makes combat almost comically easy; the characters seem to be made of iron and your cross-hair is a magnet.

The controls are another mixed bag. Classic feels like the original, Spartan changes things into a more Halo feel, and Duty Calls... well, you can imagine. Having a button that locks you in place so you can aim more carefully is a throwback to the early days of the N64 controller, but it feels weird now. The game looks and controls like a carefully updated game that wants to stay true to the original, and there are worse ways to tackle projects like this.

The gameplay

This is where things start to go bad. The weapons are still fun to play with—there are a wide variety of guns to shoot and be shot by—but there is little in the way of hints or visual elements telling you where to go or what to do. Combine that with the somewhat bland graphics in many of these environments, and you'll find yourself turning in circles, becoming lost, and getting frustrated trying to find your next objective.

The single-player game is a good lesson in what we now expect from single-player games; we're rarely left alone these days to solve puzzles or explore purely on our own. While Perfect Dark may frustrate those not familiar with the levels, especially on harder difficulty levels, it's fun to see just how hardcore gamers used to be. No hints for us, we're just going to scour every inch of this hallway until we find what we need!

The game can also be played in two-player co-op, either splitscreen or via Xbox Live. That is a very good thing.

The multiplayer

Here's where things get good. You get all the multiplayer game modes from the original, all the maps, the ability to customize your game damn near any way you see fit, and you can play with up to seven people—for a total of eight players—on Xbox Live. If you bought this game just for the multiplayer, you didn't waste your money.

Many gamers are clamoring for a re-release of Goldeneye, but licensing has more or less made that an impossibility. With Perfect Dark, we have been given the next best thing. All the weapons from Goldeneye will be included in Perfect Dark multiplayer, along with the maps Felicity, Temple, and Complex. All the multiplayer options are also unlocked from the first time you play, making this an instantly robust experience.

Multiplayer is still a blast with a couch filled with friends, and the inclusion of online play is icing on the cake. While kids who cut their teeth on Halo may find the game short on charm, those of us who loved the originals are going to enjoy revisiting these levels with these options.

More games need this sort of treatment. Enough work to make the game look and play better than the original, but enough love of the original to keep the core experience untouched. This is a high-class take on a game that had major framerate issues on release, and now we can play it the way it always should have been.

Verdict: Buy