As the availability of a new PD-themed, er, theme on Marketplace today may indicate, the original pre-Zero instalment of Perfect Dark will be the third Rare N64-era classic to arrive on Xbox Live Arcade.
It'll be following in the footsteps of Banjo-Kazooie and PD's own stablemate from the same year, Banjo-Tooie. Those troopers at 4J are already hard at work on the porting duties, sorting out the high-definition makeover and kick up the framerate you've come to expect. No word on any further tweaks or additions just yet, and no solid release date, but at the time of writing it seems likely to be near the end of 2009.
Here's the original promo text we scrawled for Marketplace: "Back in the year 2000, Rare continued a solid gold run of hits with the debut of a striking new sci-fi heroine. Agent Joanna Dark hit the ground running in Perfect Dark, an epic tale of galactic conspiracies in 2023 America. Now this classic shooter is coming to Xbox Live Arcade, rendered in greater definition and detail and sporting a silkier framerate than ever before. Fire up your Farsight and prepare for assignment as the Dark returns this winter."
Aforementioned Perfect Dark Premium Theme facts: it's due to become active on Xbox Live Marketplace at 9am PST/5pm GMT today, be available for two weeks, and check in at the astonishing price of zero pence/cents/Armenian dram for Gold and Silver members alike (Gold-only for the first week, as usual) unless something's changed since we got our info or we've hilariously misconstrued what we were told.
More info, shots and a full website section for PD XBLA will arrive in due course. For now, here are some shiny images of the Premium Theme to preempt your wild demands and send you all haring off to download the little monkey.
