Finished Goldeneye on 00 Agent earlier. Took me pretty much the whole weekend, in between other things. The joycon controls took some getting used to at first. Stick sensitivity for aiming aside, was mainly weird having ZL to shoot instead of ZR or something, but the regular R button for my crosshair aiming started coming natural with it in time.
Had to replay the first level on all three difficulties to get used to the difficulty spike again. Things then started going smoothly until I got to the Bunker 2 level which was worse than I remember, even with the throwing knives strategy. Didn't help that your silenced pistol is locked in a safe, and the only weapon guards mostly have is AK’s, thus limiting your stealth options. The other option was just to power through unlimited enemies, so I did plenty trial and error from room to room.
Some of the hardest parts of the game are still when you either have to escort or protect Natalya, but with Bunker 2, still helps to wait till near the end of the level to get her out of the prison cell when the enemies are cleared out. It helps when she has a magnum in the Jungle level at least, having aim bot assist against aim bot enemies. Protecting her while she's on a computer in the level after is still one of the hardest parts by far though.
The Caverns level after was okay with how careful I was for most of it, but near the end when you see Travelyan, aside from slowly dealing with the two turrets up ahead, I forgot that infinite guards spawn behind you a few at a time, so you have to get through the rest of the level quickly. Speaking of infinite guards...
The Cradle level. Awesome as the level itself still was with the layout, music, and settling the score with Travelyan once and for all, the infinite guards with dual submachine guns at the beginning, middle, and all throughout were the real challenge; having to constantly look over your shoulder each spot before you approach fighting Travelyan, even at the end when you chase him down to the bottom. You can have objective B completed when the level's about to end as you wait to get on the chopper, and some enemy stragglers can shoot and kill you from above.
Far as the two bonus levels, I thought I would have a harder time with Egyptian Temple, but it was actually the Aztec stage that was harder. I forgot how much health Jaws had, and when you kill him, you start having to deal with endless enemies that have the moonraker laser. Satisfying as the infinite ammo aspect of the laser is, kinda found myself using the AR33 assault rifle more due to how well it zooms in when you aim.
The Egyptian Temple was more straightforward if you know the golden gun puzzle, the times where Baron Samedi spawns, and the routes to get to him that's either quickest or having to deal with the least amount of enemies along the way. The golden gun only really felt effective to use on Samedi himself. While it has the one shot one kill thing going for it, it comes with being pretty slow, and with the guards, found you were better off using the pistol or SMG's against them.
Still have some remaining cheat codes left to unlock, where you have to beat a certain level on a certain difficulty under a certain amount of minutes. Challenging as a lot of them are, is still satisfying going for or getting them. I had forgotten how it was to unlock something in a game that isn't something little like concept art or sound test and actually gives replay value. To say the game still holds up is an understatement.
Other than that, will see about maybe playing Goldeneye online with people sometime, though don't know who really plays it. Just don't pick Oddjob and we're good. lol
Far as the Perfect Dark series, yeah, the first game is still pretty good in its own right; can say as much as one who had it, but the sequel from what I gathered was Perfect Trash. With other Bond games at the time during the Pierce Brosnan era, there was Tomorrow Never Dies on PS1, though it was strangely a 3rd person shooter and not that well received. I did get The World Is Not Enough on N64 however, though don't have it on me anymore. Wasn't made by Rare but some studio under Activision or something that later went bankrupt, but it was pretty good as a game sequel to Goldeneye, I'd say. Newer mechanics for most of the guns, more methods of stealth, added voice acting, AI bots in multiplayer like what Perfect Dark had, etc...
A pretty overlooked game for being one of the last good titles on the 64. Not sure if it'll ever be re-released in some form since it wasn't too well known and popular like Goldeneye, but would be nice. Still satisfied though on having Goldeneye again alone, and will try to experience the Xbox version at some point, preferably when it's not locked behind Game Pass.