Rare ware
 

I'm sure you guys remember playing games by one of Nintendo's most prominent 2nd party studios, Rareware. I first played their games through Donkey Kong Country and the sequels that followed it. Then I remember playing Goldeneye 007 and that was a blast. Battletoads was also a good game too. My favorite game they made to this day is Donkey Kong 64! I love that game.

What are you guys' fond memories of Rare's games and what do you think of Rare?

The DKC SNES trilogy and its N64 classics were big parts of my childhood. Banjo-Kazooie, Blast Corps, DKC1 and Diddy Kong Racing being some of my favorite games back in the 90s.

It's a shame Rare is a former shell of itself these days. A real shame.

Ever since Microsoft bought Rare, all they been doing is the Avatar stuff and they never got around to making any games.

They made a bunch of pretty great games.

And Goldeneye but I won't hold that against them.

Donkey Kong 64 was horrible. The perfect example of a god awful collect-a-thon with poorly designed levels and controls. If it wasn't a DK game it would have just been some forgotten N64 platformer.

Most of Rare's other N64 games were good especially Banjo Kazooie. Also for the time Goldeneye and Perfect Dark were great FPS.

I was never a big fan of GoldenEye either, although I'm not sure if that's because I was a bit too young to appreciate it back when it came out or if it was actually overrated. That being said I don't have any interest in playing it again after all these years because it has aged terribly, supposedly.

At the time it was released Goldeneye was amazing. Back in 1997 I hadn't played many shooters and it was a new experience for many.

It's also the first game that taught me about stealth since everytime you fired guards would be altered.

I must have only been like 12 years old when I first played it.

I liked DK64 back in the day. It wasn't as good as Banjo, that's for sure, but I still liked it a lot back when I was a kid. Haven't played it in over a decade, though.

It certainly was influential. Back then shooters were mostly a PC genre(Wolfenstein, Doom, etc).

I didn't hate it or anything, but I didn't enjoy it as much as OoT, SM64. Banjo, etc.

I thought DK64 was tedious in 1999 and now in 2013 its painful. That's the game that traumatized people away from playing 3D collect-a-thon platformers.

It says a lot that Nintendo never made a 3D platforming Donkey Kong game afterward, and instead kept DK in 2D with Jungle Beat and Donkey Kong Country returns.

Bullsh*t. One of the best games they ever made, Viva Piñata, was created long after the Microsoft buyout. It's up there with Rare classics like BK and CBFD, easily.

Of their N64 lineup:

- Killer Instinct Gold = guilty fun.

- Blast Corps = good for the time but nowadays the controls are tedious and the missions are unforgiving

- Diddy Kong Racing = great

- Goldeneye = back in 1997 it was the best FPS on consoles. Only playable now for nostalgic purposes

- Banjo Kazooie = amazing

- Jet Force Gemini = a bit tedious and dated, third person shooters have evolved a lot since the N64 days

- Donkey Kong 64 = terrible

- Banjo Tooie = good, although not as great as Kazooie. Suffered from similar problems as DK64

- Perfect Dark = again back in 2000 it was top quality FPS.

- Conker's Bad Fur day = pretty funny and good platformer

The problem with DK64 is that it came out after a dozen of 3D platformers and BK with BT on the horizon, it just had nothing going for it. Rare also went crazy with their collectathon mentality there. It just didn't stand out enough from other 3D platformers and didn't have the humorous charm that BK did but overall it's really not that bad of a game, its just a step below SM64 and BK. I almost thing that Rare wanted to distance themselves more from Nintendo IPs (like in Diddy Kong Racing) which is why so much love was put into BK which DK64 simply lacked. I mean BTooie came out a year later and while also not a huge success because of the time it came out it had more appeal than DK64.

DK64 really killed the franchise for a while, Nintendo marketed DK64 as the next Mario game which made sense based on DKC on the SNES but it didn't hit feel like the evolution from SMW-DKC when compared to SM64. Because of this DK kind of got sidelined for a while since they didn't know what to do with him and Nintendo no longer felt confident in having another character taking up Mario's shoes in platforming so he ended up getting a bunch of failed spin-offs like Donkey Konga of King of Swings etc. He did get a Bongo platformer on the GCN but while fun it was released on a small install and even less people had the bongos.. The franchise was salvaged by DKCR on the Wii but the sequel seems like it's going to put the franchise on hold for a while again since I doubt it'll sell too well.

As far as Rare, I've read many articles about Rare and even from people who worked there and it's clear that it wasn't just Microsoft that ruined Rare but they definitely sped things up.


I'm actually a bit nostalgic for the 64 bit era platformers, I was thinking about buying that new Pac-Man game since it looks like a game with mechanics from 15 years ago. The reviews seem to agree saying that it offers nothing new and that it's a generic 3D platformer, which is exactly what I want, I haven't played that type of 3D platformer in a long time and it's what I want to play. I'm still unsure but it's only 20 dollars and the negatives of the game in review sites are the things I'm looking forward to.

Man, Blast Corps was so awesome back then. So much fun destroying buildings so a pink truck wouldn't crash into them and blow up. The irony :lol:

I actually like DK64. In my opinion, it's one the best games I ever played on the n64. I can see what people's problems with that game were and I'll admit some of the missions were annoying but I didn't have nearly as much trouble with certain Bananas as other people did. I always thought the game's way of exploring worlds was much more emersive than Mario 64. At the very least you do get rewarded with a lot of cool features and so, which are more than I can say for Sonic Adventure 2's final reward, in all honesty.

I never played Banjo-Kazooie until recently, and it is enjoyable. I haven't played Tooie. I heard a lot of mixed things about Nuts and Bolts; some like it, some hate it.:ohwell:

One series you can never forget from Rareware.....Battletoads!

I swear you are so hit and miss its rediculous. You cant call a game terrible all because you didn't like it. You can say you didn't like it, but DK64 can be argued as the best N64 game of all time. All bc you dont like the game doesn't mean it bad.

Is it worth Nintendo finding a way to buy back Rare's IPs because let's face it, Rare themselves are a shell of their former selves. But are there IPs even worth value anymore?

Battletoads! Still the best game on the NES, in my opinion. Battletoads & Double Dragon was great, too -- along with Battlemaniacs.

Also, Diddy Kong Racing.

I think the question is actually "do those IPs hold any value for Nintendo?" And that answer is a resounding "No".

Yes, that's what I meant to say. And why do you say no?

Sorry to bring this old thread back, but do you think Rare will eventually close down and go defunct? If so, what happens to their old IPs?

Eventually? Yes, but soon? Doubtful. Rare = Microsoft. In order for Rare IP's to go anywhere Microsoft has to sell them.

I see. So why were you saying that Rare's IPs aren't really worth value for Nintendo? Just curious.

Because they have enough underutilized IP, they don't need more c-tier franchises to never make sequels too.

Nintendo wouldn't know what to do with Rares IP's anyway. Nintendo can't even get out sequels to their own franchises, (Starfox, F-zero, Metroid), not to mention it took 9 years for a Pikmin sequel.

If it weren't for Retro I severely doubt Donkey Kong would have ever been revived either. He most likely would have stayed as a character in spinoffs like Mario Vs. DK or the Kart/sports/party games. Nintendo themselves had no idea how to make a Donkey Kong Country sequel.

It baffles me how Microsoft has so many of these unique franchises and yet they won't release any sequels. With Killer Instinct, they seem to be hearing fans of Rare's stuff now.

Well, to be fair, neither does Retro Studios.

Even if Rare did make any sequels, they’d have to deal with the fact that most of the original Rareware team members are gone. Of course, Microsoft is the reason for this.
http://www.dromble.com/2014/01/07/do...y-of-gamecube/

Retro Studios did great with Returns and Tropical Freeze.

As with Killer Instinct however, this is where Microsoft should hire other developers to work on these IPs.

If you ignore that Donkey Kong Country Returns looked, felt, controlled and played nothing like a Donkey Kong Country game then, yeah, it was a great game. Still doesn’t excuse the awful shake controls, but they fixed that in the 3Ds port.

Well of course a game is going to look different when it's on a brand new system and play different when a new development team is working on the game, that's obvious. And to me, the physics worked close enough. I didn't have a problem with the shake controls as it's not as if you have to rapidly shake the controller for a long period of time (Wii version of DK: Jungle Beat).

Anyway, who do you guys think should develop Rare's IPs?

I am or was a massive rareware fan, I love Banjo Kazooie 1 and 2, Donkey Kong 64, Diddy Kong racing, Conkers Bad fur day, Star Fox adventures, Snake Rattle and Roll etc, and even some of their last titles, like Nuts and bolt, ( yes still a great game, even tho it's not threeie) and Viva pinata.

Now the company is dead to me, even if they make game with their old IP to much time has past and I don't think they would be the same, the people who made these games what they were have left rare.

Shame they were bought over from nintendo.

The biggest problem all Donkey Kong games have after Rareware left is that they keep trying to turn DK into a cute Mario game, when he isn’t. The original Donkey Kong Country games were dark and atmospheric with a sense of sarcastic humor, while the new Donkey Kong games are super happy and everything is cute and adorable. Yay! They couldn’t even do something as simple as bring back Donkey Kong’s arch enemy, King K. Rool. Instead of the sinister Kremlings, make way for the cute animals, funny masks, and adorable Vikings. Even Sonic the Hedgehog 4 had Sonic’s arch enemy in it. I could go on and on especially with the awful way they’ve treated Cranky Kong, but I don’t think you want to hear about that.

For a company that claims they are big Donkey Kong Country fans, they certainly don’t show it in the final product.
I personally wouldn't want anyone to touch Rare's games unless they get the original team members back. That said, I'd be curious to see how Wayforward would handle some of their characters. They did a great job updating Ducktales NES, other than adding way to many cutscenes, anyway.

It's a game about apes. When has it ever been dark? It's always been a light-hearted series. Some levels can be dark but the same can be said for a lot of platformers. And it is a shame that K. Rool and his men aren't in the newer games but at least they're giving us different villains unlike Mario. It was something new! The focus for Returns was gameplay and the overall feeling of the classic games which I feel Retro captured perfectly.

You’d think being a TMNT fan you’d understand that concept alone doesn’t equal a lighthearted or mature story. When I say dark I mean in terms of environments, atmosphere, and colors. There’s a difference between lighthearted and super cutesy, Returns focusing on the latter.
I see what you’re saying, but for a developer that’s trying to match the feeling of a long dormant series to not include the villain that the series is most well known for is puzzling. It’s been seven years since DK last fought the Kremlings, I think their long overdue.
While Donkey Kong Country Returns is a solid platformer in its own right, claiming it captures the spirit of the of the old games perfectly is something I disagree with. You yourself said "Well of course a game is going to play different when a new development team is working on the game." Where are the water levels? Why are there instant death minecart levels? Why does it sound like Donkey Kong stepped on a ketchup bottle every time he lands in a barrel?

In Japan, the “Donkey Kong Country” series is called the “Super Donkey Kong” series. When Nintendo released Returns in Japan, it was simply called “Donkey Kong Returns” Because of the lack of the “Super” part; Donkey Kong Returns is not technically part of the Super Donkey Kong series in Japan. But here in western territories, thanks to the inclusion of the “Country” part, Returns is advertised as a direct sequel to the Donkey Kong Country trilogy. I think it would have been better if Returns was treated as a spin-off rather than a direct sequel, like in Japan.

Once again, it's all about the gameplay of DKC. It's different because it's not only a new developer but a sequel that came out 14 years after the original and being developed for a new system. The real issue is whether or not you can adjust to change. And for a first attempt, I'd take what I'd can get.