The lights are on
Back in the days when Nintendo consoles had third party support that actually released respectable games, one company in particular helped them to shine more than any other: Rare. I, like many others, fondly recall the glory days of the Nintendo/Rare partnership, as many of my earliest gaming accomplishments came from their products. In no particular order, here’s a quick look at a few of Rare’s more memorable titles.
Donkey Kong Country/ Donkey Kong 64
Poor DK, how you have fallen. The Donkey Kong Country series used to produce some of Nintendo’s biggest titles, capturing a certain indescribable magic that made them more addictive each time you sat down to play. Whenever I picture this franchise I recall the lush, colorful environments, wide array of memorable characters, and thrill of searching for every last DK Coin. Donkey Kong Country 2 holds an extra special place in my heart, as it was the first game I actually beat from beginning to end. Once the N64 era was well underway, Rare released Donkey Kong 64, which some would argue could compete with the system’s best titles. Possessing enough content to require an expansion pack add-on to the N64’s memory, it’s no wonder this game was an instant hit. The 3D world was a blast to explore, there was a wide variety of tasks to complete, and the boss battles were more epic than ever. Top that off with the light hearted humor sprinkled in for good measure, and this game is a fitting (yet sad) end to the six year Donkey Kong/Rare relationship.
Diddy Kong Racing
Moving along from DK, it seems natural to touch upon a related title, Diddy Kong Racing. This game had beautiful visuals for it’s time, a wide array of characters (including Conker and Banjo), and enough fun to give Mario Kart 64 a run for its money. There were three styles of vehicles you could race with as well; the traditional kart, a hover craft, and my personal favorite, the plane. I really enjoyed the boss battles and special tournaments offered within the game, as often times races came right down to the last second of play, providing countless intense moments. The only real fault within Diddy Kong Racing is its rather repetitive play, though despite this the title is a classic through and through.
Banjo Kazooie/ Banjo Tooie
I cannot emphasize enough how much it pains me as an ex nintendo fanboy to see the Banjo Kazooie franchise on the XBox 360. I’ve spent countless hours with both of these titles and truly love them all. The ridiculous, amusing dialogue creates truly unique characters, and the simple gameplay has a strangely satisfying feel to it. It was also interesting watching the transformations the bear and bird go through in different levels, whether they became an aligator or a washing machine. Some were annoyed by the heavy amounts of collecting in the game; jinjos, skulls, jiggies, and the dreaded one-hundred musical notes in each level left many players pulling their hair out. Strangely I was never really bothered by this, perhaps because I was nerdy enough to shoot for perfect completion in every game I played anyway. The sequel was similar to the first, with updated graphics and a few new moves, most notably the ability to control Banjo and Kazooie seperately. Not too much more to say about this game, just know that it was truly fun and captured that unique Rare style.
Conker's Bad Fur Day
This is a title that I personally have never had the pleasure of playing, yet I felt it should be on the list as many consider this their favorite game on the N64. From what I’ve gathered, the graphics were superior to any other title on the system, and the plot was twisted, yet hilarious. With LSD dropping demons and cute critters being torn in half, Conker’s Bad Fur Day is the only “adult” Rare game on the N64, though it was still a raving success.
Golden Eye 007/ Perfect Dark
Yet another set of games I sadly cannot do justice, as I was too young to play them at the time of their release. Golden Eye 007 and Perfect Dark were Rare’s two attempts at first person shooters on the N64, and both were home runs. Known primarily for it’s high quality sound track, nice visuals, and spot on control scheme, Golden Eye took the gaming world by storm. Perfect Dark was equally nice, with a plot that involved war with an alien race, and a few key improvements in A.I. movements. Both games were considered must buys for the system. StarFox Adventures Mainly noted as Rare’s last development for a Nintendo home console, StarFox Adventures was a nice overall game. The storyline was a bit short and there wasn’t as much flying as one would expect in a StarFox title, but as is typical with Rare, the graphics were nice for the time and what adventure they did provide was of good quality. Wandering about Dinosaur Planet with nothing but a staff defend himself, the player guides Fox on an quest to save Crystal, the game’s fuzzy blue damsel in distress. There are a lot of enemies to smash through, and like in most Rare games, plenty of items to collect. This was the first game I played on the Gamecube, and it set a pretty nice standard for other adventure titles to follow. As you can see, Rare gave Nintendo a rather impressive library of titles for its systems, especially the N64. This is just a sampling of their total game count, as I didn’t even mention other successes they’ve had such as Killer Instinct, Battletoads, and Jet Force Gemini. This is why I can’t believe Nintendo would sell a company that important to their success. Since Rare left, Donkey Kong has become a shovel ware series used mainly to test new Nintendo technology, Banjo Kazooie has been taken over by Microsoft with the release of the much less popular Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts, and StarFox has failed to have his own game this generation. Now Ubisoft, the closest thing the Wii has for third party support, is also leaving for the PS3 and 360 to appeal to serious gamers. While this makes me happy, I truly hope Nintendo can find a new company to fill the tremendous void Rare left behind, as while Nintendo titles are great, they simply cannot stand alone.
Yet another set of games I sadly cannot do justice, as I was too young to play them at the time of their release. Golden Eye 007 and Perfect Dark were Rare’s two attempts at first person shooters on the N64, and both were home runs. Known primarily for it’s high quality sound track, nice visuals, and spot on control scheme, Golden Eye took the gaming world by storm. Perfect Dark was equally nice, with a plot that involved war with an alien race, and a few key improvements in A.I. movements. Both games were considered must buys for the system.
StarFox Adventures
Mainly noted as Rare’s last development for a Nintendo home console, StarFox Adventures was a nice overall game. The storyline was a bit short and there wasn’t as much flying as one would expect in a StarFox title, but as is typical with Rare, the graphics were nice for the time and what adventure they did provide was of good quality. Wandering about Dinosaur Planet with nothing but a staff defend himself, the player guides Fox on an quest to save Crystal, the game’s fuzzy blue damsel in distress. There are a lot of enemies to smash through, and like in most Rare games, plenty of items to collect. This was the first game I played on the Gamecube, and it set a pretty nice standard for other adventure titles to follow.
As you can see, Rare gave Nintendo a rather impressive library of titles for its systems, especially the N64. This is just a sampling of their total game count, as I didn’t even mention other successes they’ve had such as Killer Instinct, Battletoads, and Jet Force Gemini. This is why I can’t believe Nintendo would sell a company that important to their success. Since Rare left, Donkey Kong has become a shovel ware series used mainly to test new Nintendo technology, Banjo Kazooie has been taken over by Microsoft with the release of the much less popular Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts, and StarFox has failed to have his own game this generation. Now Ubisoft, the closest thing the Wii has for third party support, is also leaving for the PS3 and 360 to appeal to serious gamers. While this makes me happy, I truly hope Nintendo can find a new company to fill the tremendous void Rare left behind, as while Nintendo titles are great, they simply cannot stand alone.
i agree with Dk and Banjo
I can agree with everything but Starfox Adventure. While it wasn't horrific, i disagree that it was anything more than average. I even got stuck in the game close to the end and had to replay through everything. That glitch may have ruined it for me but I can't say I was overly thrilled about the rest of the game prior to that either.
I might be pained about Perfect Dark coming to XBLA in 6 days if I wasn't so excited....omg...
Nice work SaoSauce. For the longest time Rare could do no wrong. I was one of their biggest fans, and with the exception of Star Fox Adventures I played and beat every one of the games on your list. Rare is basically dead to me now, but if they'd get back to what they do well they might be able to win me back. The success of Super Mario Galaxy proves that people still want to play good 3D platformers. I think it's time for Banjo-Threeie.
Yeah too bad Microsoft bought them up and now we don't see the titles we use to see on the wii.
But there has been some Rare games on the xbox 360 if you still are a fan of Rare games.
Two of the Xbox 360's launch games were developed by Rare, Kameo and Perfect Dark Zero, with Viva Piñata released the next year. Their latest game, Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts, was released in November 2008.
The thing is the co-founders left the company in 2007 and who knows what games Rare will come out with, or if they will have big success with Microsoft.
Rare is without a doubt in my top 5 favorite game developers of all time. They had such a big influence on my childhood as a gamer with Diddy Kong Racing, DK 64/DK Country, and Goldeneye 007. Not only that but I've been playing some of their other games that I missed out on when I was younger, like Banjo-Kazooie, the soon-to-be played on XBLA Perfect Dark, and after playing it two summers ago, Conker's Bad Fur Day is my current favorite game of all time. If a game that was released back on the N64 makes me love it more than any current gen games that are released these days, then that definitely shows how high quality of a game it truly is.
It's funny isn't it? When asked why Nintendo let Rare go after the Gamecube released, they said that when they looked at their recent track record they had exhausted all of their potential and that's the reason they let them go. After that, they sided with Microsoft and the dark ages began.
I forgot where I read that, so don't take it as fact. It might've been on Wikipedia.
nintendo has released consoles that are a bit different from what MS and Sony have been. Maybe that played a part in Rare being ineffective. I mean, at one point N64 was king. that same difference is diving developers away from Wii
XBOX SUCKS GO PS3 AND WII
Good thing i can play Battletoads on my Wii.
And @bjdbuch: Normal spelling and grammar suck! go Caps Lock!
i love banjo so much
Rare didn't pull any punches when it came to collecting stuff. The best is Jet Force Gemini where you have to collect every single collectible item in the game to get to the final boss.
very nice list. rare used to really rock. i miss them...
OMG I so agree with you on this! I still have most of these games on my 64. Good timess
DOOD!!!!!! you forgot Jet Force Gemini for the N64, that game was huge and insanely fun. It was a third person shooter with 3 different characters to play as that gave you different path through the insanely huge levels. Check it out if you can.
I Agree with Tanooki: It's time for Banjo-Threeie.
Ya, I had great memories of my partying days, taking mushrooms and tripping out as I played Jet Force Gemini ;D At one point I just stopped playing and stared at the backgrounds, almost brought to tears how frackin beautiful that game truly was..hehe.. I would sooo love to see a next-gen re-boot of that game (too bad it'll never happen), along with a release of those classic Rare games (like DK64, one of my faves) on the Wii's Virtual Console. BTW, if you can get ahold of Conker: Live & Reloaded for the original Xbox, it's backwards-compatible and you can play it on your 360. Looks fantastic on it, too.
i loved Jet Force Gemini its one of my personal favorites and Donkey Kong man i used to get grounded spending late school nights playing that game and golden eye was awesome and conker had the best humor in any game ive played to date i was a huge fan of nintendo didnt own a playstation nor sega i was strictly nintendo but when i heard that they dropped rare from producing games for their consoles i immediately took all my nintendo systems and games to a local gamestop i was furious at nintendo and still to this day i dont even touch a nintendo game nor product due to that very reason dont get me wrong they did made some legendary games but i hope nintendo learns from their stupidity from what they've done *** you nintendo!
Conker's Bad Fur Day is still one of my favorite games of all time. That game was both hysterically funny and extremely fun to play. Plus, it has one of the best multiplayer experiences I've ever known. The Xbox remake doesn't do it justice at all. Unfortunately, I no longer have my original copy, and tracking down another copy for less than 100 dollars has been next to impossible.
Great stuff here, I dont understand how Rare just disappeared after they joined with Microsoft. They did make some games but to my knowledge they were very low quality and just crappy games in general.
Its sad to see it happen, I would love a sequel to Conker's Bad Fur Day.
A good sequel though Rare! Not some crap on the Xbox live marketplace.