March 28th, 2009 by Banjo-Conker

Crowd Pleaser (20)
Knock down all of the supporting cast in Ben Hurdle

Wheels on Fire (20)
Burn an opponent’s vehicle until it falls apart at the seams

Halfway Home (15)
Complete all of L.O.G.’s Lost Challenges once

Ultimate – Played The Game (50)
Show Sssuper Klungo the real meaning of sssuper

Paint the Town Gold (40)
Complete all of L.O.G.’s lost challenges to TT standard

Sssave The Universsse! (30)
Complete all Lost Challenges in L.O.G.’s Choice and Player’s Choice vehicles

Pointless Achievement (5)
Find the door to L.O.G.’s Lost Challenges

Old Ssskool Ssseekrit Area (20)
Klungo not ssstupid, ussse old fake wall trick to hide Klungo goodnesss

L.O.G. Ranked Apprentice (20)
Win one of the new DLC multiplayer games in a ranked match

L.O.G. Master (30)
Win all of the new DLC multiplayer games

[/Late]

March 17th, 2009 by hylian1

To most people, the franchise of Perfect Dark lost its luster in November of 2005. After a successful outing on the Nintendo 64, expectations for the next entry were indeed high and fans of the series and gamers looking into purchasing the Xbox 360 console were anticipating the first ‘killer app shooter’ for the system to deliver an incredible experience like no other. While Perfect Dark Zero manage to sell over one million units, it unfortunately failed to meet expectations and was met with mixed reviews and utter disappointment from those who played the original.

Many do their best to place blame on the team that developed the game. Many people have left Rare over the years, including employees that were responsible for Goldeneye and Perfect Dark’s development. But the issue with Perfect Dark Zero wasn’t the team that developed the game. Sure, neither David Doak or Martin Hollis were on the development team, but there still remained Goldeneye and Perfect Dark veterans, like Duncan Botwood.

What happened with PDZ was the removal of the core fundamentals that made 007 and PD the incredible games they were. The sheer variety in levels and characters to choose from and most everything from PD was seemlessly removed from the title altogether. I understand Rare’s intentions of wanting to create games that are innovative and bring something new to a particular genre, but that needs to be accomplished by simultaneously keeping intact those things that have made a franchise a success. They failed to deliver that in PDZ.

What Rare did get right with PDZ though was the difficulty. There can be no arguement that, again, just as in GE and PD, it was utterly diffficult to complete the game fully on the Perfect Agent setting. Even today it still remains the most challenging title in that regard on the console, imo.

Now, let’s look ahead. There’s no doubt that a new entry in the franchise is probably in development. What could Rare do to please ensure the security of the franchise? Here’s a little list of suggestions…

-A new graphical direction where the characters don’t appear to be barbie dolls plastered in wax

-16-32 players online, allowing more than just two teams per match. For example, if there are 16 players in the lobby, allow an option to set that up as free-for-all or 4 vs. 4 vs. 4 vs. 4 or all teams of two, etc. etc.

-A deep, incredible story with an emotional impact and no cheesy dialogue

-Many more multiplayer levels that are much smaller than PDZ’s. Nothing worse than running around having to find someone to shoot. Action, action, action!

-Massive array of characters to choose from. Every character in PD and GE were playable, why not bring that back?

-Customization. This is what gamers want more than anything this generation. The ability to be capable of customizing things yourself. Include a level builder, customize your own character, build your own weapons by combining weapons together i.e. put the RC-P90’s secondary function of thermal vision on the Super Dragon

Perfect Dark is an incredible franchise with a lot of potential. Please take everything in this post to heart Rare. Playing something new and innovative is great and I do not doubt that you can deliver in that regard. But please… do not forget what made the first a success again. You are considered the true founders of the FPS genre on a console, so prove to your loyal fans and Xbox gamers across the globe that you’re still the best-of-the-best. :)

March 16th, 2009 by Banjo-Conker

From Xbox360Achievements.org:

Knocked Out Klungo (20)
He’s out for revenge; not once, not twice, but three times. You need to beat him once.

Treasure Hunt (20)
You’ll probably end up with many more, but to achieve this you need just one of each.

All Beaten Up (20)
Kill any 20 bad guys with any of these attacks: Mumbo’s wand, your Pants Attack or the Daddy T-Rex.

A Merry Old Soul (20)
You’ll find Old King Coal in Chuffy’s boiler and he’s a bit on the grubby side. Scrub him out!

Hatch the Future (20)
Separate our heroes for the first time, or hatch a Banjo-Kazooie Stop ‘N’ Swop Egg with Heggy.

Calamari Bonanza (20)
Don’t be suckered! You’ll have to freeze every single octopi.

It Lives! (15)
Miracles do happen! Bring Sabreman back to life.

After The Storm (10)
Ahhhh, a pretty rainbow. You did that, you old softy!

My Nemesis (10)
Do it properly this time! Get rid of Grunty and save us from her rhymes. Off with her head!

Points Make Prizes (15)
Balloons of any color will do, get 60 points worth or more and you’re a winner… sort of.

They think it’s all over… (15)
Win a Colosseum Kickball final. The worst scorers rule at this game, so you should be good at it!

Shoot Em Up! (15)
It’s great fun exploding these little lovelies! Any 20 Ulcers, Clinkers or Mines will earn this.

March 9th, 2009 by Tyrant_Reborn

Rare at one point was one of the greatest developers to create games on the Nintendo game consoles. Rare bled creativity with a solid release lineup with hit after hit, with classics such as Donkey Kong Country, Donkey Kong Country 2 Diddy’s Kong Quest, Donkey Kong Country 3 Dixie’s Double Trouble, Jet Force Gemini, Perfect Dark, GoldenEye, Battletoads, Conker’s Bad Fur Day, Banjo Kazooie, Banjo Tooie, etc…

Rare has also managed to pull in some major accomplishments. To name a few:

Rare reinvented Donkey Kong, they gave one of gaming’s most iconic characters a brand new look with a along with new attitude to skyrocket DK into the worlds most recogized characters with the new look still going strong.

Rare was one of the first developers to bring First Person Shooters to consoles properly. GoldenEye was one of the first First Person Shooters to arrive on the consoles and control extremely well while being one of greatest console muliplayer experiences ever.

Rare continued what it had started with GoldenEye by bringing fans Perfect Dark a few years later, Perfect Dark was one of the first and only titles to carry voice

But the question is what’s happened to Rare recently? The answer is Rare has lost its way, while they still bleed creativity, they seem to have forgotten that a game needs to be fun from the start and built upon that. Most games as of recently look amazing and overall have great idea’s but none seem to have that spark seen in Rare’s N64/SNES classics. The games lack the most important part of games in general, pure unhinged fun. Banjo Kazooie being rereleased on Xbox Live reminded me how much fun the original game was, even today the game is extremely fun to pick up and play. Thinking back there’s not a single Rare game since Conker on the N64 that’s been really memorable. Its not that they were bad games it’s just that all of the titles since then are missing the mainstream appeal, the fun factor is not the pickup and play of the original games, the problem is Rare has gone too far with making games too complicated.

One aspect I absolutely despise recently is that old franchises seem to be coming back, yet they are reinvented alienating the fans that actually want the games and still failing to capture a new fanbase. Rare can definately fix their falts and come back strong it’s just a matter of when they figure out what needs to change and changing it.

March 9th, 2009 by hylian1

Want to take a guess at which two Rare franchises made this list? If you guessed Killer Instinct and Battletoads, then you are right on the money. What ‘franchises that need to comeback’ lists DOESN’T include these games? Not many.

This feature from Gamepro puts into perspective just how long it has been since we last saw either of these games. The last Battletoads game released on Arcade back in 1996 (13 years ago!) and Killer Instinct Gold was the last for that franchise on the Nintendo 64 some twelve years ago. While Battletoads may not be revived any time soon in the near future, it is rumored that not only Killer Instinct 3 will be releasing on the Xbox 360, but a potential remake or port of the original could appear on the Xbox LIVE Arcade. Given the high success rate of fighters on the console, it is very difficult to rule out either possibility. Fingers crossed!