May 11th, 2009 by hylian1

In the early days of gaming, platformers were the genre that populated video game consoles and hand-helds. Over time, however, people’s interest in the genre started to wane when they began to be donned as “collect-a-thons”. Rare, previous masters of the genre, helped play a part in this with the tedious collecting of Donkey Kong 64. While it was fun and didn’t bother true fans of the genre like myself, there were many others that weren’t very fond of collecting 201 Golden Bananas along with 500 regular bananas, 40 blue prints, a couple of medals, and various other things throughout the game. It was this nature of massive collecting in platformers that led to the genre’s decline.

Gamepro has taken a look at the past 20 years of platforming titles from 1989 to present day 2009 and selected what they believe are truly the the best 20 platformers to grace a console. With platforming games having always been Rare’s best genre to develop, it is no surprise to see a few of their titles grace this list.

First and foremost, ranked at number 17 is the wart bashing, bear and bird duo’s first game, Banjo-Kazooie. And last, but not least by any means, was the re-awakening and redefining gameplay of Donkey Kong Country for the SNES ranked at number 3.

Too bad Conker didn’t make the list, though I’m still contemplating to this day whether or not it should be considered a platformer or more of an action/adventure game with platforming elements…

May 11th, 2009 by hylian1

Lists are a blog’s greatest asset these days it seems…at least with gaming. Cinema Blend doesn’t think that ten games in particular probably will never see release on Nintendo’s Virtual Console via the Wii. Amongst them? To Rare treasures: Killer Instinct Gold and Battletoads/Double Dragon.

Probably? Really? You know, after seven years, you’d think that people would understand that Microsoft owns Rare and there isn’t a chance in the pits of Grunty’s Lair of Microsoft releasing a franchise they now have the rights to on a competitive console. Nintendo DS and Game Boy Advance do not count as MS has stated on several occasions that they do not consider hand-held gaming systems to be competitors to home consoles.

So case-in point, neither Battleads nor KI will be on the Virtual Console. Ever. Xbox LIVE Arcade…now that’s another story altogether and one that is more than feasible.

May 11th, 2009 by hylian1

While Rare may not be topping the charts as they probably did back in the 90s, they are still amongst the top 100 most successeful game studios in the world. Rare ranked in at number 67.

While it is nice to see that Rare is on the list, I must admit that I do find it disappointing to see them at such a low level. In my opinion, I think the list is derived more-or-less on the popularity and present-day sales totals of those above Rare today rather than their overall success. Rare has been around for over 25 years now and has sold over 100 million games in total…something that Bungie (placed at number 57) certainly hasn’t done.

Hopefully with a big announcement at e3 along with a supposed pending release of Perfect Dark 64 on the XBLA, Rare can push themselves back up into the top 50.

May 5th, 2009 by hylian1

May 5th, 2009 by hylian1

Rare has signed up for the 2009 Dare to be Digital Competition along with other high-profile UK developers such as Lionhead, SCE Europe, and Sega to support and mentor competing students. The developers will select the teams that qualify through the tryouts. The teams that continue on to the competition will have ten weeks to develop a game that will be judged at the Edinburgh Interactive Festival. Best of luck to all the judges and students.