March 21st, 2008 by hylian1

Throughout the years, Rare has dominated the gaming industry by presenting the best paired characters that have revolutionized the way ‘tag-team’ gameplay should be defined when it comes to games of the platform genre. Among them stand out two unforgettable teams that were ranked among Nzgamer’s top 10: Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong and Banjo, Kazooie.

Donkey Kong is the powerhouse of the pair who can bash the bigger Kremlings down to size with his weight, unearth items with his powerful Ground Slap, and chunk barrels further than old man Cranky can toss his cane. Diddy on the otherhand is fast and agile, making it much easier to cross those widespread holes of certain doom. As for Banjo and Kazooie? They’re the most absurd team for anyone to ever think up. A bear and a bird working together? Ridiculous, they say. But any who has said that to their face has been met with a few of the duo’s trademark moves such as the Rat-a-tat-rap, Claw Swipe, Beak Barge, or the hilariously driven Breegull Bash. That’s only naming a few of the techniques that makes the bear and bird of fame two of gamings best and most impressive duos.

Unfortunately, the same love cannot be had for the gaming ladies of Rare. GameDaily took on the liberty of listing who is–thankfully not what is–their Top 25 gaming babes of all-time. As expected, it’s dominated with the likes of ego-breastical (new word?) Dead or Alive babes and Final Fantasty chicks and a few entrants from Soul Calibur and Resident Evil (no Zombie girls? Thank you!!). As for Joanna, Kameo, Amber or heck, even Berri for those poorly misconstrued earth-invading furries, there is no love. None. Zero. Zilch. Sorry ladies, but you’re just not made of teh hawtne$$. Better luck next time!

March 8th, 2008 by hylian1

Chances are you may have heard of Kameo: Elements of Power before. Maybe because it’s been getting a lot of attention since it’s unveiling on the Xbox 360, but maybe also because it was a game shown on the back of your Gamecube’s packaging. Yes Kameo originally started out on the Gamecube (rumor has it that Kameo may have even been planned for an N64 release at some point) back before Rare was purchased by Microsoft and after that purchase was made, development of the game continued for the Xbox instead. But in October 2004, one final delay led the way for Rare to turn their focus towards Microsoft’s next gen console that was due out at the end of next year. And that Kameo is the Kameo we have today.

With development time stretching out to nearly 6 years, Kameo has certainly gone through some changes as well. Rare originally planned the game to feature well over a hundred monsters for you to capture, but apparently this idea was far too ambitious and instead Rare focused on polishing up and perfecting less warriors. They kept cutting down the amount of monsters (or warriors as Rare calls them) in the game all the way down to ten. Rare unfortunately even had to cut out an entire warrior element from the game to make the game’s release. Some character and level art was changed over the years, and to be blunt, Kameo has been through development hell. Luckily, in the end Kameo turned out really well. It’s one of the most compelling reasons to pick up a 360, and just one of the best action/adventure games in general. Read more…

March 1st, 2008 by hylian1

The speculation is over. The waiting is done. The ‘top secret projects’ we’ve been touting for the past six months have come to fruition and now rest before your very eyes. Welcome to the NEW Rare-Elite!

Embracing a unique and unmatched blog design like no other, Rare-Elite combines the likes of its new blog format with an incredibly massive and ever growing wiki known as the Rare Fandabase. Our goal with this new format is to breathe fresh life into an otherwise stale site and offer more news, more content, and more exclusives than ever before.

What’s new?

-The Design: This particular design was developed by Mario Paiano, better known as Lupaie, a professional media designer who joined Rare-Elite late last year as a member of the forums and was chosen to create the new design based on his unique and creative work on past projects. As a long-time, dedicated fan of Rare, it was Mario’s goal to establish an unforgettable design that Rare themselves would be pleased with for all their years of developing incredible games. I would say he has achieved just that, wouldn’t you?

-The Rare Fandabase: The Fandabase is a wiki database that will continually grow over time providing an unlimited resource of information, media including exclusive screenshots and videos and other forms of Rare related material covering every title that Rare has ever developed. Through browsing, you will also find several exclusives that can’t be found elsewhere such as the Rare-Elite Comics and Stop N Swop Station. Visit regularly as new additions will be added on a daily/weekly basis.

-Our Community: One of Rare-Elite’s key aspects is striving to build an online community where fellow Rare fans can effectively communicate their love for the developer and the many games they have provided for us throughout these many years. You’ll find no better place than the Rare-Elite forums. Registration is absolutely free and will provide you with the access to join in on the countless discussions in the forums’ many boards spanning all of Rare’s games and beyond.

-Commenting: While it has never been a focus in the past, we are now placing a broader emphasis on the usage of our new comment system. Commenting requires no registration but does require that you leave a name and e-mail address with the option of including your website as well. In doing so you can share your thoughts on the many news stories, reviews, and articles that will soon be infiltrating these pages.

To summarize, Rare-Elite is now presenting to you this new, outstandish design, the Fandabase for all your content, media, and other obligatory needs, a growing community to converse with fellow Rare fans and occasional developers from Rare, and a commenting system built for you for specifically expressing your opinions.

You want it, Rare-Elite has it. Welcome to the NEW Rare-Elite!

March 1st, 2008 by Tyrant_Reborn

Rare has gone ahead and made the fankits of all recent console games available on their own website. No more do fans have to search the interweb for fansite kits on various websites and now it’s finally all available in one spot for easy access. Read more…