WHY RARE?!?! WHYYY! A Fanboy’s Rant
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.
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March 10th, 2009 at 8:21 am
I think there’s several factors that have contributed to Rare’s more recent games not doing as well. Just take Kameo for example. Originally shown back in 2000 or 2001, it didn’t release until another console cycle later. It wasn’t as an impressive “next gen” experience as it was a “current gen” one, because at that point it had become a bit dated, taking so long in development.
And I actually take Rare’s side on Nuts and Bolts. I would have been very displeased if they threw together a sequel using the same formula on the N64 games. They need to move their series’ forward and keep their gameplay up to date rather than recycling 10 year old material. But at the same time am I happy with how N&B turned out? Eh, it could have been better.
Even if the company hasn’t had any epic masterpieces like back in the day, all of the games have been great (generally speaking), so I can’t complain too much.
March 11th, 2009 at 5:09 pm
Rare’s greatest titles have always been evolutionary in design. Meaning that they took existing gameplay formula’s and added their own innovative touch to it which made their titles great.
With a title like N&B they tried to be revolutionary, at best, but failed miserably. The concept was interesting but extremely hard to pull of and even then it won’t really appeal to anyone except those that consider themselves “alternative gamers” that find the concept “intriguing” or just plain hardcore Rare fans.
To respond on the comment before mine. I disagree. I believe making the latest Banjo just a plain platformer with new elements would have been the right thing to do. A game like Super Mario Galaxy has proven that a few new gameplay elements are more than capable of making a traditional platformer fresh, fun and intuitive.
if they just absolutely had to make the N&B concept a reality, why didn’t they just put it in an entirely new franchise instead of raping (excuse me) a beloved old one.
And I do think a franchises like Perfect Dark and Conker should not be left untouched in place of new franchises.
If anything, the recent titles Rare has released since their switch to MGS have shown that the studio still has the talent, but their titles lack fun-factor and soul of the good old days.
Rare really needs to get their sh*t together!
March 15th, 2009 at 1:46 pm
I wouldn’t have minded the new Banjo to be a traditional platformer, but so many fans want a copy and pasted formula from the N64 games. I don’t want a platformer in 2009 to play like one from 1998.
I would have no problem if N&B had been a traditional platformer, but made relevant in today’s world of gaming, like SMG as you pointed out.