Dev: Rare Lost its "Spark" After Microsoft Purchase

[Z of the Na'vi]

Until the day I die, Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie will be my favorite games of all time. There isn't a single thing wrong with either of those games just bristling with personality that I refuse to hear otherwise. Those games were my childhood, and formed the entire basis of my way of thinking today, to a certain extent.

In my mid-to-late teenage years, I wanted nothing more than to grow up and be a video game designer just so I could create games like BK/BT. They were so creative, so outlandish, so revered and ahead of their time that I wanted to be a part of that industry so bad.

I'm not going to say I am disappointed in Rare for what they have become, as I do quite enjoy their more recent titles as well. Kameo: Elements of Power was unique, as are the Viva Pinata titles. Hell, I even enjoy Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts in its own way. It's not a true BK title, but it still holds at least some of that creativity that I adore from the original pair.

Oh, and they can change their logo all they want. The company I choose to remember and will always remember in my heart will be Rareware.

You're still a winner to me.

 

[Souplex]

We all sort of knew that.
Retro Studios seems to have filled Rare's original niche at Nintendo pretty nicely though.
Why did Nintendo sell their Rare stock anyway?

 

[Vykrel]

more like "rare lost most of its original talent"

i dont know if any of the original developers from their golden days even still work there.

 

[Cursed Frogurt]

You now, I doubt there really is much I can comment on this, besides the fact that the guy who made Starfox Adventures has no right to tell me which games are good. Other than that...
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Haha, this. I don't care that StarFox Adventures was a Starfox game that played like a Zelda game. I care that it was a really bad game.

 

[Weaver]

I'd really love if Rare could come back somehow

 

[Vivi22]

You now, I doubt there really is much I can comment on this, besides the fact that the guy who made Starfox Adventures has no right to tell me which games are good. Other than that...
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Haha, this. I don't care that StarFox Adventures was a Starfox game that played like a Zelda game. I care that it was a really bad game.

Pretty much. Hell, saying it played like a Zelda game is giving it too much credit if you ask me.

Honestly, I think Rare lost their mojo long before Microsoft bought them. Aside from Goldeneye and Perfect Dark I didn't actually like anything they did post-SNES era, and Killer Instinct was always a terrible fighting game franchise. Never really understood why people liked it.

But at least even with their N64 games, most of them had somewhat interesting and creative characters and worlds. By the time the Gamecube came around they didn't even have that any more.

Then again, I guess when a lot of your talent leaves to form Free Radical and make games that don't suck we can only continue to expect so much from you.

 

[2fish]

I have not forgotten what you did.

Spoiler: Murderer!

Where did you put the real Agent Dark?

I must not cry, I must not cry.

 

[shrekfan246]

No, really?

I refuse to believe that.

I mean, with such magnificent titles as Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts and Kinect Sports, how could you say that Rare is a mere shadow of the company they used to be?

 

[Voren]

Rare was awesome in the 90's and it's shit today's days since Microsoft got involved? "No shit" the people of the world echo.

CAPTCHA: "Roll Over" pretty much what they made them do..

 

[neppakyo]

Gotta give MS some credit, if EA bought them, everyone would be fired and the name would be changed to EA Southwest or something.

Still doesn't excuse Rare for not making a good game in over a decade.

 

[Rad Party God]

Yeah... we all kinda knew that... but I digress, maybe they started to lose their shine after Conker's Bad Fur Day, because it's generally accepted that Star Fox Adventures is a mediocre game at best (one that I really liked... my guilty pleasure I guess :/).

But other than that, they'll always remain as the guys that made some of the most awesome games in existance, also, Retro Studios kinda fill that niche pretty nicely and I'm hopeful for what Gory Detail can accomplish on the WiiU after their little robot dog game.

 

[Dragonbums]

We all sort of knew that.
Retro Studios seems to have filled Rare's original niche at Nintendo pretty nicely though.
Why did Nintendo sell their Rare stock anyway?

I heard at the time, the price Microsoft gave to Nintendo for Rare was so enormous, nobody with any sense could hope to reject such an offer.

 

[Dragonbums]

more like "rare lost most of its original talent"

i dont know if any of the original developers from their golden days even still work there.

They don't. They all either left, or got the boot. Grant Kirkhope touched upon this when he was a guest player on the Game Grumps.
Based on what he said, we can assume that all of the original staff have left around the time of Viva Pinata.
They are now scattered about as indie developers or working elsewhere.
No one is really sure where the two original founders are either.

 

[Dragonbums]

I am amazed you didn't cover the fact Microsoft bought Rare because it thought it would transfer the rights of Donkey Kong to them. In fact, when the execs toured the acquisition they saw posters of Donkey Kong and got all excited, thinking they owned Donkey Kong.

That's hilarious as fuck.