It won't change until Rare starts producing hits on the same level as their N64 output.
So likely never.
So likely never.
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Rare has been with Microsoft for 17 years and yet are still known for their 8 years with Nintendo above all else. Will that ever change?
- Thread starter Jawmuncher
- Start date
I think Sea of Thieves might be one of their biggest successes to date? More than 8 million people played it, it has had continued support for more than a year from 100+ developers and it put Xbox Game Pass on the map.
All I want from Rare is a new Viva Pinata that I can play both on my Xbox/PC & Mobile (or thinking about it now, hell even switch)
Make it a GaaS but i feel like F2P mechanics could so easily destroy what made Viva Pinata special, but if MS can get that game into the hands of girls on mobile i think it would finally find its audience.
Make it a GaaS but i feel like F2P mechanics could so easily destroy what made Viva Pinata special, but if MS can get that game into the hands of girls on mobile i think it would finally find its audience.
Nah, I think there is always going to be some level of bias, especially as Nintendo and Xbox gamers are oftentimes pretty distinctly different types of fans. The amount of hate Nuts & Bolts gets (usually from people that never played it) is genuinely absurd. People also act like their mostly great Game Boy Advance titles do not count and forget that they had huge investments in stuff like the Xbox Avatar system too.
In terms of raw talent the writing was on the wall before they even left Nintendo. Tons of people had left by the time Perfect Dark had launched, Star Fox Adventures I think is easily one of their worst games and I could complain for days about how bloated and messy Banjo-Tooie and Donkey Kong 64 are. They had pretty significantly changed by the time Microsoft bought them.
It feels like the team behind Rare of old was kind of lightning in a bottle in a lot of ways. So many people act like of course everything would have been perfect if they stayed with Nintendo and that Microsoft was pushing them into scenarios they hated, but there is tons of evidence showing Rare just kept making the games they wanted to. Free Radical and Playtonic have spotty lineups too (although that is a bit unfair to call for the latter).
In terms of raw talent the writing was on the wall before they even left Nintendo. Tons of people had left by the time Perfect Dark had launched, Star Fox Adventures I think is easily one of their worst games and I could complain for days about how bloated and messy Banjo-Tooie and Donkey Kong 64 are. They had pretty significantly changed by the time Microsoft bought them.
It feels like the team behind Rare of old was kind of lightning in a bottle in a lot of ways. So many people act like of course everything would have been perfect if they stayed with Nintendo and that Microsoft was pushing them into scenarios they hated, but there is tons of evidence showing Rare just kept making the games they wanted to. Free Radical and Playtonic have spotty lineups too (although that is a bit unfair to call for the latter).
This is wrong. They didn't start significantly changing until the Kinect. A few people had left before the buyout, but nowhere near "tons". Just because some games may not have turned out as well doesn't mean the talent was gone. People simply make mistakes sometimes. Free Radical with Haze and Playtonic with Yooka Laylee can attest to this and those teams have/had some old Rare talent.
They've certainly been troubled since the Stampers left. But realistically if Activision would have won the bid in 2002 rather than Microsoft then I highly doubt they'd be here today.
Games obviously take a lot longer to make these days so clearly they're never going to get back to the output of the N64 era. Good to see Sea of Thieves doing well for them though, which at least shows they've retained that Rare charm in their games.
Games obviously take a lot longer to make these days so clearly they're never going to get back to the output of the N64 era. Good to see Sea of Thieves doing well for them though, which at least shows they've retained that Rare charm in their games.
Technically that was Kinect Sports.
It's funny that arguably the most relevant thing made by them after the split is Banjo in smash.
The talent left. Microsoft managed them poorly. This is why I yawn when I read about Microsoft acquiring companies.
So no, the good Rare is never coming back. They're not even making the new 2D Battletoads game.
So no, the good Rare is never coming back. They're not even making the new 2D Battletoads game.
artists are usually remembered by their most famous/best work ever. Rare's best output was with Nintendo, nothing they have done with Microsoft has come close, not even 5%. Maybe visually they are similar but everything else feels and is wrong. Even the former employees who now work on Yooka Laylee seem to have lost their touch. So, I don't think this will change but I don't think it's a bad thing.
I mean, Final Fantasy lives off the glory of its former self with Square Soft. Although XIV is brilliant, doesn't mean the franchise is dead or bad. It's just that its best titles came out years ago
I mean, Final Fantasy lives off the glory of its former self with Square Soft. Although XIV is brilliant, doesn't mean the franchise is dead or bad. It's just that its best titles came out years ago
I know them mostly for that Microsoft list even though I am 45...Would take most of that new stuff rather than 9 more Donkey Kong Titles. The exceptions would be Goldeneye, Conker and Perfect Dark as I would like a new title from themin any of those IP.
Also, I know Nostalgia is powerful, but I think Rare is rising and becoming an Elite studio again. Sea of Thieves, even though it was content-lite at launch is an awesome game and rumors have been that their staff has more than doubled in the past year and a half. Looking forward to their future output.
Also, I know Nostalgia is powerful, but I think Rare is rising and becoming an Elite studio again. Sea of Thieves, even though it was content-lite at launch is an awesome game and rumors have been that their staff has more than doubled in the past year and a half. Looking forward to their future output.
No, but Snake Rattle & Roll and Wizards & Warriors II / III certainly were
We'll never really know, but I've never thought the Arwing sections or Star Fox story meshed especially well with the rest. It very much feels like one game, and half of another, jammed together.
I can see the similarities you're talking about from that point of view, but I think that is mostly down to marketing in the 90s and "edge" being in. The Rare DK characters themselves are not actually especially edgy, certainly not in the Sonic, etc. vein. With the possible exception of Funky Kong.
I think looking at the two series side by side though, the actual games differ dramatically, like I said in my last post.
Maybe. But at the end of the day it's only one game, and one game doesn't stack up to their entire output produced under Nintendo.
Studios go through cycles and change. Rare may not be your cup of tea today but I think Rare was happy to work on sea of thieves and proud of what they accomplished. The studio is strong and they continue to make great games in all Xbox generations.
If they make another Perfect Dark and it kicks ass that's all it takes for me. Love love love that game.
Also had plenty of fun with GoldenEye, Jet Force Gemini, and the various DK games, among others. They have a solid resume.
Also had plenty of fun with GoldenEye, Jet Force Gemini, and the various DK games, among others. They have a solid resume.
It's like looking at 2 completely different companies entirely. The first portfolio is that of a god-tier studio and one is of a C grade developer. Take a guess which is which?
Allowing Rare to be sold off was undoubtedly Nintendo's biggest mistake in the current millennium. People like to mention the Wii U, but at least that was something Nintendo eventually recovered from. The void Rare left has yet to be filled.
Retro is great and all, but they're not the same even though their DKC games are better overall.
Retro is great and all, but they're not the same even though their DKC games are better overall.
Bigger question: will Rare's time with MS ever not be defined by Kinect Sports, a series that spanned only three releases over a time span of less than 3.5 of those 17 years?
after a point nostalgia supersedes everything else
viva pinata, nuts and bolts, and sea of thieves are all as interesting and/or good as anything they ever made
viva pinata, nuts and bolts, and sea of thieves are all as interesting and/or good as anything they ever made
you mean the successful and well received games that probably prevented rare from getting downsized or shut down? those heartless microsoft monsters, they won't give me my banjo!
It's pretty stunning that Nintendo had that foresight. I imagine the nail in the coffin was DK64 being so bug-ridden that they were FORCED to include the memory expansion hardware in the game to get it to ship.
Heck, if Sea Of Thieves was the next Xbox game to get a Switch port, you'd see a lot of the posters in this thread do a total 180.
Nintendo didn't see anything. Rare's output after the buyout was the result of mismanagement by MS. There were countless game cancellations during that time, and probably more we don't know about. MS and Rare were simply incompatible. Grant Kirkhope worked there for over a decade and to this day he solely blames MS for what happened to them.
Exactly.
Under Nintendo, Rare developed industry leading games (even if in many cases they were Rare takes on already existing formulas).
As an example here the top 10 best selling games of the 16 bit generation (by single SKU):
Note that the industry was smaller back then compared to today.
By the end of the 16 bit generation, DKC was the 7th best selling console game of all time which should make obvious the huge cultural impact it had.
More like Nintendo miscalculated the situation and took a short sighted approach.
Not from me. Played Sea of Thieves, and it just isn't a very good game IMO
Sure derivative but Rare often applied some kind of unique spin to existing popular formulas they reworked with their games.
For example the combo system in KI (their Mortal Kombat clone), the character momentum and level design in DKC which seem a mix between Super Mario Bros and Sonic, the adventure elements injected in Banjo Kazooie (ironically I think Super Mario Odyssey's roots came from BK rather than Super Mario 64), the mission objectives and body part hit in Goldeneye.
Or maybe Nintendo calculated well the costs/benefits of the purchase.
The Stamper bros (and the other stakeholder of the company I don't remember the name at the moment) were asking a lot to buy the remaining 51% of the company while at the same time the company didn't really fully owned the IPs of what were by far Rare most popular games up to that point (Donkey Kong was already controlled by Nintendo while GoldenEye was owned by a third party).
To illustrate my point (above: total Rare games sales under Nintendo; below: sales of the Rare games of which MS owned the IPs after the purchase)
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There is also the fact that Nintendo was always a company that went for popular genre kings with defined formulas that could be reiterated generation after generation and Rare derivative output (despite the unique spins they applied) was never too interesting for Nintendo.
An eventual peculiar FPS franchise could have been of interest for Nintendo but the fact that GoldenEye was owned by another third-party kind of sucked.
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If they release something that matches or surpasses one of those games from the Nintendo era then yes otherwise no
I was more referring to Nintendo fans ability to go from complete indifference to a game toover excitement when a port announced. Although that was more in the early Switch days than when the Switch became a port haven.
Basically, "Rare sucks now. Wait, they're making games on the Switch? WTF I love Rare now."
The problem is that Rare is associated with the greatest Nintendo console of all time. Makes the perception hard to budge.
When I think of Rare, I think Banjo, Conker, sea of thieves, viva piñata , killer instinct. Good chunk of that is under MS, and honestly excited to see what they do next. I'm praying for a platformer as Xbox could use a decent one.
I wish it was easier to play their stuff outside of the XBox ecosystem; lacking a xbone is part of the reason I don't have much of any thought about them to begin with
please put rare replay on pc
please put rare replay on pc
Could this be due to Nintendo´s involvement in development? Even when working with 3rd parties Nintendo usually dedicates resources to those games and have high-profile in-house devs actively taking part in development (we´ve seen this P* and Bayo2, Ubi and Mario&Rabbids...) and have a more creative approach, which can be seeing in their willingness to delay games if needed for example. Maybe Rare lost their footing when they changed that for MS´corporate structure, where instead of MS sending dev gurus to help they were sending managers to ask about budgets and dates. Maybe without a creative hand steering the projects Rare had not the talent to do it by themselves.