What would it be like if RARE had not left Nintendo?

[mcj metroid]

But wasn't starfox adventures not supposed to be starfox adventures? Maybe Nintendo were surpressing some of the creative flow. But even now they are still looking to develop for nintendo platforms and Microsoft seem to be saying Meh, it makes money.

 

but the only fun parts of starfox adventures were the arwing battles.. the rest of the game was pure....boring.

 

I hope you don't mean just the N64 era MCJ...

 

The Donkey Kong games on the SNES were amazing, they are up there with OOT for me

 

yes even going back to the nes they were fantastic.. Their port of donkey kong country on gb was brilliant.

[Kurtle Squad]

It'd be the same. Except:

 

Rare characters would be in Smash Bros.

 

Nintendo would have the one good game they've made in years, Viva Pinata.

 

I believe the Stamper brothers have now left as well. Things should have been different though,

Yeah; they did. So now it's not really Rare at all, but simply a load of franchises owned by a faceless company

[Sheikah]

It'd be the same. Except:

 

Rare characters would be in Smash Bros.

 

Nintendo would have the one good game they've made in years, Viva Pinata.

 

 

You're kidding? Considering RARE made most of the good games on the N64 no doubt they would have stuck to the same formula and would've made more quality games. Unless something else would have inevitably broken them up to the point of no return anyway.

 

Those are decent games by all accounts. They're not a bad developer by any stretch of the imagination. But they are a far cry from the legendary games we saw in the N64 generation. In my opinion, they are the only developer that has come close to taking Nintendo's crown.

 

I have difficulty picking my favourite Rare game. It's a tie between Blast Corps, Goldeneye and Perfect Dark.

 

All bog standard games in my opinion; definitely not something to write home about. Except maybe Viva Pinata by the sounds of it, but I've never played it.

[DCK]

It wouldn't be the same. We would've had PD:Zero, Kameo and Grabbed by the Ghoulies on GameCube or Wii, which would have made a nice addition. Perfect Dark and GoldenEye, and other Rare games would've been on VC. There would've been a decent DK racing game. Banjo-Threeie would be a Wii game. Star Fox Assault would've never happened.

 

On the other hand, Rare's presence may have withheld the creation of Nintendo Tokyo for DK: Jungle Beat, and may have cost us Mario Galaxy to some extent.

 

All in all, it's a pity Rare has left. I can't help but think they are losing their quality under Microsoft's supervision, and would've given us more reasonable quality games.

[Aimless]

To be fair I still rate Kameo as one of my favourite 360 games. The gameplay and graphics are amazing and the soundtrack is fantastic.

Ironically the

looked loads better to me. Not in the shininess stacks, but in the all important 'this is a free roaming game where you can turn into an iguana-type-thing and climb up mountains' aspect.

 

Similarly, Dinosaur Planet looked far more interesting when it was an N64 game sans the Starfox cast. Sure it was essentially just another Zelda game albeit made by Rare, but Fox and co taking starring roles was one of the most incongruous things with the eventual GameCube game.

 

At any rate, for me Rare lost their magic — and most likely their best staff — somewhere between the death of the Nintendo 64 and the life of the GameCube. I still hold out a glimmer of hope that the company will be able to mimic what it once was, but from where I'm sitting Nintendo made an excellent choice in loosing them when they did.

 

Oh, I did quite like Grabbed by the Ghoulies, though. Not a classic by any means, but definitely underrated by most.

[Will]

There wouldn't really be that much difference at all. Instead of a few crap XBox/360 games there'd be a few crap Cube/Wii games.

[blender]

the more interesting question would be who would microsoft have bought instead of RARE ?

sega? ea? nintendo ?

[c0Zm1c]

Microsoft tried to buy Nintendo, for a reported $25 billion if memory serves.

[flameboy]

Microsoft tried to buy Nintendo, for a reported $25 billion if memory serves.

 

not sure if your figures are right but there were rumours flying around, but I think it BS to be honest, like the Nintendo and Apple merging that went around before Gamecube.

[c0Zm1c]

I think it was real, namely because I read a Yamauchi interview where he talked about what happened with the attempted buyout. It was quite an amusing read really.

 

EDIT: just looked for it and discovered it was fake! Still, it's not the only place I've read about the supposed buyout.

[Jimbob]

On X-Box, Rare havn't been much good. Grabbed by the Goulies didn't grab me as such. Now on the 360, PDZ, Kameo and Viva are all great games. PDZ does have a few flaws, but Kameo and Viva make up for this game. I think this generation, we may see Rare flourish into something similar to what we saw on the N64.

 

If Rare had stayed with Ninty, and with the patience of Ninty as well, Rare may have made Goulies more fun and enjoyable and Kameo and DK racing would have been as we saw them back in 01/02. Maybe BK and PD would be readily available for the VC as we speak.

[philcollins]

oh man this is a sad thread : (

ive still got all my old rare games on n64. they made the n64, without them nintendo would of been on their arse. its kind of a shame nintendo had to stab them in the back and sell them off but after their weak recent performance i can see why.. i think they started to go downhill with banjo tooie.. that game was fairly 'magic free' and kind of a chore to play i hope threeie is the game that brings them back to form. its hard to say if its likely though since they seem like arrogant arseholes unable to admit their mistakes... also perfect dark zero should of been a hit that a monkey couldnt screw up, but they managed to screw it up after about a 10 yr development cycle..

 

i still play banjo and diddy king racing, which makes it even sadder to see whats become of them..

[Cube]

i think they started to go downhill with banjo tooie..

 

Banjo Tooie is my third favourite N64 game, just below Perfect Dark and Banjo Kazooie.

 

also perfect dark zero should of been a hit that a monkey couldnt screw up, but they managed to screw it up after about a 10 yr development cycle..

 

To be fair, the Perfect Dark team left Rare not long into that cycle...

[Maiky-NiSuTe]

if rare had not left Nintendo the games would be loads better and the main and best personnel would not have left Rare and free radical, ubisoft and n-soft would have less great personnel to go with. We would have a way better star fox adventure because the good guys would not have left it in ruble like they did. games like DK country, Banjo kameo and conker would also be better than the versions we saw after the take over. (not in visual context but more in quality)

 

in the end Microsoft only bought the name and rights from rare and that is it. most talented guys there left as soon as they eared of Nintendo's plans (the birth of free radical a few years before the take over)

[McPhee]

Kameo was good, as was Viva Piñata. I think they just went through a bad patch to be honest, the real test will be how good Banjo turns out to be.

 

Some people need to get they're facts straight with Rare though. The company began to leak vital staff members in 1997, with the departure of Oliver Davies, Oliver Norton, Steve Patrick, Jeff Stafford, Christopher Gage, and Adrian Smith. These staff members formed the developer Eighth Wonder, who were then bought up by SCEE. Then in 1998 Martin Hollis left left and started Zoonami, with the Free Radical team departing soon after.

 

It was under Nintendo that Rare lost most of it's talent (im not saying it was Nintendo's fault before anyone flames me). Microsoft didn't buy Rare until 2002, when they purchased the Stamper Brothers 51% share (making Microsoft the controlling share holder of Rare). This left Nintendo with a choice, either they kept they're 49% share and worked with Rare and Microsoft in future projects, or sell they're share to someone else. In the end they sold they're 49% to Microsoft, making them the sole owner of Rare. Rare kept every franchise they made, bar the ones relating to Nintendo characters.

 

Some people in this topic seem determined to remember Rare in a perfect light, and blame Microsoft for the mediocre games the company made between 2000 and 2006. This isn't the case, the company was in this shit when they were sold. Since then they've improved, slowly.

[mcj metroid]

the more interesting question would be who would microsoft have bought instead of RARE ?

sega? ea? nintendo ?

 

don't be stupid do you really think microsoft can just walk into a room and point which company they want like a child in a sweet shop?

 

NO they can't.. they tried to buy sega first and they refused and THEN they went after nintendo.. But failed again.