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"A Rare Gift"

When looking at RARE as a development company, what do you see? A bunch of highly talented, British developers working on many Nintendo titles. But why are they so good? Why is it nearly every game they release gains such high praise? The only game on the N64 they wasn’t given a star game award was Killer Instinct Gold and even then the game was said to be “ok”. But it isn’t just the praise each game receives, it is the hype nearly every game they make picks up. Jet Force Gemini, Banjo, Conker all of these picked up a lot of excitement whilst in development, although the hype these tiles received weren’t on the same level as Perfect Dark their were no doubts that these games would be bad, the question always was how good will it be?

So why are Rare so brilliant? One thing I pick up from Rare is their ability to “copy” Nintendo. Star Fox Adventures: Dinosaur Planet is Zelda, Banjo Kazooie is Mario, Kameo: Elements of Power is Pokémon; Diddy Kong Racing is Mario Kart. But despite the obvious similarities that these titles have when compared with Nintendo’s home titles there is something different about them… they are older. Mario, despite being enjoyed by all ages, is aimed mainly at children 8 years or under, and agrees or not I see Banjo appealing to an older audience. When Bottles (the mole) died in Banjo Tooie Kazooie said: “Ah well we never liked him anyway”, you’ll never here Mario say that! Also compare Mario 64 to Banjo Kazooie; graphically Mario is much colourful and simple whilst Banjo is much more detailed again giving Banjo a slightly older look. And then there is Conker, again a platformer but I think you’ll all agree this doesn’t appeal to the same age group as Mario.

Zelda may not have a childish look but it does now, which is why Star Fox Adventures, with the Z targeting and 3D adventuring is simply and older looking Zelda. Pokémon, as brilliant as it maybe again has a very childish appeal whilst Kameo: Element of Power has updated this into a more adult adventure/battling game. So Rare seem to take Nintendo games and make them appeal to an audience they miss out, Mario Kart has a universal appeal but is only really good if you have 3 mates to play it with as the single player is duff, for those who don’t play multiplayer Mario Kart won’t be worth investing in but Diddy Kong Racing concentrates more on the single player so corners the market Mario Kart missed out. But to say Rare are just Nintendo is a little unfair, name one Nintendo game Jet Force Gemini takes after? Exactly a classic game dreamt up from Rare themselves, Killer Instinct was a 2D beat ‘em up a genre unexplored by Nintendo, and how about Perfect Dark, without a doubt one of Rare’s best titles and it has no connection to a Nintendo game (except maybe Pokémon Snap but that hardly counts). Blast Corps is evidence of Rare’s originality at its best and again there’s nothing like this anywhere let alone from Nintendo.

So what makes Rare so good? At that matter why does Metroid (from Retro Studios) look good enough to eat? Why does Eternal Darkness (Silicon Knights) look set to show Resident Evil a thing or two? What does these Nintendo second parties have over the millions of 3rd party developers? It is easy to understand why Nintendo are so good, they designed the system themselves, they know what it can do and they designed it to do what they want anyway. Unlike Playstation and X-box the console was made by game developers, the controller was designed by Shiguru Miyamoto, Star Wars developers Factor 5 designed Gamecube’s sound chip so of course Nintendo know how to get the most out of it. And again unlike the Playstation when you sign up as a Nintendo second party you are in for a lot of help. Every time Rare make a game Nintendo assist them every step of the way, a developer wanted to do this, finds it difficult to pull off so he contacts Nintendo who will help them achieve it. Metroid wasn’t doing so well, Nintendo have gone and placed them along the right track. If Dennis Dyack and his Silicon Knights team ever struggled whilst developing Eternal Darkness, Nintendo would step in and help.

What makes Rare (and any other second party) that much better than everyone else is the fact that Nintendo keep a close relationship with them and make sure everything is going ok. Sony may let Polyphony and Psygosis do what they want but is this really a good thing? Nintendo being the worlds greatest games company helping out companies like Rare ensures the success of what they develop. And Rare have been working with Nintendo for such a long time now, every time a new console comes around Rare know the console as well as Nintendo and like Nintendo can get the best out of it. And looking at Star Fox Adventures, Kameo: Elements of Power and Donkey Kong Racing it proves to me that Rare are still one of the best game companies around.

Here’s to the future

Dringo.

Metroid Prime might look good graphics but a Metroid game where you can't see Samus is equivilant to a Perfect Dark game without guns or a Mario game without the jump button.

Tombraider proved that there was a market for "adult" platformers. It actually left the market open for a half decent "adult" platformer to take over :-D.

Metroid with the strong lead character and the "mature" setting could've taken this market by the throat and dominated it with a mix of 3D platforming and blasting away at enemies. It could've been the definitive genre mix of this gen of consoles.

But no.

They had to turn it into a generic FPS game.

Sure you've be able to mix and match weapons like before.
Sure you'll be able to roll into a ball in certain places.
Sure it'll have an "authentic" visor view, a strong atmosphere and ugly alien monsters to fight.

But if you showed it to a Metroid fan (one who's played through the old games), they'd probably say:

"W(hat)TF is this? And W(here)TF is Samus?"

There's plenty of decent FPS games around.
Metroid should've been something better.

Cel shaded look is all well and good but what does that have to do with Rare????

I've said it before and I'll say it again:

Nintendo must be brave if they produce a cel-shaded Zelda (that really is a cartoon - My friends lampooned the previous Zelda - One of the best games ever, because it was too cartoony??????!!!!! hsjkfrhgjkldaidlw!gfuildwgfghlfdag!hjk.ffkl!aghflghl.jg - crap!



Sorry. But the injustice of it all makes my blood boil!

Or†ega wrote:
> I disagree, I think Nintendo are scared to try new things. Maybe not so much on
> the games side, but look at some other things...

They were the last to start
> using optical media.

They were afraid it would fail like the CDi and the SEGA add on... i understand totally.

And it looks as though they will be last to start up an
> online network.

They've used the internet before including Rad net in japan and it wasn't impressive and Nintendo will see if it is worth doing i don't think it is.

I suppose they are just being cautious, but there are always
> going to be left behind if they are so negative.

negative? Their software is years ahead of the rest.

Or†ega wrote:

"I suppose they are just being cautious, but there are always going to be left behind if they are so negative."

Hmmm... you've got a point there, but I'm thinking more along the games side of things, than hardware.

Rare are easily one of the best developers in the world, and they are especially good because they have that nice sense of humour that we get. I find the 'humour' in many games is often pretty lame, but Conkers BFD was hilarious, and many other games have comic moments, like Donkey Kong 64 (and the DK Country series for that matter), and Fet Force Gemini (remember the guy who wanted the 'specialist' magazine...? wink, wink, nudge, nudge eh?).

Rare, bless em. And Starfox Adventures and Kameo both look awesome. Eternal Darkness looks pretty damn good too.

*drools*

I disagree, I think Nintendo are scared to try new things. Maybe not so much on the games side, but look at some other things...

They were the last to start using optical media.

And it looks as though they will be last to start up an online network.

I suppose they are just being cautious, but there are always going to be left behind if they are so negative.

I think Rare aren't really scared to try something new, and that's why I admire them for that. Exactly the same with Nintendo themselves, and Sega too.

Yeah but Blast Corps, Killer Instinct, Perfect Dark, Jet Force Gemini are hardly in shells of Nintendo games... like Donkey Kong Racing.

I was just talking about just Rare.

You said yourself Rare make a lot of thier games in the shell of Ninty games.