What do you think of: Rare/Rareware?

[A Pixy]

Me? Like you, I love them for all their worth. I think it's safe to say that if you were to make a list of the top 10 N64 games, Rare would show up as much, if not more, than Nintendo themselves. With such great games as: 007 Goldeneye, Conker's Bad Fur Day, Jet Force Gemeni, Diddy Kong Racing and of course, Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie.

So, what do you think of Rare when they were good?

 

[Klippy]

I love the old Rare games.

Banjo-Kazooie games were my all-time favorite and I just couldn't love Nuts and Bolts at all. :/

Same with Diddy, and the Donkey Kong series. I seriously wish Nintendo could have Rare back to start making those amazing games again. ;;

 

[TRIFORCE89]

I love Banjo-Kazooie. One of my favourite games. Still the best 3D platformer I've played.

Put a lot of hours into Banjo and GoldenEye. Even the titles I didn't like as much (Tooie, DK64) were still really good.

I like Mario Kart more than Diddy Kong Racing. But Rare's other N64 racer...Mickey's Speedway USA is an under-appreciated kart racer. I liked it more than Diddy Kong

 

[Niprop]

... ...I enjoyed Banjo & Kazooie just as much as I enjoyed Super Mario 64! Diddy Kong Racing was fun, and though I never got to play more then a short demo of Goldeneye, from what I got out of it, it was a good game...

Sometimes, I miss Rare, but I recall hearing somewhere that Rare stated that it would have no problem helping Nintendo make another Donkey Kong game if it really needed to, but then again, I might have been hallucinating. Such happens when you stay up until 3:00 A.M...

 

[DonRoyale]

DONKEY KONG, DONKEY KONG, HOLY MOTHEREFFING FRAGGIN' HELL, DONKEY KONG

this post contains obstentatious amounts of bias; beware n_n

I have played Donkey Kong Country 2 on the SNES, and can say without even thinking that it is, in my opinion, one of the best games of all time. OF ALL TIME! It had the best soundtrack I've ever heard (If I remember correctly, TVTropes lists virtually every track under "Crowning Music of Awesome: Video Games". Win.), some of the best environments I've ever played in, terrible boss fights, and truly one of the hardest final boss battles...ever.

After that, when the N64 came out, my first game that wasn't Super Smash Bros. because that came with the N64 itself and therefore doesn't count :V was Donkey Kong 64. I had some gooooooood times with that one. I thought the Nintendo Coin was obtained by getting all 201 golden bananas, so I got 200/201...and guess which banana was the last one I got u_u

Then I started playing the Banjo series. I liked Banjo-Kazooie, but I loved Banjo-Tooie. Sharper graphics, beautiful environments, and crazy stuff (WHY IS THIS JINJO ATTACKING ME AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH) made it a great game overall.

Then there was Goldeneye, which I sucked at but at least it was fun to cheat with lololol. Then came Perfect Dark. That was a game I thoroughly enjoyed playing; even now, it's still my favorite shooter of all time. It probably has the best human-CPU multiplayer function ever. (and that's why I knocked Halo when it first came out; it lacked CPU's to beat up :>)

I never liked Conker's Bad Fur Day, but I know it's a good game lol. I think it came out when I was like, 7 or 8, so I was like "M? OH NO!" lol >_>

Oh, the good old days...now Rare sucks.
At least Perfect Dark is getting redefined for XBLA; another reason to bug my mom for a 360 lol

 

[Freestyle Farfetch'd]

Rare is, and was awesome. I'm personally a great admirer, they're a great British development studio and I don't believe they've gone down hill since joining Microsoft. They've certainly become less prolific, but that's inevitable given today's lengthy development cycles. I loved Nut and Bolts, Viva Pinata was good too (though not really my cup of tea), and Perfect Dark Zero wasn't half as bad as people said it was. I think people were just put off by it's steep difficulty.

Having said that though, Rare certainly produced their best work with Nintendo. Banjo Kazooie is perhaps the best platformer of all time. (OF ALL TIME!) Goldeneye, despite being the first console FPS is still very much playable today, and I still do infact play it. Anyone here heard of Goldeneye Source? It's a great remake of the multiplayer based of the Source engine (HL2, TF2, L4D, etc.) and it's really worth checking out.

Personally, I think Rare did the right thing by moving to Microsoft. Nintendo wouldn't suit them as partners at all anymore, given Rare's history of pushing technical boundries. Being stuck on the Wii wouldn't exactly exhibit Rare's technical prowess.

I just wish they'd get another game out! They've gotta be working on something big right now, whatever it is.