Rare: Killer instinct, Battletoads, Jet Force Gemini and Ghoulies 2:2009?

[Impulsivity]

What did happen to rare? Did a lot of the talent quit and move to other studios or what?

I kept seeing all these hyped revamps of old Nintendo/Rare series like Banjo, Perfect Dark, Conker and the like but all the comes out in the end is underwhelming below average crap. Remember when Rare released a great game more or less every single year though the entire lifespan of the SNES and N64? Where is the Rare of Donkey Kong Country, Conkers Bad Fur Day, Goldeneye and the rest of the big wins?

Rare probably thanks Square Enix every day for having fallen futher faster since 2003 then Rare ever did, but Rare certainly has fallen.

I mean who in the world thought Rare would become a studio where a 7.6-8.0 range is the norm?

Banjo for N64, 9.3 Press Average Banjo for 360 7.6 press average
N64 Perfect Dark 8.8 Press Average, 360 7.9
Conker's bad Fur Day 9.0 Press Average N64, Xbox Live and Reloaded? 8.1

And for games that were only released on one platform or the other
Goldeneye 9.6 N64
Donkey Kong Country 9.1 SNES
Donkey Kong 64 9.1


The first foray into Xbox land? Grabbed by the Ghoulies at a damn sorry 7.1, the low point for rare thus far
Also a relative disapointment (given Rare's Nintendo history) Kameo that barely made it to an 8.0

That leaves the only even remotely good Rare game in 6 years of Microsoft ownership as Viva Pinata which was legitimately pretty good and ended up at an 8.6. It's worth noting that their best post Nintendo game, wouldn't even have made their Nintendo Era top 10.

Incidentally Killer Instinct was never a very good fighter, both versions rated badly with the original ending up in the 6s. If it was sub par when it only had to compete with Mortal Kombat 3 how is it going to compete with the genuinely awesome new crop of fighters like Tekken, Soul Calibur, Virtua Fighter and the sometimes good Mortal Kombat games?

The only rare games that have a chance of being good these days are their virtual console releases, other then that, it does not look good at all.

I have no idea how Microsoft was able to ruin Rare so completely so quickly, but it went from being one of the 5 best developers in the world to being well out of the top 20 within a few years.