Jumping in on the Rare/DKC/Starfox thing--I bought the green DKC N64 with the Expansion Pak etc. the Chrismas of 1998, I think. Even then, despite the amount of love Rare pumped into the game, reviewers were complaining that it was "more of the same" and another Rare "Collect-a-thon".
Now Conker was amazing. Rare still had the magic. I even bought the Xbox version to play on my 360 and I honestly believe it was an improvement over the N64 (some assholes disagree because they're wrong). Now, I'll gladly say that if Nintendo was holding Rare back or if Nintendo was the reason why SFA--a blatant Zelda rip-off--sucked (and, I know I use parenthesis a lot but damn. Forgive me but I thought Starfox Adventures was GREAT!), then why did Rare go to such shit immediately after leaving? Yeah, I though Kameo was good but Grabbed by the Ghoulies? Perfect Dark Zero? Nuts and Bolts?
