Alittle while ago when Donkey Kong Country: Returns got announced I saw a ton of threads calling RetroStudios the new RareWare. Now initially I thought to myself well they are very important to Nintendo and are handling Nintendo's properties fairly well. Initially when Retro got picked up by Nintendo alot of people called them the new RareWare as well pointing out their multiple properties they were creating.

But today I thought some more about the differences that Retro will need to overcome in order to truly replace Rare. Some things listed below where Rare seems to have the edge on Retro.

#1. Quantity, Retro has made four games for Nintendo's consoles over the last like 8 years. Thats a game every two years essentially. Where as RareWare released 11 games during the N64's 6 year lifespan. Now some will say its not about quantity its about quality. Well Rare's N64 titles were all very good I think I played just about all of them and they were amazing. Infact Rare made up alot of Nintendo's yearly line-ups. However Retro while releasing games of similiar high quality doesn't release as many.

#2. IP's, Retro started off with four intellectual properties in the works and this is why many compared them to Rare. However when given the Metroid liscense Retro bailed on all of its promising properties and we haven't heard of a single new IP since. Where as Rare constantly brought new properties to the market establishing big IP's like Banjo Kazooie , Perfect Dark and Killer Instinct among a half dozen others. This is one thing Rare has been really good at in the past is creating new properties which Nintendo could then use.

#3. Rare used to also do multiple platforms at a time. While they released 11 games on the N64 they also released plenty of titles on the handhelds. Rare also helped Nintendo dominate the GameGear with titles from everything like Donkey Kong to Conker.

#4. Rare pushed the boundaries like no other studio in Nintendo history has. Look at Conkers Bad Fur day for example. Rare did not shy away from pushing boundaries with the language in Perfect Dark for example. The blood booze etc...etc.... Rare really new how to push the right buttons to attract new consumers (The adult consumers). But Retro does not push the boundaries at all.

In the end I love both companies Retro a bit more right now and in the past I would have prefered Rare. But I noticed so many people calling Retro the new Rare and I couldn't help but realize if Retro was to become the new Rare they would have awful big shoes to fill.

Disclaimer, I love Retro and Rare both. I do not think Rare is a better company today then Retro is and has always been. I just wondered how everyone could call Retro the new Rare!

Maybe because we all want the old Rare back, but theyre never coming back ever!

The reason why Rare sucks now is because they don't have Nintendo now. I'm pretty sure if Retro Studios leaves Nintendo, they would suck too.

Retro is Retro and Rare was rare.

Nontheless, I think it would be great if Retro could release more games than 1 every two years.

No the reason why Rare is not as good as it used to be is because most key members left before Microsoft bought the company.

I agree with points 1 & 2. 3 while true, isn't too important in my opinion. I don't understand what you mean by number 4. If "pushing the boundaries" only entitles making M or M-like games then I don't think it is worth anything as a point. Retro studios pushed the boundaries in the Metroid Prime series in terms of gameplay when compared to the sidescrollers just as much as, if not more than(subjectively) Rare had with the IPs they worked with. 

People stupidly callRetro the new rare just because they took the challenge of a new DKC.

Retro started with a few members of  team known as Iguana, the developers of Turok series for Nintendo 64. Retro has pushed boundaries as well with the amazing things they did with Metroid Prime. So thay are an amazing development company on their own right.

Development teams were smaller back in the day, so many projects could be done in a short time span between titles, but things are way differnt nowadays. So the comparison of number of titles in different periods is invalid. Both are good in their respective times with Nintendo.

Thsy are different companies. But I do agree that the only Nintendo company that can develop a DKC and revive the franchise is Retro

Rare had several hundred employees when working on the N64; at a time when a team of 12 to 24 developers working for 9 to 18 months was adequate to release a big budget game. Retro Studios is a dramatically smaller studio working on games which require much more effort to complete.

The games take much more time to make now.

That's not just an issue with Retro but all studios require more time or more personnel now.   It's impossible to ask Retro to produce the same numer of games today that Rare did back in the day.  Hell, Rare doesn't even do it themselves.  Not even in the early GC days, not in the Xbox days and certainly not now in their X360 days.

Also, those 4 other titles that Retro was working were canceled by Nintendo, not Retro.  Nintendo put most of Retro's technical staff on the Metroid prime project which left very few to handle the technical hurdles for the other titles.  Because they couldn't get the game engines up to par fast enough, Nintendo nixed those projects and put everyone on the Metroid Prime project.

The comparison between the 2 studios is more metaphoric than literal.