Unfortunately Rare isn't good anymore.

I *was* a Rare fanboy. Then Perfect Dark Zero happened, and even though I enjoyed the game--it cost me $2--I knew they would never produce another good game. Ever.

Rare was one my favourites as well along with Sonic Team, but unfortunately both have gone downhill in recent times. Do people from Rare's glory days still work at the studio or is it mostly made of new folks now? Though to be honest I still prefer Nintendo EAD to them, I would like a nice adventure-platform game like Mario Sunshine or Mario 64; I was not a fan of Super Mario 3D World (it was too easy for platform title, and too linear with too few adventure elements to be an adventure title).

the Rare of old.

I can't say I blame you for loving Rare. From 1994 to 2001 it was the best studio on the planet, outclassing even Nintendo EAD over that eight year stretch.

However, when you compare the two studios over the last 20 years, EAD wins by a mile. Nintendo's internal studios are still turning out masterpieces 30 years after Super Mario Bros. Rare, conversely, has descended into mediocrity over the past decade.

Still, those SNES and N64 games were really something special. Without Rare's output, the N64 library would be a lot less impressive.

Rare was the best studio Nintendo ever owned, even better than Nintendo EAD. I really miss unique AAA high quality games like Perfect Dark, Banjo-Kazooie, DKC, Diddy Kong Racing and Killer Instinct, especially since there is absolutely no replacement for them on current systems.

Besides the DKC Trilogy and Perfect Dark, I don't really find RARE's games to be all that special.

I only truly joined the ring with Nintendo in 2006 when the Wii came out. I've since dedicated a lot of time to playing their back catalog and inevitably Rare has come up. As someone who doesn't have nostalgia goggles for Rare here, can I be brutally honest? I don't think their games have aged well. I'm sure they were revolutions for their time, but it's hard for me to see them in that context. I enjoyed the Banjo games, but they wouldn't make a list of my top 10 platformers (nor would Super Mario 64, but that's unrelated). Goldeneye is historically a very important game, so I credit it for that, but ultimately it's a game that has been very much built upon in the years since and so it doesn't really hold up today. Few other Rare N64 games have really excited me at all.

Meanwhile, while Rare were making these games that I am personally at best split on, what were Nintendo EAD doing? Making The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, my favourite N64 game and one of my favourite games of all time full stop. It should be noted I only first played OoT in 2008, and I loved it then as I loved it now. For me it's the only Nintendo 64 game I've played that really holds up (it should be noted I'm yet to play Majora's Mask). So I guess Rare won on quantity of good games, but ultimately in my opinion Nintendo's best blew them out of the park.

Since then Nintendo have continued to be a phenomenal developer and unfortunately Rare have fallen from grace, obviously particularly since Microsoft purchased them. I'm not saying people who love Rare are wrong or anything, but I just wanted to provide a counter-opinion because I hear so much about the games they developed for the Nintendo 64 and I just am not so impressed.

Sidenote: The DKC trilogy is a fantastic set of games and I wouldn't dream of criticising them.

Nintendo really needs a team or teams which can provide them with similar outsput. Especially the the western flavoured stuff like Golden Eye and Perfect Dark.