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Forums - Gaming Discussion - Who did it better: Rare vs Blizzard

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Who did it better in their prime?

Rare LTD 30 45.45%
 
Blizzard ENT 36 54.55%
 
Total:66

Battle of the titans. Here we go. Which of these two companies dominated genres in their Prime. (Key words, In their prime) Who did it better.

Rare and Blizzard go back a fair fit in the history of gaming when Rare were known as Ultimate Play the Game back in 1985 while Blizzard were known as Silicon & Synapse Inc back in 1991 than changed to Chaos Studios Inc in 1993. Both later changed their brand to Rare Limited and Blizzard Entertainment

These companies took the world by storm by not only releasing quality games across the generations, but they defined and conquered multiple genres, something you don't see much of these days by one developer. Modern gaming companies stick to their strengths and specific genres that work for them while Rare and Blizzard will venture out into other genres and not only compete with the best, but become equally the best in the field if not the best in what they delivered. Nintendo are the only ones that come to mind when it comes to delivering that same notion. Special mention to Valve, they recreate the wheel with every FPS game they make. From Counter Strike, Team Fortress, Left 4 Dead, Portal, Half Life 1 and 2 and Half Life: Alyx all did things that changed the industry.

Lets get started with the lists wars between these two historic giants. The game series mentioned below are not just ordinary releases, they were at the time, game changes in terms of innovating and technology used. 

Platformer -  Donkey Kong Country, Banjo Kazooie, Conker BFD

Beat'em Up - Battlestoads

FPS - Goldeneye, Perfect Dark

Fighter - Killer Instinct

Kart Racer - Diddy Kong's Racing

GaS - Sea of thieves

---

RTS - Warcraft, Starcraft

MMO - World of Warcraft

FPS - Overwatch

Card Game - Hearthstone

Action RPG - Diablo

Side Scroller - Blackthorne

Racer - Rock n' Roll Racing

Last edited by Azzanation - on 23 January 2022

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As far as industry changing games....

Has to be blizzard. War craft was big for the rts genre and mmo... Then starcraft came along and did it again.

Not to mention Dota began as a war craft mod, helping usher in a new gaming genre. While blizzard didn't do it, they created the tools and resources so that someone could. Hell, dota had a even more basic version of some sort in StarCraft too if I recall correctly...

Diablo... Probably their best ip imo also was pretty industry changing.

I'll say that donkey Kong also was very impactful but didn't really help spawn a new genre. Just massively improved the existing formula.

Goldeneye though showed that console fps could work, perfect dark built on that and was a much more refined experience.

Have to give it to blizzard though.



ironmanDX said:

As far as industry changing games....

Has to be blizzard. War craft was big for the rts genre and mmo... Then starcraft came along and did it again.

Not to mention Dota began as a war craft mod, helping usher in a new gaming genre. While blizzard didn't do it, they created the tools and resources so that someone could. Hell, dota had a even more basic version of some sort in StarCraft too if I recall correctly...

Diablo... Probably their best ip imo also was pretty industry changing.

I'll say that donkey Kong also was very impactful but didn't really help spawn a new genre. Just massively improved the existing formula.

Goldeneye though showed that console fps could work, perfect dark built on that and was a much more refined experience.

Have to give it to blizzard though.

Rare definitely focus on tech advances, games like DKC and Killer Instinct were really good showcases for their time. The water effects in Sea of Thieves is also some of the best water effects in the industry. Blizzard focus a lot on gameplay first and when they made a game, it would be incredibly addictive. Blizzard are similar to Nintendo in that point where visuals isn't their priority. 

padib said:

I don't see the connection between the two.

Blizzard's IPs are much deeper artistically, and the lore is leagues above Rare.
Rare makes pretty graphics, great physics in gameplay, Blizzard is mosty about great gameplay for strategy and branched out to FPS very recently in its pretty long history. They made lost vikings but that was so early on, that once Warcraft II became a hit most of the company was put to work on strategy and top-down games.

Rare was much better at tackling other genres as Blizzard is known to have failed Starcraft Ghost for many many years.

What Blizzard was amazing at (and no longer due to Activision) was launching a game only once it's perfect. Blizzard is perfection, Rare is near perfection, but between the two there is a gulf.

But both today are shells of their former glory.

You are underestimating Rare back in their heyday. They innovated the FPS for consoles, they matched and succeeded Nintendo's own games, something not many companies can claim. Games like Killer Instinct were up their with Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat, Donkey Kong Country would outshine 2D Mario games, Banjo Kazooie would be compared to Mario 64. Perfect Dark was one of the best games ever made on the N64. Battletoads was one of the biggest talking points in the NES era. Rare had a lot of variety and when they did something, their games would be in the talking points of some of the best games for the systems.

Blizzard definitely went all in with art style and lore, they knew exactly what their fans wanted and delivered on many fronts. Keep in mind that both Rare and Blizzard were good in different eras. When Rare were Innovating and industry leading, Blizzard were starting out, when Rare started to go down hill, Blizzard started to take off and became industry leading. 

I always looked at Blizzard as the PC version of Rare, what Rare conquered with consoles genres, Blizzard would conquer PC genres.

Last edited by Azzanation - on 23 January 2022

I voted Rare only because I played pretty much all go the Rate games listed and had great experiences with them.



Hard to compare PC to consoles. What Rare did on consoles was ridiculous during the SNES and N64 (without DKC, Genesis would probably have won that gen; yes, DKC pretty much singlehandedly won it for Nintendo). But what Blizzard did on PC was pretty revolutionary too so, I don't know. I know I personally liked Rares games more though lol.



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And I still think Rock 'n Roll Racing is one of Blizzards high marks.



Blizzard of course.



Not much of a debate. Blizzard, easily.



I LOVE ICELAND!

Spindel said:

And I still think Rock 'n Roll Racing is one of Blizzards high marks.

I absolutely loved Rock n' Roll racing on the SNES, great game by Blizzard.

Last edited by Azzanation - on 23 January 2022

Don’t forget Wizards and Warriors (Rare). For an NES title, it was an amazingly accessible action platformer. Level design was original and still is quite unique. One of the few games I could beat all on my own as a child.

Killer Instinct is top tier for me in terms of games that shattered my expectations of what I thought I liked. Mortal Kombat, Tekken, Virtual Fighter, and Street Fighter II seemed unbeatable.

I’ll say that there are two kinds of gamers, those who love playing lots of different titles, and those who play mainly one title and get really competitive in it. Rare is king of the former and Blizzard is king of the latter.

I fell in with Rare.