It's quite serious, I would argue the best works of each are very comparable.

That’s a great way to put it.

One of the companies created RC Pro AM II and the other did not.

I think Retro Studios games have a higher lowest standard than compared to Rare. But then again, one of them created Conker's bad fur day and the other did not.

One could argue that that Metroid Prime is a masterpiece on a level never reached by Golden Eye, Banjo Kazooie or Donkey Kong Country 2. However only one of them created Battletoads.

I guess I have to give the crown to the developer that created Donkey Kong Country instead of the one who took over.

Nintendo should at least buy Rare's classic IPs, because Microsoft is doing Jack shit with them these days. Instead of Steve we could have easily had one of the Battletoads or Conker in Smash Ultimate.

Rare basically flipped the 16-bit wars (DKC, Killer Instinct to a lesser extent) in Nintendo's favor for good and carried the N64 even above Nintendo themselves for long stretches (GoldenEye 007 especially). GoldenEye 007 also shepherded in the multiplayer FPS craze on the console side that continues today with things like Call of Duty. Retro just can't match up to that kind of impact.