All those are old games (Most really great games), however, I think most people agree that Rare lost their talent now.

 ???!!! u sure ... if thats true then it completely great .

DKC series is one of the greatest human accomplishments os all time. The only Rare game that I ever saw as bad was Killer Instinct, but even then, it had fun fatalities and combos. It's pretty fun, and if that's Rare's worst game (pre X360), then they were an amazing company.

Nowadays, Rare is garbage. But I think a lot of games are declining in quality as more focus goes into online elements and super graphics.

My feelings about Rare is that they were rarely original, but then again who is these days. They were good at taking other's ideas and polishing the hell out of them and injecting their own characters, style and sense of humour. In some instances i think they outshined their inspirations, in others they didn't. I never played KI much and i felt DK 64 failed to match Banjo but the other games on that list were grade A. In most instances the only games that were better than Rare's were Nintendo's own and Rare had the advantage of addressing genres that the Big N didn't.

I think they were at least equal to Nintendo on the N64 or slightly better. And one of their best games was Blast Corps. This game rocked and I am hoping for a sequel.

The 1st Viva Pinata was developed by Rare ltd., Party Animals developed by Krome studios. Notice Rare's Viva pinata game got much higher reviews and sold a lot more (over 1 million more says VGChartz). The 3rd Viva Pinata game Trouble in Paradise is back in the hands of Rare ltd, which means it should be much better than Party Animals. All three games though have been published by Microsoft Game Studios.

OT: I do not think Rare is Overated, they made some Classics back when they were with Nintendo(PD, Goldeneye,DK. ect). This gen with the Xbox 360 2 of their 3 games are Million sellers VP and PDZ. Can't wait for Banjo nuts and bolts

PS. How did I forget Conker's Bad Fur Day for the N64!!!!!

Go Cubs Go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, when Miyamoto is on record as calling Donkey Kong Country a mess, then people may want to evaluate just how good Rare actually is. Basically, I agree with the point that, when with Nintendo, they flourished. Even the games that some feel were, less than stellar, were pretty to look at, and better than many other titles on the market.

And Starfox Adventures was okay, but it was far from great. A mediocre, but pretty, Zelda clone.

Also, Conker's wasn't bad. Hilarious game, on the N64 at least, not that censored 360 version. (How'd that happen???) Still though, gameplay-wise, it's no Mario64.

 You are joking right?

This pretty much sums up Rare for me: when they missed the mark it's usually because they went too far with it--DK64 and Jetforce Gemini being a key examples of just not knowing when to quit. I would also submit that they really only came into their own with the N64 (their short-lived golden age, as it were), as besides a title or two (no, Battletoads is/was/will never be a good game) they weren't particuarly stand-out in any way (cue rabid Spectrum fans calling for my head).

I will say that I always thought the Donkey Kong Country games were vastly, vastly over-rated (moreso than any other games they've ever done by a country mile). They were aurally and visually neat-o, but the actual gameplay was leagues beneath the best of breed 16-bit platformers (mainly because the level design was sorely lacking).

They also have the very rare (cough) game where it's completely their idea and they took and ran with it to great effect (see: Blast Corps, RC Pro Am) but, on the whole, their whole schtick--when talking about their 'legendary' SNES/N64 output--was to take inspiration from somewhere else (usually Nintendo titles) and do their best to rival the masters of the craft. Sometimes this worked (Banjo) and sometimes it didn't (StarFox Adventures).

I was a spectrum fan and call for your head.