the only game that may be a retail release is killer instinct

What did happen to rare? Did a lot of the talent quit and move to other studios or what?

I kept seeing all these hyped revamps of old Nintendo/Rare series like Banjo, Perfect Dark, Conker and the like but all the comes out in the end is underwhelming below average crap. Remember when Rare released a great game more or less every single year though the entire lifespan of the SNES and N64? Where is the Rare of Donkey Kong Country, Conkers Bad Fur Day, Goldeneye and the rest of the big wins?

Rare probably thanks Square Enix every day for having fallen futher faster since 2003 then Rare ever did, but Rare certainly has fallen.

I mean who in the world thought Rare would become a studio where a 7.6-8.0 range is the norm?

Banjo for N64, 9.3 Press Average Banjo for 360 7.6 press average
N64 Perfect Dark 8.8 Press Average, 360 7.9
Conker's bad Fur Day 9.0 Press Average N64, Xbox Live and Reloaded? 8.1

And for games that were only released on one platform or the other
Goldeneye 9.6 N64
Donkey Kong Country 9.1 SNES
Donkey Kong 64 9.1


The first foray into Xbox land? Grabbed by the Ghoulies at a damn sorry 7.1, the low point for rare thus far
Also a relative disapointment (given Rare's Nintendo history) Kameo that barely made it to an 8.0

That leaves the only even remotely good Rare game in 6 years of Microsoft ownership as Viva Pinata which was legitimately pretty good and ended up at an 8.6. It's worth noting that their best post Nintendo game, wouldn't even have made their Nintendo Era top 10.

Incidentally Killer Instinct was never a very good fighter, both versions rated badly with the original ending up in the 6s. If it was sub par when it only had to compete with Mortal Kombat 3 how is it going to compete with the genuinely awesome new crop of fighters like Tekken, Soul Calibur, Virtua Fighter and the sometimes good Mortal Kombat games?

The only rare games that have a chance of being good these days are their virtual console releases, other then that, it does not look good at all.

I have no idea how Microsoft was able to ruin Rare so completely so quickly, but it went from being one of the 5 best developers in the world to being well out of the top 20 within a few years.

They also made Viva Pinata which is a fantastic game. If it had Wii in front of it would sell more then the million it sold already

Viva Pinata was a pretty good game, it was not a fantastic game. Donkey Kong Country (when it was originally released) was a fantastic game, Goldeneye 64 was a fantastic game, Conker's Bad Fur Day was a fantastic game.

Viva Pinata was just a pretty good rather basic simulation game, it was not bad but it certainly was not the next Sims either. That a pretty good 8 something rated game is the best Rare, who used to make an instant classic every year or two, has to offer, that goes to show my point that they are nowhere near the company they were under Nintendo.

Of course not having access to some of the very good Nintendo IPs like Donkey Kong probably doesn't help things. A big part of why Donkey Kong 64 was so great was the characters and settings.

This is what i was saying to a bewildered LBP fan. ps3 and 360 are not the markets for that sort of game, hence the lower than expected sales figures. Viva Pinata would certainly have done better on Wii, dk about gamecube.

Some guys need to try play battletoads...Anyway I am not excited about it after what they did with Banjo.

Yea but dude, companies make sequels today. This is the unfortunate reality of communist ideology permeating capitalist economics. Keep it the same and it will make more money

@KylieDog: What about Kameo and Viva Pinata? They were new games from the last few years.

What we have here is a failure to properly evaluate the overall library quality. How did Rare perform on all four respective platforms. Are you judgments based upon quantifiable data or are you letting your perceptions be tinged by nostalgia. Like the man said leave your emotions at the door.

I used IGN for my impartial comparison. The sight is merely more user friendly, and is considered by most be respectable. What follow are the average scores for Rare by platform. You can use the following link to run the numbers for yourself.

http://games.ign.com/objects/025/025151.html

GameCube 1 game total average of 9.0
Nintendo 64 11 games total average 8.7
Xbox 2 games total average 7.5
Xbox 360 3 games total average 8.4

The data tells the true story. The difference between the 360 and the 64 is one of consistency. Rare has been more consistent on the 360 then it was on the 64. While Rare did bring a fair share of incredible titles to the 64 they also had a few abysmal disappointments. With titles such as Killer Instinct Gold, Mickey's Speedway USA, and even Jet Force Gemini.

Further more if you delve into the realm of flop percentages you will see that across the Xbox family and the Nintendo family the rate is almost identical. Nintendo saw a 17% flop rate while Microsoft has seen a 20% flop rate. So the developer still has the same effective batting average.

A copy paste from a very old post. I will have to update the numbers, but the point is still valid. Actually BK3 is scoring par from IGN.

For those saying Rare are making crap what is wrong with you? Why do you demand AAA and nothing else!!

Metacritic

Viva Pinata - 84
Viva Pinata 2- 82
Banjo Kazooie 3 - 78
Kameo - 79
Perfect Dark Zero - 81

Pretty good scores and it makes them solid games.