Rare ded

[Joe Molotov]

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/464142/rare-cuts-senior-staff-in-studio-methodology-change/

Methodology Change = The doors used to be unlocked and the lights were on in Rare's offices, but now they're not.

"[Rare has] just come off the successful launch of Kinect Sports Rivals," he said. "I think I've heard a few times from people asking about Rare - they're in the process of evaluating what they want to do next, and we're working closely with them to see what their new project will be."

Spencer also said the "independent-minded" but Microsoft-owned studio remains free to pursue the projects that interest it.

Like maybe "Wal-Mart checker" or "McDonald's chef".

[Takao]

Rare died over 10 years ago now. It's been The Studio Formerly Known As Rare ever since.

[Trent Dole]

[Takao]

i dunno man, i'm pretty sure the people working there valued their jobs

[Trent Dole]

Maybe they should've made something worthwhile in the last few decades then. 

[cool breeze]

I don't know what the modern situation is like, but Rare made good 360 non-Kinect games when they were allowed to....6 years ago 

[Stoney Mason]

The reality is that rare was always very hit or miss. Some stuff was good. Some stuff wasn't. Putting them on Kinect was a death sentence.

Hopefully the Viva Pinata franchise is eventually revived.

[Rahxephon91]

I don't know what the modern situation is like, but Rare made good 360 non-Kinect games when they were allowed to....6 years ago 

Not Perfect Dark Zero and it's a shame they won't be able to rectify that mistake.

[Madrun Badrun]

Nintendo really ass fucked MS on this one. 

[magus]

[MCD]

you guys didn't want Kinect, so I fired them and unbundled that shit.

[a slime appears]

I am currently playing Donkey Kong 64. Talk about collect-a-thons.

[Stoney Mason]

Conker's and Star Fox adventures were the games for me that sort of showed the emperor has no clothes.

Conker's was a fun gimmick looking for a fun game but the fun game part wasn't really there. And Star Fox Adventures was just a complete mess imo.

[magus]

Conker's and Star Fox adventures were the games for me that sort of showed the emperor has no clothes.

Conker's was a fun gimmick looking for a fun game but the fun game part wasn't really there. And Star Fox Adventures was just a complete mess imo.

i have happy memories of conker, heck even if the game was a text adventure it would be worth for this alone

[BobFromPikeCreek]

Too bad their 360 games sold like shit. Viva and N&B are like the two best games they ever made.

[Human Snorenado]

Viva Pinata was the best game they made in the past decade, and while it was fun that's not really saying much.

[cool breeze]

Conker's and Star Fox adventures were the games for me that sort of showed the emperor has no clothes.

Conker's was a fun gimmick looking for a fun game but the fun game part wasn't really there. And Star Fox Adventures was just a complete mess imo.

their lineup had always been inconsistent and fluffed by their then fan base.  sort of like insomniac.

rare's position is mostly disappointing because nuts and bolts is one of their best games, or at least the best since banjo 1 in 98.

[Rufus]

Conker's and Star Fox adventures were the games for me that sort of showed the emperor has no clothes.

Conker's was a fun gimmick looking for a fun game but the fun game part wasn't really there. And Star Fox Adventures was just a complete mess imo.

i have happy memories of conker, heck even if the game was a text adventure it would be worth for this alone

Some of the devs who worked on it recorded a (unfinished, probably abandoned) video series of themselves playing through the game and, uh, taking the piss. Fairly entertaining, but they're mostly being old men about how easy things are today.

Code: [Select]

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFP9r6vJL2qCCERMBP_ZWUEV0vaSL4rHf (overzealous embed plugin...)

[Great Rumbler]

Guess that means we're never going to get a sequel to Rare's best game:

[Joe Molotov]

Check the Windows 8 App Store, it might be in there.

[a slime appears]

Some of the devs who worked on it recorded a (unfinished, probably abandoned) video series of themselves playing through the game and, uh, taking the piss. Fairly entertaining, but they're mostly being old men about how easy things are today.

Code: [Select]

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFP9r6vJL2qCCERMBP_ZWUEV0vaSL4rHf (overzealous embed plugin...)

Thanks for posting that! I've never seen it and it seems like a good watch. You're right though; they never finished it and the last upload was 7 months ago.

[Steve Contra]

What was Rare's last good game?  RC Pro-Am?

[Human Snorenado]

What was Rare's last good game?  RC Pro-Am?

Viva Pinata, dude.

"It's like a sexier Auschwitz, but with incest."
-TVC 15

[chronovore]

Maybe they should've made something worthwhile in the last few decades then. 

Too bad their 360 games sold like shit. Viva and N&B are like the two best games they ever made.

Yeah, Viva Piñata and Nuts and Bolts are two seriously obsession-inducing games for me. VP is responsible for several evenings where i suddenly noticed I'd planned to go to be 4 hours earlier; N&B is the best Lego game out there, and it's a joke that Traveller's Tales are making Lego games without any actual Lego function in them.

I have no nostalgia for Rare's previous efforts. I never played them. I'm sad at the shoddy, lingering death afforded them by putting them on half-assed technology initiatives, and this is just the final one of those. Hopefully the staff will be able to find good homes in challenging environments, but I fear AAA developers who are looking for largely original gameplay development right now are going to have a hard time.

[a slime appears]

I swear I thought I was the only person who didn't hate Nuts & Bolts, lol.

I mean it's a terrible Banjo game but it's a pretty cool little construction kit and physics playground. I enjoyed it for what it was.

[chronovore]

I swear I thought I was the only person who didn't hate Nuts & Bolts, lol.

I mean it's a terrible Banjo game but it's a pretty cool little construction kit and physics playground. I enjoyed it for what it was.

Sceneman and I are both in love with it; we must have voiced it before you (cough) joined the forum.

You're 100% right. It's a bad Banjo Kazooie game; I tried playing it like a platformer before the game gave me enough pieces to make interesting stuff, and as a platformer, it's absolute crap. Swimmy controls, unclear player metrics, and a camera which needs more hand-holding than a bipolar girlfriend. As a construction kit, it's unmatched.

I think that's a hallmark of Rare's last-gen development efforts: It's never clear for whom they are designing. Once the design is clear, it's genius, but it's rarely a well-worn genre and only rewards people who are willing to stick it out to find its core.

[benjipwns]

This never would have happened if they had started Blast Corps 2 instead of Dinosaur Planet.

[AdmiralViscen]

N&B is one of the best games of the generation

[Positive Touch]

What was Rare's last good game?  RC Pro-Am?

no because that game is trash too

FUCK ME IVE WAITED FOR THIS DAY FOR LIKE 25 YEARS FUCK THIS IS AWESOME. FUCK THEIR TRASH-ASS FOURTH-RATE COPYCAT GAMES, FUCK THEIR UGLY ART STYLES, FUCK THEIR INEXPLICABLE LONGEVITY. ILL SEE YOU IN HELL RARE, ILL SEE YOU IN HELL

[Positive Touch]

i tried to find a humorous gif or video to go with my post, but none properly expressed the sheer elation i feel right now

GOD IT FEELS SO GOOD

[tiesto]

Hopefully they managed to get that rumored Battletoads game out before they finally go completely kaput.

[thisismyusername]

why

battletoads sucks

it's an exercise in kusoge self-torture

For real, as a beat-'em-up, it's bad. As a platformer (that infamous "bike" which I guess isn't technically a platformer, but work with me here) it's bad. The only claim to fame it has is the "hard"-ness and that's only because of said infamous bike.

i tried to find a humorous gif or video to go with my post, but none properly expressed the sheer elation i feel right now

GOD IT FEELS SO GOOD

I haven't played all their titles, but outside of Conker which is "#2Edgy4Rare"/"I play mature games for mature people like me," they really didn't have anything going on that "wow"ed me like they wowed Nintendo fans. I guess probably because I grew out of Nintendo's family pretty quickly when my NES died just as fast the 360 did last generation. So it was hard for me to care about most Nintendo second parties and the stuff they put out on X-box was either "okay," to "meh."

[Positive Touch]

i always liked nintendo games, but rare games were always some unoriginal, tedious messes that had inexplicable levels of hype/exposure, even before the n64 and 360 days. the best they could but out was overrated trash that barely worked.

[BobFromPikeCreek]

I swear I thought I was the only person who didn't hate Nuts & Bolts, lol.

I mean it's a terrible Banjo game but it's a pretty cool little construction kit and physics playground. I enjoyed it for what it was.

I'm there with you man. For me, N&B was like a top 10 game for that generation.

[a slime appears]

Sceneman and I are both in love with it; we must have voiced it before you (cough) joined the forum.

N&B is one of the best games of the generation

I'm there with you man. For me, N&B was like a top 10 game for that generation.

My people.

 

[Trent Dole]

Oh god the bike shit in Battletoads. I was eventually able to do that shit with slow mo via memorization I think. Fought the last boss via Game Genie and holy shit what a joke she is. Lots of the game itself in nightmarish but the end ain't no big thing. Ghosts 'n' Goblins was like that too wasn't it? Must've been an NES thing I guess.

[tiesto]

The bike wasn't really that hard compared to some of the later levels in the game...

Oh yeah, and Snake Rattle N Roll kicked ass too. But those are really the only Rare games I'm into... didn't care much for their N64 library and beyond.

[Yulwei]

i remember playing Starfox Adventures and then almost immediately putting the controller back down because of how awful the movement and combat felt in that game. I didn't even know rare was responsible for that pos

[tiesto]

Rare is responsible for more pure shit than anyone truly realizes.  Especially back in the NES days.

Yeah a lot of Acclaim/LJN published games were actually developed by Rare.

[The Sceneman]

Wow, this is like your awesome uncle succumbing to his latent alcoholism, becoming an asshole for like 15 years off the strength of his blackouts and fuckups, then dying of liver failure.

As recently as 2008 Rare delivered the greatest 360 exclusive: Banjo Kazooie Nuts & Bolts. They'll be back. Suck it down.

[a slime appears]

Rare is responsible for more pure shit than anyone truly realizes.  Especially back in the NES days.

LJN's other go-to developer for a lot of their licensed shit was none other than Atlus, which is far funnier in hindsight.

I've been watching catching up with Chrontendo lately and I'm marveling at just how much garbage Rare, Square, and Atlus have put out back in the 8-bit days.

[tiesto]

Rare is responsible for more pure shit than anyone truly realizes.  Especially back in the NES days.

LJN's other go-to developer for a lot of their licensed shit was none other than Atlus, which is far funnier in hindsight.

I've been watching catching up with Chrontendo lately and I'm marveling at just how much garbage Rare, Square, and Atlus have put out back in the 8-bit days.

Chrontendo

Or Micronics... damn I never heard of them before Chrontendo but yeah all the games they made were awful...

[benjipwns]

thats a one hot game every fourteen year average.

It's Mr Pants was 2005, Blast Corps was 1997 and Ken Griffey Jr's Winning Run was 1996.