| The Impact of Rare When Rare first came into the industry in 1982 as Ultimate Play The Game, they were not known as anything special in the video gaming industry. Little did anyone know that this small company would eventually become Rareware, one of Nintendo's greatest assets. Are you wondering why Rare was, and still is, one of the most respected gaming companies today? Well if you are, or even if you aren't, read on. In almost every game that Rare has developed there has been awesome graphics, unbelievable sound and most of the time, brilliant gameplay. The 50+ Rare library on the NES were all reasonably good but one really stood out on the NES, that being Battletoads. Toads that do Battle? No one thought that this game would actually work, but Rare proved the world wrong and produced one of the best platformers on the NES. Who hadn't wanted to kick a pink Pig in a Viking Hat's butt from time to time? The title was a huge success and stunned people with what it did with the NES?s graphics and sound. Battletoads was a�� fabulous game on the Nintendo Entertainment System. Soon after, in the SNES era, Rare made a handful of reasonably good SNES Battletoad games before talking a break to delve deeper into the SNES technology. After a little while Rare was back with Donkey Kong Country. This was one of the best 16 bit games out and used SNES technology to the full. It sold 8 million copies since November 1994 and made Rare famous. The graphics on this beautiful game were equal to some games on the N64. The sound was also absolutely the best on the SNES and made most early Playstation games sound like something from the NES era. The sequels to this game were also of the same graphics, maybe even a little improved, but the sound was not as good as DKC. Killer Instinct also came out on the SNES and was a great game and blew critics away, who thought Streetfighter could not be beaten. Without the help of Rareware in the Super Nintendo period, the SNES wouldn't have been as successful as it was. As the launch of the N64 came up critics began to wonder whether Rare could outdo their efforts from the SNES. It was shown soon after that they could, with the launch of the revolutionary Goldeneye 007, based on the movie of the same name. From the very first level, Dam, when it honed in on James Bond, you loved the game, from the very first time you shot your friend in the face in multiplayer or when you shot Trevelyn off the cradle and watched him fall to his death, this game totally rocked. This game revolutionized console shooters and is still an awesome game to play even today. Surrounded by massive amounts of hype, Banjo Kazooie was unveiled soon after Goldeneye. It starred a shy honey bear by the name of Banjo, who was accompanied by a foulmouthed bird, Kazooie, that showed the enemies who was boss. The unlikely duo had a variety of moves to their name, which were perfectly useful for whopping enemy behind. With Gruntilda the witch as your enemy Banjo and his Breegull buddy had to use all their strange and useful abilities to foil the evil witches plan to steal Banjo's sister's beauty. This was a great game and some may even say it beat Super Mario 64, and that is definitely not an easy task. Soon after Banjo-Kazooie came one of the most anticipated games ever, Donkey Kong 64. Quite simply this was one of the greatest games of the 64. With playable Kongs being DK, Diddy Kong, Chunky Kong, Lanky Kong and Tiny Kong there was a huge adventure waiting to be played once you put the game into your Nintendo 64. It was so big that it couldn't be played without the N64 expansion pack. The goal was to collect Golden bananas and there were LOTS of them, all hidden in beautifully detailed worlds. The graphics on this N64 game blew me away, and others I'm sure. There was also awesome sound, which had old DK music and new music. Included in this game were DK Arcade and Jetpac, both nice little additions. Altogether this was one whopping package. It definitely lived up to the great name of the Donkey Kong series. As the N64 was reaching its elderly years, out came Perfect Dark. Rare once more set the standards in the first person genre. It had a worthy storyline, nice characters and graphics to die for. Once again the expansion pack was needed, but this time only for single player and some multiplayer modes. Joanna Dark, the main character and heroine, was stocked with weapons such as RCP-120, Proximity mines, Crossbow and many other ingenious inventions by Rareware. It set the standards in console shooters and many argue that it was only recently overthrown by X-Boxes Halo. Rare had made a game that you just could not put down till the very end. If you didn't like the single player missions you could always try multiplayer. This was really great with friends, or even on your own with the 8 computer controlled bots being selectable. This was a quality game, and it showed with realistic graphics and sound, awesome gameplay and the Rare touch this was THE game in the late N64 era. Near the very end of the N64 lifespan came Conkers Bad Fur Day. The once cute squirrel Conker had turned bad, but in a good way. The very simple storyline of this came was to guide poor, hung over Coker home after his 21st birthday party. But with Rare involved came a much, much deeper game then it sounds. There was swearing, sexual profanity, beer, bodily excrements and a loudmouthed squirrel all involved in the game that shocked the world. It used the N64 to its full capability and it made Conker real to the players. Poor Conker only wanted to find his way home, but first he had to travel through worlds of many different shaped and sizes. Conker, as Rare's last N64 outing, was a great game and definitely deserved it's rating of M. Conker looked like so many cute platform games before it, but instead of cute little bumble bees and the like, out came Conker, the slightly emotional squirrel. With Conker as the lead, early PS2 graphics, nice sound and an M rating Conker was one of the best games to come out in a while. There ends my impacting games from Rare. But what else did Rare do to help the Nintendo world? Lots of things is the answer. With almost every Rare game having the quality that they had they have definitely helped Nintendo sell their consoles over the past years. Some people bought the N64 just for the wonderful Goldeneye, and if that isn't a sign of Rare helping Nintendo, then I sure don't know what is. With future Rare title such as Starfox Adventures and Kameo: Elements of Power, I am positive that Rare will be helping Nintendo to wow the world for years to come. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| - Editorial - Luke Mortimer- 22/08/02 |
 |
 |
| News Editorials Specials Gallery Affiliates About Staff Starfox Adventures Kameo Donkey Kong Racing Sabre Wulf Donkey Kong CC Banjo Kazooie: GR Diddy Kong Pilot |
 |
 |
 |
 |