Author Topic: Banjo-Kazooie is back & now on XBox 360 (Read 90900 times)

joshnickerson · « **Reply #25 on:** April 22, 2005, 04:41:24 PM »

Rare still makes games?

NinGurl69 *huggles · « **Reply #26 on:** April 22, 2005, 05:52:55 PM »

Nah, they *pretend* to make games, and Microsoft believes them.

What they make are Conker screenshots.

mantidor · « **Reply #27 on:** April 22, 2005, 08:55:39 PM »

aw, rare

my first experience with them was Donkey Kong Country 2, and it was so unbelievably awesome! I want that Rare back! why is that every developer shines so much when they are Ninty's second party and die when the go third? imagine every developer becoming second party... oh, gaming heaven ^_^

Savior · « **Reply #28 on:** April 22, 2005, 09:20:02 PM »

Actually Rare is still a Seccond party.

I wonder if the exodus of developers is the reason why we get Grabbed by the ghoulies by rare (Not literally lol) and not quality games. Im anxiously waiting to see Perfect Dark 2, or is it Zero... but it was rumored to be celshaded back on the GCN, and judging from the joanna pics it looks like its still cel chaded. A cel chaded PD would most certainly suck

kennyb27 · « **Reply #29 on:** April 23, 2005, 05:21:08 AM »

Quote
Originally posted by: Savior
Actually Rare is still a Seccond party.

I actually thought it was a first party of Microsoft now. Hmmm..

Quote
I wonder if the exodus of developers is the reason why we get Grabbed by the ghoulies by rare (Not literally lol) and not quality games. Im anxiously waiting to see Perfect Dark 2, or is it Zero... but it was rumored to be celshaded back on the GCN, and judging from the joanna pics it looks like its still cel chaded. A cel chaded PD would most certainly suck

Actually, those pics are quite old. So knowing Rare, they probably scrapped the whole game and started over (a couple times) since then. So for all we know, the PD that actually is released might be "teh mAtuRe."

ruby_onix · « **Reply #30 on:** April 23, 2005, 04:19:59 PM »

Quote
I actually thought it was a first party of Microsoft now.

If rumors are to be believed, that's part of the problem.

Supposedly, Rare has/had three main "ranks". We can call them "Royals" "Nobles" and "Peasants".

Peasants do all the real work at Rare. It's a lousy job, and very easy to get. People are constantly quitting or getting fired, and Rare is constantly hiring. Your only hope to get ahead is to become friends with a royal.

Nobles organize everything. When something gets done at Rare, it's because of the skill and leadership of the noble, and the number of peasants under his/her command.

The royals are the Stampers, and anyone who's related to them. The Stampers own 51% of Rare, so they literally own Rare. Royals get assigned to take on jobs all over the place, from "noble" positions down to peasants and lowly janitors. But if they have a blood relation to the Stamper family, they automatically outrank everybody in the building, aside from other more-important royals, who are the ones who placed them in those jobs in the first place. Royals are the ones who gave the nobles their positions.

After Perfect Dark was completed, practically all the nobles in the Goldeneye/PD team except Martin Hollis jumped ship, effectively breaking the Goldeneye/PD team. Hollis wanted to rebuild, so the Stampers sent him a royal to serve as the noble in charge of the artwork in the game. She decided to shake things up and do the "Jo-anime Dark" thing, and Hollis broke the unspoken Rare rule and said the "n-word" no to a royal, so he was fired, which supposedly drove the last nail into the coffin of Rare's Goldeneye/PD team, and the peasants were assigned to other projects, except that Rare/MS seems to keep saying that they still have the Goldeneye/PD team, and it's just fine. Better than ever, even.

That's supposedly just "how things worked" at Rare.

But when Microsoft bought Rare, everything got shaken up. The Stampers don't own Rare. So why are they royal? Why do they walk around like they own the place? Why do the programmers keep having to brown-nose a janitor in order to keep their jobs?

It's like, what would happen to the American dollar if someone stole Fort Knox? The Stamper's power base just up and evaporated one day. Microsoft has it. And eveyrone is trying to figure out exactly what that means.

Bill Aurion · « **Reply #31 on:** April 23, 2005, 04:31:30 PM »

*whoops, never mind*

Robotor · « **Reply #32 on:** April 23, 2005, 05:58:53 PM »

That seems like a really messed up system Ruby onix, where did you find all that out?

And to stay on topic, I never really liked the first Banjo. It was like the adventures of Errand Bear and his oppresed backpack bird.

killthenet · « **Reply #33 on:** May 02, 2005, 04:09:59 PM »

I'd just like to point out that the Stampers still own 51% of Rare, so Rare is very much their own company. How do you know all of this "inside information" then ruby_onix? Have you ever worked at Rare? Have you ever spoken to an employee of Rare? Or are you just spouting hearsay because "Rare betrayed us, and now they've gone crap!!!"

Which they haven't by the way. Their GBA games are brilliant and the only reason they've taken so long with their X Box games is because they've had to get used to the huge influx of new staff and they've had to learn how to program for a whole new machine. Rare basically doubled in size when Microsoft bought (some of) it, they had to build a whole new development building. I have yet to play Grabbed By The Ghoulies and I don't really like the look of it, but I'm definately going to buy an X Box for Conker, and hopefully Kameo, if not i'll just wait for the 360, i'm sure they'll have plenty more top quality games avaliable for that.

ruby_onix · « **Reply #34 on:** May 02, 2005, 05:41:51 PM »

Quote
I'd just like to point out that the Stampers still own 51% of Rare, so Rare is very much their own company.

No, the Stampers bought the 49% back from Nintendo, then they sold the whole 100% to Microsoft. Microsoft didn't want Rare unless they could have it outright. Nintendo didn't sell their 49% to Microsoft.

Quote
How do you know all of this "inside information" then ruby_onix? Have you ever worked at Rare? Have you ever spoken to an employee of Rare? Or are you just spouting hearsay because "Rare betrayed us, and now they've gone crap!!!"

As I said, internet rumors. Rare is a big company. You don't have to go very far before bumping into people who claim to be former employees of Rare, and are quite willing to bitch about them, off the record. And I haven't seen anyone with similar authority ever try to deny these things.

I never said it was the truth (although it could be). It just needed to be said as an explanation for how "going first party" may be hurting Rare.

Quote
Which they haven't by the way. Their GBA games are brilliant and the only reason they've taken so long with their X Box games is because they've had to get used to the huge influx of new staff and they've had to learn how to program for a whole new machine. Rare basically doubled in size when Microsoft bought (some of) it, they had to build a whole new development building.

Bah. Rare's productivity has gone to hell. SFA was an N64 port. Kameo was practically supposed to be a GameCube launch title. As was their Donkey Kong (now just "mascot") racing game. Grabbed by the Ghoulies was... something. At least they have that. Conker is an N64 port... with SFA's "fur shading".

Unless Microsoft has gotten Rare to delay just about everything into becoming XBox2 launch titles, Rare needs every excuse at their disposal, multiplied by their legendary lack of productivity, and then we can still bitch about them being at an all-time low right now.

nemo_83 · « **Reply #35 on:** May 02, 2005, 06:59:15 PM »

I am anxious to find out if Rare still has "it."

killthenet · « **Reply #36 on:** May 03, 2005, 04:44:35 AM »

You're right. They are at an all time low on the productivity front, they've only released 5 games in 3 years. I'm pretty sure Microsofts plan for Rare was to develop for the Xbox 360 anyway, surely if they'd actually wanted 5 games a year from them, they would've dropped them or given them a major kick up the ass by now. Rare still has "it" in the handheld department at least, and now that they're used to the Xbox hardware, we'll be able to see just how good they are now.

couchmonkey · « **Reply #37 on:** May 03, 2005, 11:05:40 AM »

If Rare's own Scribes page is to be believed, fewer than 10 people left Rare after the Microsoft takeover. Now, of course Rare has reason to lie in Scribes, but my opinion is that if Rare had something to hide with regards to that, it would just be quiet, instead of out-and-out denying it. Again, from Scribes, Rare's own excuse for the lack of productivity is increasing team sizes, changing hardware, and redeveloping some of its games to match the Xbox demographic.

I admit I was wrong about Rare. From all appearances, Nintendo was very smart to sell the company: it's had terrible productivity on home consoles and its best work has all been on the GBA. I thought Rare would make a comeback, but it hasn't. Not on home consoles, anyway. But I'm still just naive enough to believe that Rare has been reorganizing the troops and that the company will return in a big way on Xbox 360. Meanwhile, I'm glad I didn't buy an Xbox for Rare.

KDR_11k · « **Reply #38 on:** May 04, 2005, 02:30:30 AM »

and redeveloping some of its games to match the Xbox demographic.

(marketspeak): Adding guns, removing light and filling characters with generic rage.

Deguello · « **Reply #39 on:** May 05, 2005, 01:36:45 AM »

I'd wager more than 10 people left. I wouldn't put much faith in what their Scribes segment says. Scribes also said that in 2002 "you will be playing Kameo on your GC's" and in 2001 "Sabre Wulf GBA is pretty much finished." Then why did it take 3 years to release it?

Spak-Spang · « **Reply #40 on:** May 05, 2005, 05:57:57 AM »

Ok. I'm sorry but since when was Rare so great?

They gave us 2 potentially 3 great games on the Nintendo 64 and everyone thinks they are gods among developers. They aren't.

Goldeneye
Perfect Dark
and maybe...
Conker

were their only great games.

Blast Corps had some huge flaws in the design and was repetitive and boring.

Banjo was a horribly designed platformer that forced you to repeat levels after you learned new moves, but the new moves didn't really open anything more exciting up. Mario was infinitely better.

Donkey Kong 64 See Banjo
Conker See Banjo, but with humor

Rare is completely overrated, and Grabbed by the Ghoulies proves it. MS hasn't gotten their money's worth yet from them.

couchmonkey · « **Reply #41 on:** May 05, 2005, 07:28:50 AM »

I simply disagree with you. I could go into a long argument why, but our tastes in gaming obviously differ so there's no point. As far as my taste goes, most of Rare's N64 games are classics to me, with Mickey's Speedway USA being the only definite exception, and DK64 and Banjo-Tooie being the "sort-of" exceptions.

killthenet · « **Reply #42 on:** May 05, 2005, 08:12:32 AM »

Diddy Kong Racing is one of the finest racing games ever. Perfect Dark and Goldeneye are 2 of the finest shoot-em-ups ever. Banjo Kazooie, Banjo Tooie and Donkey Kong 64 are among the best platformers ever made, and Blast Corps and Killer Instinct are brilliant games. And that's just a few of their N64 games. They released many classics on the Super Nintendo, and they've released countless amounts of great games for the Gameboy line.

There is no way they're overrated.

Artimus · « **Reply #43 on:** May 05, 2005, 09:01:03 AM »

Great Rare games:
Killer Instinct
Donkey Kong Country 1 + 2
Goldeneye 007
Perfect Dark
Diddy Kong Racing

Good Rare games:
Banjo Kazooie
Star Fox Adventures
SabreWulf

Donkey Kong 64 was too repetitive and boring, especially.

darknight06 · « **Reply #44 on:** May 05, 2005, 09:16:19 AM »

Blast Corps was a hard game at times but it was a lot of fun overall. The dumptruck owned. Along with Goldeneye and Perfect Dark, these were three of their best N64 projects IMO.

DKC2 was the best of the DKC series, 1 was good while 3 just felt like they were milking the franchise.

I've never played Conker so I'm not gonna comment on that.

I agree for the most part with Banjo and DK64, though Banjo was a bit better than DK. Rayman 64 was better than both.

Diddy Kong Racing was OK, but nothing spectacular. Even though it had the planes and the watercrafts, it still had this been there done that feeling. That and it bugged the heck out of me that the game 80% of the time ran at a framerate of sub 20.

The KI series as a whole sucked. Yeah it was pretty, but it had some of the most shallow gameplay this side of Mortal Kombat. All you did was block each others opener until someone got hit so you can finish a canned combo. The first KI didn't even have throws. KI2 tried to remedy a lot of this, but it ended up turning into a boring rock-paper-scissors game. Characters felt too similar. Throws were implemented, but they were practically worthless outside of a combo and even then there were much better things you can do. And I'm not even going to get into the infinites. KI Gold removed most of the bugs, but it was still a dead game, now without a lot of the arcade's flash factor . (FMV, full color characters) Overall, Capcom's worst fighting game was still leagues ahead of KI on a whole. If they make another one they're going to have to go back to square one if they want it to be taken seriously these days.

Spak-Spang · « **Reply #45 on:** May 05, 2005, 01:53:32 PM »

I am not saying that Rare didn't make some good games, but yeah Rare has been given too much credit over the years, much more than they ever deserved.

Savior · « **Reply #46 on:** May 05, 2005, 03:16:16 PM »

Rare also helped with pushing the tech with Nintendo kinda like how Factor 5 does... People seem to want to underate them now that they are gone but to me they were great under Nintendo.

Spak-Spang · « **Reply #47 on:** May 06, 2005, 04:52:02 AM »

Savior: Nope. People seemed to want to bloat them up because they were with Nintendo.

Rare makes technically impressive games with great graphics a neat since of humor, but they didn't know how to really push the limits of fun factor and gameplay.

Nintendo helped them with almost all of their games to get that aspect inline, and it took forever because Rare was more focused on the technical achievements. Well, BAH! I don't see it.

Banjo Racing was overrated. It was Kart racing, but you could also fly. The levels were fun when you raced, but it was stupid putting that adventure mode to find the next racing in there. It didn't blend well at all.

Banjo-Kazooie had you wondering around collecting stuff. The early levels were completely stiff because you had like 3 moves until you learned more in later levels. Then to fly you had to collect feathers and such which meant more collecting and then in the air you had to follow set paths to collect more. BAH! I know there was some good stuff in the game, but really it was overrated.

Goldeneye and Perfect Dark were great but how many years did they work on both projects? Yeah exactly...if you can't make a great FPS in that amount of time...and once again Nintendo helped with the game alot.

Conkers was also only popular because of its humor. The game had major design flaws for a Platformer, and too much downtime for stupid jokes and story. It was one of the first platformers to show you can do a game without collecting items, but it wasn't as good as people stated.

Now Rare is off with Microsoft and we see once again they are pushing technical expertise above gaming and gameplay. I predict we will get some amazingly pretty Xbox games or rather Xbox 360 games from them, but magic will be gone.

Dasmos · « **Reply #48 on:** May 06, 2005, 05:14:30 AM »

Quote
Originally posted by: Spak-Spang
Goldeneye and Perfect Dark were great but how many years did they work on both projects? Yeah exactly...if you can't make a great FPS in that amount of time...and once again Nintendo helped with the game alot.

EVERYONE LOVES GOLDENEYE!!!

What FPS has really come close to goldeneye and perfect dark in terms of pure shoot-out multiplayer gold...........the answer NONE!!! TS came close because it was made by the same people. Halo was good but not great.....it appealed to XBOX fans, because it was the only adequate game on the system.

XBOX guy 1: "THiS GAME r0x0rs"
XBOX guy 2: "Too right darling"
XBOX guy 1: "nE other GaMeZ to plae?"
XBOX guy 2: "Nope none all all SISTA"
XBOX guy 1: "HALOZ BEST GAMEZ EVERZ"
XBOX guy 2: "Come back to bed

"
XBOX guy 3: "Yeah!

"

Nothing IMO comes close to that rare FPS magixc!!!

Spak-Spang · « **Reply #49 on:** May 06, 2005, 05:30:36 AM »

Dasmos: On that we will completely agree. Goldeneye and Perfect Dark have been the best FPSers ever.

Timesplitters: Future Perfect comes close to recapturing that feeling, but I think that game is too fast.

Halo has always been too slow for me. You feel like your guy is barely moving. Its stupid.

News:

Author Topic: Banjo-Kazooie is back & now on XBox 360 (Read 90900 times)