Yooka-Laylee has been hailed as a platforming rebirth created by some of the UK's most talented developers, and has recently become one of Kickstarter's most acclaimed success stories.
Developer Playtonic - which is made up of former Rare staffers and, in recent months, has added more in the form of Kevin Bayliss (Killer Instinct), Dean Wilson (Kinect Sports) and Steve Burke (Kameo) - is creating what many see as the spiritual successor to the likes of Banjo-Kazooie and Donkey Kong 64, and the studio's creative lead Gavin Price has been speaking to Red Bull about why the team decided to part company with Rare:
We have a focus on pure fun, fine-tuned controls, varied game scenarios and of course our sense of humour. These types of things just wouldn't sit well with key stakeholders at bigger companies, but for us we think more games should focus on nailing these elements and not care about marketing box-ticking.
Price's comments suggest that Rare - once a close partner with Nintendo - has become too beholden to its current owner, Microsoft, which presumably has been quite controlling when it comes to green-lighting projects. The studio was positioned as a Kinect-only outfit until very recently, but has just announced Rare Replay and Sea of Thieves- two of its most exciting projects in years.
However, Price doesn't feel that Rare intentionally turned its back on the 3D platform genre in which it found so much success:
I don't think they turned their back on the genre consciously. It was more of a desire to move ahead and try new things such as Viva Piñata and Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts – concepts that kind of needed a bit of horsepower behind them, and they had the hardware to finally do them. Inevitably every studio probably has lots more ideas than developers to go around, so maybe it was more the case there just wasn't enough resources to continue with platformers and deliver new experiences.
Yooka-Laylee's crowd-funding campaign raised over £2,000,000. The Wii U version will launch alongside editions for the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC, Mac and Linux.
[source redbull.com]
Comments 54
@arronishere Well it made me want to buy an XBox One, so it was exciting to me. Of course I really couldn't justify it for a $30 game.
Sea of Thieves had me excited up until I realized it's a MMO. No, thanks.
Either way, Yooka-Laylee is my most anticipated 2016 game bar none at this point - even more so than Zelda, at least until we find out more details about that one.
@arronishere I feel it's a bit of a double edged blade here: having the entire collection of classic Rare games on one disc should indeed be seen as a good thing and therefore exciting to any Rare fan (or fan of good games in general) but if that is all they can come up with to enthuse fans, it's kind of a meager effort. Not to say that it doesn't take any effort at all: there's probably quite a bit of optimization needed to let all the games run on the newer hardware in the way they originally did, but still...
And Sea of Thieves, well it hasn't really made me sit up and take notice yet, so it's safe to say that with the latest additions to the team, Playtonic actually IS the new Rare, and the team owned by Microsoft is just a shadow of it's former self.
ON TOPIC AND IN GENERAL:
It's great to see more and more people of the original Rare team join the people at Playtonic, which makes them even more classic Rare than they already were. It wouldn't surprise me to see even more people joining them in the future. I also think that Gavin Price is really on to something here. Maybe some of the people in the community here that actually have some experience in the development field (like @Kirk, @Quorthon and @Shiryu) could chime in, but it sounds very believable to me that when you're part of a big company, you often times can't do a lot of the things that you would actually like to do because you have to work according to a plan within a larger team and under a high pressure time frame because of the time to market. (the designated period when the game needs to be ready and in the shops)
And besides that there is always a big chance that the publishing company doesn't share your vision so they can't see your idea making them any money, so your idea gets shelved or shredded, and that could very well be hugely frustrating. Perhaps that is even the most important reason why developers leave large companies to start their own, smaller development team because they want to be able to do something tangible with all their ideas and creativity.
As for Yooka-Laylee: I was already interested in that from day one, so after having learned that the original musical team behind Banjo Kazooie had joined and now having learned that even more talent has joined the team, I'm even more interested than before. Like tenfold...
Nice to see then folllowing their star, not their wallet.
@rjejr
Happy Birthday #20 my dear sir!
"The Wii U version will launch alongside editions for the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC, Mac and Linux."
Will it though? I mean, really will it?
Pumped for this game - it's the only Kickstarter project I've ever backed. I can't wait to get it next year (probably on PS4, because I'm a trophy addict ).
@sinalefa - Bingo! Thanks for the 3 weeks of entertaining thoughts. We should do this again when I turn 100!
@Treverend PC has come to mean anything running Windows, even Apple likes to push the distinction, remember the 'I'm a Mac, I'm a PC' ads?
@TheRealThanos
Great comment. I agree.
@rjejr Happy Birthday! I see you had cake. Now, about that email...
I'm excited for this game, the world needs more 3d platformers.
@rjejr so the cat is out of the bag! A very Happy Birthday to you, hope you have a great day!
@ricklongo The MMO part of Sea of Thieves lost me as well
@gatorboi352 ...yes?
"Developer Playtonic - which is made up of former Rare staffers and, in recent months, has added more in the form of Kevin Bayliss (Killer Instinct), Dean Wilson (Kinect Sports) and Steve Burke (Kameo) - ..."
So, hired three staffers that have played (pun intended) a part in three games that all start with the letter "K". Is there a hidden meaning behind this? Is the KKK sponsoring this game? Let wild speculation begin!!
Yup definitely got that same charm as the old Banjo games on N64. Proud backer of this. Microsoft didn't know what they had.
Thankful that Microsoft wont be charging Nintendo prices to play the games on Rare Replay. Also, it would take forever for the games to actually come out to the V.C. Yooka-Laylee will be a nice swan song for the Wii U but I will get it for the X1 to go along with the other "Rare games."
Sea of Thieves isn't an MMO, according to Phil Spencer.
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1069817
@TheRealThanos you mean the entire collection except the best ones lol.
@MikeW Thanks!
@rjejr Well, a happy birthday to you, sir. I wish you many more, in good health and if possible still enjoying games as much as you do today.
@dumedum I didn't know that. I haven't seen any complete list of what games are on there. I only saw it fly by at the E3, and it mildly peaked my interest, so I remembered it. Other than that I haven't really looked into it, but I had the idea that most games were on there. Which ones are missing, or better yet: which ones are you missing?
I filled out my survey just the other day. Can't wait for my Wii U copy
@aaronsullivan - OK, I only mostly sort of forgot about it, as I said earlier been wanting to tell my wife, but not when the kids are around, in case the conversation gets weird, and we aren't alone that much, and when we are alone we're sleeping. So far today I spent my birthday fixing the back broken screen door and our bedroom AC which wouldn't work last night. Maybe at the pool while the kids are swimming and we're hiding in the shade. I'm too fat for my bathing suit after finishing off that Carvel ice cream cake last night.
@dumedum I wanted to know so instead of waiting for your answer I looked it up and I see what you mean now: the games that are missing are the SNES Donkey Kong trilogy, Donkey Kong 64, Goldeneye 007, Mickey's Speedway USA and Star Fox Adventures. Donkey Kong is missing for obvious reasons as is Star Fox Adventures, but why the others aren't on there, I don't know.
The games that are included are:
Seems like a great list to me, so still very much worth anyone's time and money, in my humble opinion.
EDIT:
This is what Nick Burton from Rare had to say about the reasons for GoldenEye's absence:
@rjejr
Ouch on the AC.
Pretty sure I found you on Facebook if that's easier. You could just look in the (other) category in your messages? I recently discovered its utility while trying to find out who owned a cat that wandered into our yard one day and wanted to come inside. You can just ignore it usually like that email account you have (no indications of unread messages or anything to bother you). It's probably less littered than your email. Mine was pretty sparse including a message from somebody warning me about my last place of employment shutting down. Of course I saw it weeks and weeks later. lol.
I'll throw a message there so you can check if it's working.
Also: Carvel crunchy crumbly fudge slathered chocolatey bits. Mmm.
@aaronsullivan - The cats not mine.
Do you think NL will ban me for being so off topic today? I'm running another convo w/ BLPs in another thread, don't even know which one. Had to scroll up to see what this thread was. I'm actually looking forward to some normalcy tomorrow. Well after my steak dinner at Texas Roadhouse tonight. I'm all about the chain restaurant birthday food. It's kids night, I might be able to get an armadillo tattoo.
@rjejr
I thought I would hit the jackpot today, hence my nicer than usual comment. But we still have 11 days left! Sorry that thanks to me now everyone here knows when your birthday is, but as a regular (one of the oldest one in every sense of the word) you deserve the recognition. Have a great day today, I knew there was nothing more important that would stop you from coming here
@rjejr I can't disagree about Texas Roadhouse. Franchise or not, it's satisfying. Hey, maybe they have inkling tattoos now. Enjoy!
@aaronsullivan - You can check your email now. I don't live their BTW, but you probably could have figured that out. I think she saw it as a compromise.
@sinalefa - Yeah, I need to start going to NL Anonymous meetings. A tleast it's cheaper than collecting amiibo though like our buddy Jax.
I'm changing my avatar again tomorrow and going back to obscurity, it's been a fun ride, but I need a little peace and quite in the retirement home.
I am taking my family to the public pool now though, catch all you guys later. And thanks again Sin.
@rjejr
Got it. I sent you an email back. That will work and makes sense.
Um, topic ... I think the Rare game collection thing is actually a great release and a sign that Rare is going to be used for some bigger projects like Pirates and they want some respect again. Can't be all bad. I just haven't really thought much of Rare since before they were sold. Though I did hope against hope anyway for that Diddy Kong Racing sequel that was teased before Gamecube. Oh, well.
@TheRealThanos you forgot Diddy Kong Racing
@dumedum Ah yes, my bad. But that one is also missing for obvious reasons. And actually, if you read the quote from Nick Burton, then the total list of games amounts to 120 titles, so there's quite a few more missing on this disc...
But do you feel that the missing games make this an unworthy compilation? There are quite a few good titles on it, most of which are fan favorites as well.
If I had an Xbox One I'd probably buy it...
@maceng
Perhaps the KREMLINS are coming back!!!
After all, everything in the Donkey Kong Country games started with a K.... Kritters, KAOS, Northern Kremisphere, etc...
@TheRealThanos
Quorthon doesn't actually have experience, he just is a 15 year old pretending he does. This is the internet after all
@Mona-Reggie Thanks, but I'd like to stick with my own opinion on that, based upon all of the conversations I've had with him and the details he's given on his various jobs.
Playtonic is Rareware.
I'm not sure what Rare is. I've never heard of that company!
@TheRealThanos : I just purchased an xbox one a few weeks ago. I got the 1TB version with Halo 1-4 bundled with it and a free year of Gold. Some of the bundles are great value. And the upcoming game list looks in my opinion the best of the year. Rare Replay has 30 legit games coming. As a Nintendo fan that definitely caught my eye and caused me to move towards a purchase. I don't know what you're into, but they have a Madden bundle arriving with a free year of EA Access mid August, and a Gears of War bundle at the end of August. Microsoft is providing the best value with a great amount of games moving into next year. I cannot say that about Nintendo and even Sony right now or in 2016.
So, Nintendo... How's about you get Playtonic involved in some new Donkey Kong action, hmm? Not saying Retro hasn't done an amazing job, though. Just describing a pipe dream, that's all.
This is my most anticipated game in years, but I'll get the PS4 version which will be presumably better than the Wii U version.
@Cyberbotv2 Right now it's more a question of what I'm able to buy, not so much about what I'm into. Unfortunately my money needs to go to some more pressing matters for the time being, so I'm afraid a new console purchase is on the absolute bottom of the list...
But hypothetically speaking I would go for the Gears of War bundle then. I may be an American, but having lived and worked in Europe for so long has made me appreciate the other type of football more, although I was more of a basketball/baseball type of guy, so I was never that much into American Football to begin with.
Years from now, when Xbox One is redundant and dirt cheap, I'll get one and a copy of that Rare collection. Until then, there's Yooka Laylee
I just sincerely hope this will have a physical retail release. I will gladly buy it regardless, but I don't fully trust digital distribution as it really just means you own a temporary license to play a game, but you don't actually own the game.
@TheRealThanos - Thanks. And thanks for the Rare Collection investigative work. I don't know half of the games on that list - haven't played a single one - but if it were on Wii U or PS3 I'd buy it day 1 for $30 just for the ones I've heard so many good things about, and Kameo, I've laways wanted to play Kameo. Nobody on any Ntinedo site should be saying anything bad about a 30 game compilation for $30. Even NES games would cost you $150 for that many. $30 is a bargain for the dozen or so games I want to play, and who knows what hidden gems there may be. And Quorthon is probably late 20;s early 30's, he talks about gaming w/ his kid alot. Reggie might be the 15 year old pretender.
@aaronsullivan - No tattoos last night, so I took this for ya. I tried to get my kids in the photo but they refused.
I had a dallas steak in honor of @JaxonH home town. I don't think it's a real cut, just marketing, but I'm a sucker for filet, which I normally can't afford, but since I was celebrating anyway. Back to burgers next time.
@rjejr
Nice! Happiness and a bit of goofiness is what I'm planning on for my 50th as well. And steak...
Well it's planted now. I've got a hankering to go there. It's all your birthday's fault!
I'm curious how the emulation for the N64 games is going to work in the Rare collection. Are they locking them to 30fps? Doing anything different than a typical VC release? That would still be a major improvement for Perfect Dark.
@rjejr TheRealThanos PI at your service...
I have played most of the games on that list and if your taste in games is anything like mine, then you'll like most of them. You could of course always find some videos of the games you don't know on YouTube. I assume you will at the very least be familiar with the N64 games on there. (?)
You know what? I'll save you the trouble as a birthday gift:
Rare Replay E3 Announce Trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaieVt3M72c
Rare Replay Isn't Just a Bunch of Ports - IGN Plays - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ww5fAnZ3pkY
@aaronsullivan I have no idea about how or what, but I did play the Xbox 360 versions of the updated N64 Banjo Kazooie and Perfect Dark games, and they ran like clockwork
@TheRealThanos - Thanks Magnum.
So I'm watching those 2 vids you linked too - I really need to watch Squenix E3 event - and this is what I'm thinking.
$30 for 30 games in a nice tight package. A package kind of like amiibo Tap: Greatest Bits, that costs $13 per amiibo to play 3 minutes of each game. And coincidentally there are 30 game segments in there as well. And it would cost about $390 to get all of those bits (not counting eBay markup). Not the whole NES or SNES games, just 3 minute bits. That don't seem right, but that's all I see. I'm willing to give Nintnedo some credit, their 30 seem a bit better than Rare's 30, but for $390 you only get bits, not the whole game. I could buy an X1 for $350 and the game for $30 = $380, $10 less than the cost of the amiibo. Nintendo's 30 games aren't THAT much better than Rare's 30.
@rjejr IGN did a bunch of those videos. I thought the one I posted contained glimpses of them all but we know better now...
Here's the rest of them on their channel. Take your pick: https://www.youtube.com/user/IGNentertainment/search?query=rare+replay
@TheRealThanos still a worthy collection but it is kinda stupid at the same time. It's like the best of Naughty Dog without Uncharted, the best of Retro without Metroid Prime, the best of LucasArts without StarvWars games, the best of Ubisoft without PoP or AC... Some of the heart is missing. Obvious reasons but that's the point. They bought a body without the soul, without their pinnacle of success, without the most impressive and iconic efforts.
@dumedum Although the missing games are obviously something that should have been a part of a 30 years/best of collection, I tend to disagree. Donkey Kong 64 was a good game, but both Banjo Kazooie games, Jet Force Gemini and Conker’s Bad Fur Day were far better games in the same genre.
As for the DK SNES trilogy, that is the only true missed opportunity, but I would definitely not see that as "the heart missing" since that would equate to Rare's work being centered around Donkey Kong and that obviously isn't the case. Rare isn't Donkey Kong; they are so much more.
Their heart already started when they were still called Ultimate Play the Game when there wasn't any Donkey Kong game in sight, and from that period on, there are a lot of games that have defined them, the DK SNES trilogy is only a VERY small part of that, even though that did an excellent job of solidifying their reputation in the eyes of Nintendo, so it that aspect it was an important set of games.
I personally also regret that Star Fox Adventures is not included, but Kameo is a very good replacement for that, and for some of us, Grabbed by the Ghoulies is also a decent one.
And they did say that they wanted to make this collection represent the history of Rare, so they had to make it an all encompassing story, from their humble beginnings at Ultimate Play the Game up till now, and other than the few missing Nintendo IP's I think they have done quite a good job.
Besides the missing games, all of my other favorites are in there, such as most of the N64 games, RC Pro AM 1 & 2, Killer Instinct, Kameo, Sabre Wulf, Battletoads, Cobra Triangle, Snake Rattle N Roll, Gunfright and Slalom, so I would be quite the happy camper with this collection in my possession. IF I had an Xbox One, that is, but my current situation unfortunately doesn't allow for the purchase of another game console...
@dumedum P.S. Bit of a tardy response, aye? Experiencing a backlog in reading articles on NLife?
@TheRealThanos yeah, basically.
These are good games but I'm having fun playing the SNES DK games on the virtual console and Star Fox Adventures with my GC controller and I would have had more fun playing these other Rare games with Nintendo controllers. For me those are the best anyway, and I think that is a popular opinion too.
@dumedum On that point, I can definitely agree with you. That would mean that the heart is more in the controllers, then...
As far as the games are concerned it is still a very nice and complete collection. And they had about 120 titles to choose from...
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