Tag: Rare - Page 4
News Rare's Local Video Game Store Is Closing Its Doors After 24 Years
The changing nature of games retail claims another victim
The way we buy games is changing, with digital sales slowly but surely taking over from physical. That means the landscape of games retail is gradually shifting, and all stores - from the big to the small - are feeling the pinch. With that in mind, we're sad to report that UK store Extreme...
Movie Review King Of Kong Meets Spinal Tap In Going For Golden Eye
"Rule no. 1: Absolutely no use of Oddjob"
Video games and movies often make uncomfortable bedfellows; just look at the Super Mario Bros. movie from 1993 and Jean-Claude Van Damme's equally risible Street Fighter flick. However, sometimes the combining of these two mediums can yield positive results; King of Kong is one notable example. Jim...
Random GoldenEye 007 Mockumentary Aims To Be The Spinal Tap Of Video Games
Focuses on "deluded, cringe-inducing elite GoldenEye players"
An indie British film company is aiming to create the video game equivalent of Spinal Tap with Going For Golden Eye, which is described as "a love letter to the heyday of the N64 and the rivalries of couch multiplayer". Created by Woodhouse Pictures, the film focuses on the...
Rumour A New Perfect Dark Game Is In Development, But Rare Isn't Involved
And it's not for a Nintendo system, obviously
Reports are surfacing online about a potential new entry in the popular Perfect Dark series, which began life on the Nintendo 64. According to the rumour, Gears of War studio The Coalition has been tasked with reviving the franchise, which is now owned by Microsoft following the purchase of IP holder...
News GoldenEye 007 With Mario Characters Is The Crossover We Never Knew We Wanted
It's-a-me, a-Bond!
Official development for Nintendo 64 may have ended over 15 years ago, but that hasn't stopped the impassioned modding community from keeping its library of memorable 64-bit hits alive with new updates and improvements. Rare's influential shooter, GoldenEye 007, remains a huge fan favourite, so of course one talented user has...
Feature Rare's Local Game Shop Faces An Uncertain Future, Like Many Indie Retailers
"It can only continue with local support"
Those of you with long memories will recall that we ran a feature some time ago about Extreme Gamez, a small UK indie video game store. This particular shop might not seem especially noteworthy at first glance, until you realise that it is situated in one of the most historically important towns in the UK,...
News N64 Classic Diddy Kong Racing Gets Unreal Engine Makeover
CryZENx once more gives us a look at an alternate reality
In a parallel universe where Nintendo didn't sell Rare to Microsoft, the Twycross-based industry giant would have continued to fully support Nintendo's hardware generations up to current day. In such a reality, perhaps Nintendo would be teasing us with a full remake of Rare's beloved...
News This Playtonic Art Could Be The Closest We'll Get To Seeing Banjo-Kazooie And Switch Together
Former Rare artists celebrate their Nintendo past
To celebrate the long-awaited release of Yooka-Laylee on Switch, Playtonic's artists have been paying tribute to their past connection with Nintendo. As you know, Playtonic's core team is made up of former Rare staffers who worked on some of the company's most famous NES, SNES and N64 era titles...
News First 4 Figures Is Working On Banjo-Kazooie And Conker Collectables
A Rare collaboration
First 4 Figures has revealed that it is collaborating with Rare to produce a series of figures based on Banjo-Kazooie and Conker. No shots of the actual figures have been shown so far, but the company has stated that it is an "honour" to be working with these two highly-esteemed gaming legends. There's no release date for...
Music Rare And iam8bit Are Releasing Battletoads And Conker's Bad Fur Day Soundtracks On Vinyl
Preorders opening soon
Rare may not be under Nintendo's wing anymore but the UK studio is responsible for some amazing 8, 16 and 64-bit titles such as Battletoads, Donkey Kong Country and Banjo-Kazooie, to name just three. Now, the company is teaming up with iam8bit to produce vinyl soundtracks for three of its classic games: Battletoads in...
News Donkey Kong Country on SNES Gets the MSU1 Digital Audio Enhancement Treatment
It's on like hi-fi Donkey Kong!
Rare's phenomenal Donkey Kong Country was quite the game changer in late 1994, not only giving an extra edge to the Super Nintendo in the 16-bit console war but also becoming one of the most cherished games in the entire SNES library. Despite the fancy ACM graphics, one of they key features that still resonates with...
News The Latest Game From The Stamper Brothers Feels Like A Donkey Kong Country Sequel
And it could be coming to Switch
FortuneFish - the studio founded by former Rare owners Tim and Chris Stamper, along with Tim's son Joe - has released a test version of its new music-based platformer on iOS which calls to mind the classic days of the legendary Donkey Kong Country studio. Kroko Bongo: Tap to the Beat! is billed as a rhythm...
News Hey! Pikmin Shows Nintendo Still Has A Soft Spot For Rare
A tribute to an "Enduring Partnership"
Rare and Nintendo enjoyed a particularly profitable relationship back in the '80s and '90s, with the UK-based studio creating hordes of titles for the NES, Game Boy, SNES and N64. So close was the connection between the two companies that Nintendo eventually purchased a large stake in Rare and made it a...
News Rare Treasures Aims to Chronicle the History of Rare
Published by Dark Horse Comics
Rare was a prominent part of Nintendo’s history in the 90’s, responsible for major games such as Donkey Kong Country, Banjo-Kazooie, and GoldenEye 007, though it rather famously departed from the Big N in 2002 for supposedly greener pastures with Microsoft. Still, the company holds a special place in the heart of...
Video Get Green With This Complete History Of Battletoads
Remembering Rash, Zitz & Pimple
Battletoads - along with Rare's back catalogue - may be owned by Microsoft these days, but NES owners will always have a special place in their hearts for Rash, Zitz & Pimple, three radical amphibians with plenty of attitude. Created at a time when Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles dominated TV, gaming and toy aisles,...
Feature Pay A Visit To Rare's Local Indie Video Game Store
"They used to come in to buy their latest game to go in their vault"
The English market town of Ashby-de-la-Zouch can chart its history as far back as the 11th century and owes its rather unusual name to the Norman Conquest of England around the same time, when the settlement - then known as plain old Ashby - became the property of the La Zouche...
News A Group Of Fans Are Resurrecting Lost Rare N64 Title Dinosaur Planet As An Animated Series
Special trailer airing today
Dinosaur Planet was supposed to be Rare's swansong on the N64, a 3D action platformer which would create a brand-new IP and push the console to its very limits. As we all know, that never happened - Dinosaur Planet was re-tooled at Nintendo's behest as Star Fox Adventures and would be released on the GameCube. It was...
Video Digital Foundry Puts GoldenEye and Perfect Dark to the Test on N64
Also dabbles in cleaning up the visuals
Digital Foundry is one of the premier online teams for technical analysis of games and hardware, often focusing on current-generation gaming to assess performance, frame rates and more. It's now turning its eye to some retro games, too, which provides some interesting context on classics from past generations...
Video Rare Reminisces on the Development of It's Mr. Pants
"We decided to have a menagerie of animal and bird noises to reward you"
Rare is a studio that's always been known for being one of the most prolific and beloved developers on Nintendo consoles during the 16 and 64 bit eras. Responsible for classics like the Donkey Kong Country series, Banjo-Kazooie, Goldeneye 007, and more, the studio's resume is...
News Activision Was Closer To Owning Rare Than You Might Think
Xbox co-creator Ed Fries says it was a close-run thing
UK company Rare is responsible for some of the best games of the past 30 years, and was once a Nintendo second-party studio thanks to the Japanese giant purchasing 49 percent of the firm. Nintendo and Rare's alliance resulted in titles like Donkey Kong Country, Diddy Kong Racing, GoldenEye 007,...
Video Unseen64 Discusses the Perfect Dark Sequels That Never Were
Hello darkness, my old friend
Back in the glory days of Rare, the studio released the cult classic GoldenEye 007, and while it's perhaps a bit dated by modern standards, the game was wildly fun. Though the studio wished to produce a sequel to the shooter, it lost the rights in a bidding war, resulting in Rare choosing to create its own game as a...
Exclusive Martin Hollis Talks GoldenEye 64 Development In This New Interview
Taken from the forthcoming N64 Anthology
Geeks-Line's N64 Anthology has 17 days remaining on its Kickstarter campaign and has raised 45,000 Euros of its 50,000 Euro target so far. If you needed convincing that this is a project worth backing, then cast your eyes on the exclusive interview excerpt we've been granted below. It's a chat with the one...
"SGI very nearly did another spin of the hardware to fix the issue"
The N64 was, for the time, a formidable piece of kit. Its chipset was developed in conjunction with Silicon Graphics and provided the console with power that put rivals like the Sega Saturn and Sony PlayStation in the shade. However, the complex nature of the chips involved resulted...
News Were It Not For Rare's Tim Stamper, Wave Race Would Have Featured Boats
Water difference that would have made
Back when Rare and Nintendo were partners, it seemed as if the two companies shared an almost unspoken rivalry, competing for recognition as the premier developer of the day - especially during the N64 era. In the latest issue of Retro Gamer magazine, several former Rare staffers have spoken about this glorious...
Weirdness This Is Conker As You've Never Seen Him Before, And Won't Ever Want To Again
Say hello to "Young Conker"
Conker is one of Rare's most iconic characters, largely because he's a complete subversion of everything a cute, platforming mascot should be. Originally conceived as your typical fluffy hero, Conker only really found fame when Chris Seavor - he of Rusty Pup fame - took the character and turned him on his head, creating...
Oh, and David Wise is doing the soundtrack. Excited yet?
Rhys Lewis might have "indie game developer" on his business card these days, but his career has been anything but small-scale. Lewis has held roles at Rare, Confounding Factor, 3D Realms and Retro Studios, and can list titles like Banjo-Kazooie, Duke Nukem Forever, Metroid Prime 3, Donkey...
News Unreal Engine GoldenEye 007 Tech Demo Gains The Approval Of Game's Designer
He loves only gold!
Rare's prolific N64 output is the stuff of legend, but one title tends to stand out from the rest, primarily because it was such a curve-ball at the time that it took the entire gaming world by surprise. Prior to the release of GoldenEye 007, two things were true: licenced James Bond games had been pretty forgettable and...
News Rare Wanted To Do amiibo-Style Toys During The N64 Era
Ahead of the curve
UK studio Rare has always had a habit of being ahead of the curve. The company - founded by Tim and Chris Stamper in the '80s - was one of the first western developers to work on the NES hardware, and in the '90s the firm would pioneer the use of CGI graphics in 2D games with the likes of Donkey Kong Country and Killer Instinct...
Video Rare Shows Off Footage of Dream, The Banjo-Kazooie Predecessor That Never Saw Release
No, you're not dreaming
Though it's now owned by Microsoft and far removed from its days of dominance developing exclusives for SNES and Nintendo 64, Rare has a special place in the hearts of many Nintendo fans. It's an iconic studio and, as a result, its story has various facets and mysteries that remain the talk of retro gamers. One game that's...
News Microsoft Gets Cute About Possible Rare Replay Release On Wii U
"Suggest it to the great folks at @RareLtd"
As we all know, Minecraft on Wii U is no longer a fantasy - it's real. And, as many have pointed out, that means that Microsoft is releasing a game on a Nintendo system. Wonders never cease, right? This event has predictably triggered a frenzied response online, with some incredibly optimistic individuals...
News Nintendo Wanted A GoldenEye Sequel On N64 But Rare Turned It Down
And Nintendo gracefully accepted the decision
1997's GoldenEye 007 was a massive commercial and critical success for Nintendo, selling 8 million copies worldwide and generating an enormous amount of revenue. Unsurprisingly, Nintendo wanted a sequel and even asked developer Rare to make one - but the UK company, which was at the time a second-party...
Weirdness Miyamoto Wanted A Murder-Free GoldenEye Where You Made Friends With Enemies At The End
"Close-up killing - he found it a bit too horrible"
In your average James Bond flick the suave British secret agent dispatches countless goons and bad guys without batting an eyelid, but if Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto had had his way, the best Bond video game of all time wouldn't have contained a single death. Speaking at the ongoing GameCity event...
News Lost Game Boy Color Banjo-Kazooie Game Unearthed In Design Documents
An early look at the game which would become Grunty's Revenge
When Rare was purchased by Microsoft many assumed that there would be no more titles from the famed UK developer on Nintendo formats, but such fears proved unfounded - Rare continued to release titles on both the Game Boy Advance and its successor, the Nintendo DS, although in recent...
News Donkey Kong Country Almost Had A Zelda-Like Key System
"Is this too Zelda(ish)?"
Retro fans will be pleased to know that Rare's Gregg Mayles has continued uploading behind-the-scenes info relating to Donkey Kong Country. After revealing that Shigeru Miyamoto was the one behind DK's tie, Mayles has offered up some more concept material, including a hand-written document which shows that at one point, the...
News Rare's Gregg Mayles Reveals It Was Miyamoto Who Suggested Donkey Kong Should Sport Neckwear
Rare staffer reveals the pre-history of Donkey Kong Country
Gregg Mayles is one of Rare's longest-serving employees and can list some of the firm's most famous titles on his impressive CV. He's currently hard at work on the studio's next offering, Sea of Thieves, but has taken the time to post some interesting info relating to the SNES classic...
Video Here's What Rare's Final GameCube Title Should Have Looked Like
Very early prototype for Kameo unearthed
As we all know, Rare was once a second-party Nintendo studio but was purchased by Microsoft over a decade ago. When the acquisition took place, the UK company was working on several GameCube projects, including Donkey Kong Racing and Kameo, the latter of which would eventually appear as a launch title for the...
Witness the Mario Kart killer that never was
Given the amount of love and attention we've bestowed Xbox One title Rare Replay recently, you'd be forgiven for thinking that you'd logged onto our sister site Pure Xbox by mistake. Still, Rare will forever be a major part of Nintendo history, and there's a lot of bonus content in this collection which...
News Rare Co-Founder Has No Idea Why Nintendo Didn't Buy The Studio Outright
"I thought we were a good fit"
Rare co-founder Tim Stamper recently won the accolade of Development Legend at this year's Develop awards - along with his brother, Chris - and has now given his first interview since 2007. Stamper - who has recently returned to the games industry with mobile studio FortuneFish - talks about the origins of Rare, its...
Soapbox It's A Tragedy That Rare Replay Isn't On A Nintendo Console
Rare's latest has filled Damien McFerran with delight, but there's a catch
Rare is one of the UK's most respected and adored software houses, with a lineage that goes back more than 30 years. While the company is now wholly owned by Microsoft, for a large part of its lifespan it was closely affiliated with Nintendo - initially as a third party...
News Rare's Gregg Mayles Shows Off The Scribbled Origins Of Banjo-Kazooie
Work in progress
Banjo-Kazooie is one of Rare's most beloved properties, and while the series is now firmly entrenched on Microsoft hardware following the company's purchase of the famous British developer, Nintendo fans will always have a soft spot for the bear-and-bird duo thanks to the fact that they made their official début on the N64. Over...
News Playtonic Happy to Move Away From "Box-Ticking" Culture At Microsoft-Owned Rare
Creative lead Gavin Price talks about fresh beginnings
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...
News Rare Founders To Be Honoured At The Develop Industry Excellence Awards
Tim and Chris Stamper are this year's Development Legends
Rare founders Tim and Chris Stamper will be honoured as Development Legends at this year's Develop Industry Excellence Awards, which take place in Brighton, UK on July 15th. The Stampers established Ashby Computers and Graphics Ltd in 1982, the company that would eventually become Rare. One...
News Rare Replay on Xbox One Will Include 30 Games, Including Classics from Nintendo Systems
$30 for 30 games, sad face time
The Microsoft ownership of Rare can be a sore spot for Nintendo gamers, and the announcement of Rare Replay for Xbox One will sting. Incorporating some games previously available as downloads but many that haven't been, it's a compilation of 30 Rare classics that'll sell for $30 from 4th August. Games highlighted as...
News Rare Co-Founder Tim Stamper Is Tweeting Some Crazy Stuff About Project Dream On The SNES
A gaming legend finally speaks
Rare co-founders the Stamper brothers have always been famously reclusive when it comes to interviews - they've given very few over the past couple of decades and since selling Rare to Microsoft have drifted from the public eye altogether. However, Tim Stamper appears to be moving back towards the games industry. Last...
News Unseen64 Uncovers Concept Art Of Rare's Perfect Dark Project For GameCube
What could have been
Rare’s 2005 first-person shooter, Perfect Dark Zero, didn’t exactly match the legacy of the original game on the Nintendo 64. Development of the title began on the GameCube and was completed on the Xbox 360 when Microsoft acquired Rare and all of its licenses in 2002. The question that has since played on the minds of both...
News How Some Of Rare's Leading Lights Traded Platforming For Pensions
Preciousbluedot is using game design to change the world of finance
Just in case the news relating to Playtonic's début didn't get the Rare fans among you excited enough, we've got a little update on what another group of famous ex-Rare developers have been up to since leaving the legendary UK studio - and it's probably not what you were expecting...
News Playtonic Releases First Animated Footage From Banjo-Kazooie Successor Project Ukulele
As a "Thank You" for reaching 30,000 followers on Twitter
Playtonic Games - a UK studio made up of former Rare staffers - has released the first footage from its Banjo Kazooie "spiritual successor", Project Ukulele. The short clip - posted via Vine on Twitter - shows a minion character from the game hopping from foot to foot. It's a good i
News Former Rare Devs Playtonic Want Donkey Kong Country Villain K. Rool In Super Smash Bros.
"Let's get another of our artists' beautiful children into the fight"
Nintendo has opened up voting to see which characters its fans want to see in Super Smash Bros., and this has predictably led to some rather outlandish recommendations. UK studio Playtonic - made up of former Rare developers - has thrown its hat into the ring by suggesting fans...
"We've worked with Nintendo on Rare IP before"
In a blow to console warriors that want the major console manufacturers to battle it out to the death, Xbox boss Phil Spencer has spoken positively about the potential for Rare IP to be featured as DLC in Super Smash Bros. on Wii U and Nintendo 3DS. Now that would be something to behold. This is in...
News First Screens From Banjo-Kazooie Spiritual Successor Are Revealed, Kickstarter Coming In May
Former Rare developers considering amiibo-style NFC figures
Last month we reported on the news that a group of former Rare developers had formed their own company - Playtonic - and were looking to create a "spiritual successor" to the Banjo-Kazooie series. During this week's EGX Rezzed, Playtonic showed off the first screens from the new game -...
