Scratch

What is this company, you ask? It's Rare (formerly Rareware, and before that Ultimate). Why? Then you must've not been alive in the good old days (or at least you were living under a rock).

How do I start? Oh yes, Rare. They were one of the greatest companies back in the day. They were one of the reasons I bought my N64 back then. They started out as a company called Ultimate Games. They made games for the good ol' ZX Spectrum. (yeah, that's old) Games like Jetpack, which you've probably played if you own a copy of Donkey Kong 64 (it's a "hidden" bonus, even though it's necessary to play it). Well, after that, they started working with Nintendo and the SNES (huge gap, if you ask me). They made excellent games like Donkey Kong Country and its sequels. Rare even tried its hand in the arcade with the bloody rival to Mortal Kombat: Killer Instinct, which was soon given an SNES port. It was then that Rare started working on Project Dream, one of their biggest games. However, with the N64 around the corner, it was scrapped. But it didn't die entirely. It became what we now call Banjo-Kazooie. An excellent platformer enough to nearly outrival Super Mario 64, Banjo-Kazooie introduced many concepts to the genre, gaining a large fanbase. However, BK contained many mysteries. None, however, were more of a buzz than Stop 'n' Swop. In the ending, if you completed the game 100%, a character named Mumbo showed you pictures of two eggs and a giant key made of ice, dubbed the "Ice Key". It was said that these would unlock secrets in it's sequel, Banjo-Tooie. It was later discovered by hackers that there were in fact SIX eggs instead of two. However, when Banjo-Tooie came out, nothing was mentioned of Stop 'n' Swop. It was only referenced in minority by a character named Heggy the Hen, who hatched three of the Stop 'n' Swop eggs. The Ice Key was found in a different area. So what happened to Stop 'n' Swop? Well, when the N64 Mk 2 came out, the RAMBUS was decreased from 10 seconds to one. Well that explains it, but it was quite cheap. >.> Aside from that, Rare released unforgettable classics on the N64. Like the plainly awesome FPS's Goldeneye 007 and Perfect Dark to the awkward but hilarious Conker's Bad Fur Day. Rare, continuing it's tradition from the SNES days, kept releasing licensed Donkey Kong games, like Donkey Kong 64 and Diddy Kong Racing, on he N64. It soon came to be, however, that Rare would sell themselves to MICROSOFT... ._. What? After that decision, Rare moved to the XBOX line, but kept releasing games on the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS, because Microsoft didn't (and still doesn't) have a handheld system. Because of this, Perfect Dark Zero was moved from the Gamecube to the XBOX 360. Oh, and remember Stop 'n' Swop? Well, Rare CONSTANTLY kept bugging gamers, casual and hardcore alike, about it (i.e. in Grabbed by Ghoulies, a chalkboard reads "Egg+egg+egg+egg+key=?"). And yes, Rare made Viva Piñata. It would soon come to, however, that Rare would release a mutant into gaming. Yes, I said mutant. Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. It gave the Banjo franchise a bad sweep. But you can't blame Rare, when they were simply "trying something new". However, N&B gave us one good thing: Stop 'n' Swop. A week after N&B was released, they rereleased the old N64 Banjo-Kazooie on XBLA. One of the new features was Stop 'n' Swop, for real this time!    If the two games spied each other, the eggs and key in BK could unlock new parts for use in N&B. That didn't satisfy people, though. A while later, though, two things were released on XBLA: a DLC pack for N&B called "L.O.G.'s Lost Challenges", and BANJO-TOOIE! I puked in joy. Stop 'n' Swop was FINALLY fulfilled.    You see, you'd transfer the eggs and key from BK to BT to unlock exclusive content. However, I don't think a Live backdrop or an MP3 were part of the original plan.    One egg contained something that made me puke in exasperation, though: Stop 'n' Swop II! O_e Oh my God...not AGAIN! D: Oh, and if you unlocked all of the BK eggs and Ice Key in BT, you got content for N&B if you had L.O.G.'s Lost Challenges. Well, we better wait...nah, moving on! Remember the Kinect? Well, the first person to develop for it was RARE! They made Kinect Sports. That was minor for Rare, though, because they were rereleasing PERFECT DARK on XBLA! Now THAT'S awesome gaming there. It's probably time that i get to a major point. You know how Rare released games for the N64? Well, it's disputed over wether they should be released on the Virtual console on Wii. The reason is that Microsoft owns Rare, and Microsoft and Nintendo are rivals currently in a console war. Nintendo says they will only release game with Nintendo characters (i.e. DK 64), but Rare says they will forcefully distribute their own N64 games absent of Nintendo. >.> Smooth move there, you're gonna get sued by both Nintendo AND Microsoft! Well...looks like I said enough for now...

Fun fact: Banjo isn't Rare's mascot, Mr. Pants is. O___e

Last edited by agscratcher (2011-01-25 23:17:15)