Trailer Impressions: Rare Replay E3 Announcement

This trailer had the younger version of me giddy like a school girl. After seeing it’s a compilation showcasing games from Rare’s hayday, I am happy to see that people will get to play the games that were more than games. I do find it funny that most of the games showed were on the NES and N64, so we will see edits made in the game to remove Nintendo from the credits.

Seeing that we are getting thirty games for thirty dollars, to me, is a heck of a deal. Maybe this will cause the games on Ebay to drop like it did with Marvel vs Capcom 2. This is my most wanted game for the Xbox One, and that is saying something, since we have Halo 5, Forza 6, Tomb Raider, and a Gears Remake.

This collection gives me one message, “Look at how amazing we were before, we can do it again.” That would be the case if Rare had kept it’s employees that made those games, but I’m unsure of how many people are still left in the company. This is a collection to remember Rare in the days that they were on top of the gaming world. Whether it was the hilarious, but controversial Conker’s Bad Fur Day, or the 3D platforming classics Banjo Kazooie and Banjo Tooie, this is a must buy collection. Thirty fantastic games for thirty dollars is a steal in my books. The problem could be porting the games, as it has been a problem for games in the past being added to collections. The Jak and Daxter Trilogy for the Playstation Vita had numerous problems with it’s port, especially with frame rate. The Rare Replay could very well have problems, but if one out of those thirty games has that problem you still have multitudes more to have fun with. This is mostly Rare at its finest, I can’t say it is fully them at their best because it still has Banjo Kazooie Nuts & Bolts, and that’s a whole other story.

A collection of 30 games all by Rare! How wonderful that is to someone who grew up with Rare in the 90s. I’ve given Rare a lot of flak since they’ve been working with Microsoft. Viva Piñata and Kameo were fun games, but those seemingly have gotten left behind. As a diehard Banjo-Kazooie fan, Nuts & Bolts broke my heart to see such an amazing franchise just be crushed into a shell of its former self. Then came the Kinect era when I was convinced they wouldn’t do anything real again. If Microsoft is allowing Rare to rebuild back to its former glory, then this is the way to certainly do it. If I had and when I get an Xbox One, than you can be sure this will be one of the first games I pick up for it. Granted, I still don’t know how I feel if they made a Conker 2 or Banjo-Kazooie 3, but if their new Pirate game is as good as it looks, then I will be happy with Rare doing new things. This collection is not only a nice way to draw attention back on them after so many years without them, but also a nice way to tell us, “This is who we were, and this is the quality you should expect from us from now on.”