Rare is considering allowing more publishers to use its characters in third-party games - after Sega licensed Banjo and Kazooie for All-Stars Racing.
CVG reported in December that Sega had signed the rights to use avatars of the pair in Sonic & Sega's All Stars Racing - which is due for release on 360, Wii, PS3 and DS in the first half of this year.
And Rare studio head Mark Betteridge told CVG this week:
"It makes sense to keep our characters in the public eye and in players' awareness, and this opportunity was one we couldn't pass up - not only did it allow Banjo and Kazooie to appear as they've most recently been seen in a Nuts & Bolts-style vehicle, but we'd be entrusting them to a well-known publisher with its own compatible stable of characters."
And when we asked if Rare would consider allowing publishers to 'borrow' more of its characters in non-Rare games in future, he added:
"As long as we felt it was beneficial to the franchise. We're wary of spreading any of our properties too thin, but at the same time the feedback on Banjo appearing in All-Stars Racing has been great, so as long as we choose carefully we're happy to give players extra opportunities to take control of Rare characters."
Rare has created a wealth of IP since it was founded in 1982. It has worked on titles including Perfect Dark, 007 GoldenEye, Viva Pinata and Kameo.
Apparently Rare were working on Kameo 2 but MS pulled the plug and have them focusing on all this Natal lark to help push that idea forward. Ideally, I'd rather MS let them get on with their own thing, or at worst, force them to make a proper Perfect Dark sequel with realistic(ish) graphical style rather than the cartoony one PDZ had, which put ALOT of people off.
Make a new Killer Instinct, that's all I want from them. They can bugger off with cutesy platform titles like Banjo, they can keep their FPS games, no matter how polished the original one was all those years ago.
I want to see a dinosaur and a werewolf fighting a skeleton and a man made of lava while a crazy assassin chick in skin-tight lycra turns into a cat and beats an alien made of ice off the side of a two-headed cyclops' lair.
Rare really only have two characters that I would like to see brought back and that is Sabreman and Lunar Jetman. However, given that everything MS first party studios are working on seems to be Natal focussed I'm happy that they are not being contorted into some gimmicky mini game just so it can be motion controlled.
I quite liked the look of Perfect Dark Zero and how it played. It's so easy to get in to (with, yes, some corny voice acting) that it was like playing an arcade game made by Sega. Easy in places (in fact impossible to die in places on some settings). Of course, that won't appeal to people looking for something really deep who'll probably find the N64 game to be richer and it will seem very linear and limited compared to some other games (because it is). But games with 'Zero' at the end always seem to try to do something a bit different with mixed results e.g. Resident Evil Zero. Not every Perfect Dark game has to be really serious - there's time for that with Perfect Dark 2. Or there was until it was cancelled. Rare games should always be a bit colourful though - it's a hallmark of them.
If you're after a really good shooter play Quantum of Solace by the way.
What happened to you RARE maybe you should go back to Nintendo while theres still time. I mean lets face it Viva Pinata would have sold bucketloads on the Wii especially if linked with the DS. And a new Perfect Dark could have been a rival for the Conduit. Rare you know where you belong, come back home.
What happened to you RARE maybe you should go back to Nintendo while theres still time. I mean lets face it Viva Pinata would have sold bucketloads on the Wii especially if linked with the DS. And a new Perfect Dark could have been a rival for the Conduit. Rare you know where you belong, come back home.
Might be a touch difficult, given Microsoft own Rare.
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