Rare
| Rare | |
|---|---|
| |
| Founded | 1985[1] |
| First Super Mario game | Donkey Kong Country (1994) |
| Latest Super Mario game | Diddy Kong Racing DS (2007) |
| Current presidents | Joe Neate Jim Horth |
Rare Limited (also shortened to Rare and trade-named Rareware during Nintendo up until Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge) is a British video game developer based in Twycross, Leicestershire. It was founded in 1985 by Chris and Tim Stamper, as the successor company to Ultimate Play the Game. Rare formerly worked exclusively for Nintendo before being bought out by Microsoft. As a prominent second-party developer for Nintendo, Rare created the successful Nintendo Entertainment System games Wizards & Warriors, Battletoads, and R.C. Pro-Am; revived the Donkey Kong property with its critically acclaimed Donkey Kong Country series; and created many other well-known titles such as GoldenEye 007, Banjo-Kazooie, Perfect Dark, and Conker's Bad Fur Day.
In 2002, following the release of Star Fox Adventures on the Nintendo GameCube (Rare's only game on the system), Nintendo sold Rare's shares to Microsoft on September 24, 2002, for $375 million, granting Microsoft 100% acquisition of Rare. The company then began to produce games for Microsoft Studios' Xbox video game console. This change of focus resulted in the cancelation of several games featuring the Donkey Kong brand: Donkey Kong Racing, Donkey Kong Coconut Crackers, and Diddy Kong Pilot (the first of which was unfinished before Rare was bought by Microsoft, while the last two had set release dates but ended up being unpublished).
Rare, however, has continued to develop games for Nintendo's handheld systems, since Microsoft has not entered the dedicated handheld console market. Microsoft negotiated a deal with THQ to publish Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge on the Game Boy Advance[2] as well as Banjo-Pilot and It's Mr. Pants, which were redeveloped from Diddy Kong Pilot and Donkey Kong Coconut Crackers, respectively. Nintendo itself would later publish the enhanced remakes of the three SNES Donkey Kong Country games for the Game Boy Advance, as well as the Rare-developed Diddy Kong Racing DS remake.
History involving the Super Mario franchise[edit]
Rare generally developed games without significant involvement from Nintendo,[3] and one common trait of their games is that the voices in them were almost always done by employees.[4] This included their games related to the Super Mario franchise, and this led to them having voices for certain characters that differed from what other games went with despite sharing a publisher.
Donkey Kong Country series on Virtual Console[edit]
As the Donkey Kong Country original trilogy was developed by Rare Ltd., Nintendo did not have full license rights to the games. While the first Donkey Kong Country game was made available on Virtual Console within a few weeks of the Wii console being released, and the second game and third game being rolled out there in 2007, all three games were delisted on November 25, 2012, and were gradually re-listed in 2014–2015, this time on both Wii and Wii U, and all releases of the game have remained listed since then to the extent the consoles' online game stores have remained online.
Character properties[edit]
Under the terms of the merger, Nintendo retained the rights to all the Donkey Kong characters along with Krunch, while Rare maintained the rights to its own intellectual properties such as Banjo-Kazooie and Conker.
Nintendo characters and Rare-created characters both appeared in Diddy Kong Racing in 1997, often several months before the latter characters starred in their own games. Banjo later also appeared in Mario Artist: Paint Studio as a sticker, and Rare characters appeared in comic issues occasionally before the merger. After the merger, there was a hard stop to using Nintendo and Rare characters in the same works of media, with even Diddy Kong Racing DS in 2007 not being able to use Banjo or Conker in the character roster. The hard split of character sets would last until the September 4, 2019, release of a DLC set for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, which was the first time since 1997 that Banjo and Diddy Kong were playable characters in the same game.
Credits in games[edit]
Mario Kart series[edit]
Rare is listed in the credits of Mario Kart 64 and Mario Kart: Super Circuit as "Donkey Kong 3-D model provided courtesy of Rare U.K."
Donkey Kong 64[edit]
Rare appears in Donkey Kong 64 in a few ways, and the company is named "Rareware" in the game. Rareware and Nintendo are the sponsors for the boxing match between the Kongs and King K. Rool as mentioned by the Microphone. Two items bear the logo of Rare: the Rareware Coin and a specific Golden Banana that is obtained from the Banana Fairy Princess.
Diddy Kong Racing DS[edit]
Rare appears in Diddy Kong Racing DS with its logo appearing on the coins.
Super Smash Bros. series[edit]
In Super Smash Bros., highlighting Rare's name in the credits will make "Donkey Kong Country Original Sound Composing", "Rendered 3-D Donkey Kong", and "Character used with permission of Rare" appear in the top-right box. In Super Smash Bros. Melee, Rare's name is followed below by "CERTAIN CHARACTERS AND ITEMS FROM PERFECT DARK AND DONKEY KONG COUNTRY 2" and "DONKEY KONG 64 RAP MUSIC BASED ON ORIGINAL DONKEY KONG 64". Rare also appears in the Sound Test of Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS, Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as the original composers of several Donkey Kong songs, although the information clarifies that Nintendo fully owns the copyright to the compositions.
Appearances in Super Mario games[edit]
- Dixie Kong's hat is occasionally pinned with Rareware's logo. This can be seen clearly in some Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest and Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! promotional artwork.
- One artwork of Wrinkly's Save Cave for Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! has Rareware's logo framed.
- Timber has a cap with Rareware's logo on it. This was changed to the Nintendo DS logo for Diddy Kong Racing DS, and the Nintendo logo for Timber's Balloon Pop.
- The Rareware logo appears on Banjo's backpack in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
List of Super Mario games[edit]
| Title | Year released | Console |
|---|---|---|
| Donkey Kong Country | 1994 | SNES |
| Donkey Kong Land | 1995 | Game Boy |
| Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest | 1995 | SNES |
| Donkey Kong Land 2 | 1996 | Game Boy |
| Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! | 1996 | SNES |
| Donkey Kong Land III | 1997 | Game Boy |
| Diddy Kong Racing | 1997 | Nintendo 64 |
| Donkey Kong 64 | 1999 | Nintendo 64 |
| Donkey Kong Country | 2000 | Game Boy Color |
| Donkey Kong Country | 2003 | Game Boy Advance |
| Donkey Kong Country 2 | 2004 | Game Boy Advance |
| Donkey Kong Country 3 | 2005 | Game Boy Advance |
| Diddy Kong Racing DS | 2007 | Nintendo DS |
Notable employees[edit]
- Kevin Bayliss (former)
- Grant Kirkhope (former)
- Leigh Loveday
- Eveline Novakovic (former)
- Gregg Mayles (former)
- Steve Mayles (former)
- Chris Stamper (former)
- Tim Stamper (former)
- Mark Stevenson (former)
- Chris Sutherland (former)
- David Wise (former)
Gallery[edit]
Logos[edit]
Rare's first logo, used from 1987 to 1990
Logo used from 1990 to 1994
Logo used from 1994 to 2003 for the "Rareware" trademark
Donkey Kong and Diddy with the Rareware logo
Conker with the Rareware logo, from Diddy Kong Racing
Logo used from 2003 to 2010
Logo used from 2010 to 2015
Logo used from 2015 to 2025
Screenshots[edit]
Splash screen from Donkey Kong GB: Dinky Kong & Dixie Kong
Splash screen from Donkey Kong Country (Game Boy Color)
Splash screen from Donkey Kong Country (Game Boy Advance)
Splash screen from Donkey Kong Country 2 (Game Boy Advance)
Splash screen from Donkey Kong Country 3 (Game Boy Advance)
Splash screen from Diddy Kong Racing DS
Unused splash screen from Diddy Kong Pilot (2001)
Logos of canceled games[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ March 1, 2001. GameCube Developer Profile: Rare. IGN. Retrieved December 25, 2024. (Archived March 22, 2016 via Wayback Machine.)
- ^ MundoRare - Chronicle of a Buyout Foretold (Wayback Machine)
- ^ "Nintendo's 'Super Stamper Bros.'" Next Generation No. 38 (February 1998) p. 14–18.
- ^ Rare Replay (Faces Behind the Voices intro): "Voice acting in our games has always been a Rare family affair. Designers, artists, programmers, producers, and musicians have all stepped up to the mic."
External links[edit]
- Rare on the Rare Wiki
