Rare Ltd.

 (trade-named Rareware during Nintendo tenure) 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. Rare formerly worked exclusively for Nintendo before being bought out by. As a prominent second-party developer for Nintendo, Rare created the successful Nintendo Entertainment System games ', ', and '; revived the Donkey Kong property with its critically acclaimed Donkey Kong Country series; and created many other well-known titles such as ', ', ', and .

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 for $375 million, granting Microsoft 100% acquisition of Rare. The company then began to produce games for ' 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, unofficially, Diddy Kong Pilot (the first two of which were unfinished before Rare was bought by Microsoft, while the last Nintendo refused to publish). Under the terms of the merger, Nintendo retained the rights to all the Donkey Kong characters, while Rare maintained the rights to its own intellectual properties such as Banjo-Kazooie and Conker.

Rare, however, has continued to develop games for Nintendo's handheld systems, since Microsoft has not entered the handheld console market. Microsoft negotiated a deal with to publish ' on the Game Boy Advance as well as ' and , 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 and Diddy Kong Racing DS.

Appearances in the Donkey Kong franchise

 * Dixie Kong and Timber's hats once had Rareware logos on them.
 * In Donkey Kong 64, Rareware, along with Nintendo, sponsored the boxing match between the Kongs and King K. Rool as mentioned by the ring announcer. Also, it is possible to collect a Rareware Coin by beating Cranky's score in Jetpac, and a Golden Banana with Rare's logo on it by collecting all of the Banana Fairies.
 * In Diddy Kong Racing DS, the coins have the logo of Rare on it.
 * In Donkey Kong Country Returns, the options menu has a coral reef shaped like the Rare logo.
 * In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the Rare logo appears on Banjo's backpack, just as it did in promotional renders for Banjo-Tooie.

Trivia

 * Even though Rare has cut ties with Nintendo, its company name, written as "Rare Limited," 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.
 * In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Rare is also credited with composing various Banjo-Kazooie music tracks, all of which the company currently owns as part of Microsoft.
 * In the Wii U port of Donkey Kong 64, the game Jetpac is left intact despite still being owned by Rare.