The Cream of the Crap: Perfect Dark Zero and Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts (Xbox 360)
How Rare went from hero to zero.
"If you’re a bit older, you may remember a little magical company called Rare. Rare achieved fame and fortune making some pretty amazing games for Nintendo platforms. Those brits were truly magical, as they could pretty much pick any genre they wanted to and make a masterpiece for that genre, be it fighting (Killer Instinct), puzzle (Blast Corps), third-person shooter (Jet Force Gemini), and more impressively, FPSs (Goldeneye and Perfect Dark) and platformers (Banjo-Kazooie). Sadly, Rare’s honeymoon with Nintendo ended in the early 2000s, and the company was then bought by Microsoft.
Their first years with Microsoft were, well, okay, I suppose. Grabbed by the Ghoulies was okay at best but it had its charm, and Conker Live and Reloaded had a pretty good online multiplayer and incredible visuals. Not long after the latter, Microsoft announced its new flagship console, the Xbox 360, and with it Rare saw the opportunity of bringing back two of its most famous franchises.
The results? Oh boy…"
