It's been almost a year and a half since Rare left Nintendo, and all Xbox has seen is the Ghoulies. In a new "series", various Brids shout off their all-time favorite Rare games.

Sorry for the confusion, but I didn't mean there would be a whole series on Rare, but rather a new series on various games various Brids felt like talking about. Yeah, it's a very vague series, so bare with me if I'm doing this wrong. First up though, our all-time favorite Rareware games.

I'm not sure how this started in a thread about this "new" series. Maybe it had to do with my assertion Snake Rattle 'N Roll was Rare's best Nintendo game before they released Donkey Kong Country on SNES. I was reminded that Battletoads came out before then, but I stuck with my initial statement. Now I'm not as certain. I loved Battletoads, though Snake Rattle 'N Roll is a close second at worst. (It's an excellent, and innovative, Marble Madness-esque game where you grow your snake's tail to tip the scale and move on to the next stage.)

What are your favorite Rare games? (Post in our forum!) If you need help, check out this list of Rare's games. In general, I look at Rare during the pre-DKC days and the post-DKC era. It was with the release of DKC that Rare really made a name for themselves as being a Nintendo exclusive. Though you could probably split the pre-DKC days with the release of Battletoads since that game put the name Rareware on the map. And of course now Rare is in the post-Star Fox Adventure era, aka the Xbox days.

Just keep in mind, despite what anyone says, Rare did NOT have anything to do with Star Fox 64 (or the SNES original). It's an easy mistake to make.

Good old John Tork (for legal reasons he's not officially a Brid, just a 'consultant') gave his list of top games, and so of course we all did.

Tork's List

1. Blast Corps
2. Diddy Kong Racing
3. Donkey Kong Land 2 (GB)
4. Killer Instinct Gold
5. Battletoads

To be fair, once reminded of GoldenEye, he said GE should be placed in the #2 slot.

Listing KI caused some controversy because some (myself included) don't get the hype for that game. Though ConnDestn felt if you are to pick any KI, it should be the arcade original, not the pseudo-sequel in Gold which wasn't as good. (Conn would also add Donkey Kong Country 1 and 2 to any list he'd make.)

Hybrid's List (in no order)

Conker's Bad Fur Day
Banjo Kazooie
Perfect Dark
Goldeneye
Battletoads
Blast Corps
DK Country (1+2)
RC Pro Am

Bone's List (maybe in order)

GoldenEye
Snake Rattle N Roll
Perfect Dark
Conker BFD
Battletoads
DKC 2
Blast Corps
DKC
RC Pro-Am
Solar Jetman

klamkilla's List (in no particular order)

Blast Corps
Goldeneye
Perfect Dark
Cobra Triangle
California Games
Captain Skyhawk
Donkey Kong Country 2
Jet Force Gemini
Conker's BFD

 

Here's hoping with all the changes, and all the personnel departures, Rare will come back in force someday with more than just Ghoulies 2.

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