We started our journey back when Rare was at the closing stages of its golden age as Nintendo 64’s mainstay, oddly struggling to release Conker’s Bad Fur Day in the European market due to Nintendo’s notorious lack of support. About a year after, both companies ended a long and fruitful exclusive partnership when Microsoft acquired Rare for $375 million. Even though this divided the fanbase, we continued to express our support for many years to come on the Xbox. For us, loyalty never had anything to do with logos: it was all about games.

Over this time, we constantly evolved from a minor Spanish-speaking site to a much bigger English portal. We offered exclusive interviews, hands-on impressions, videos on location and insider reports. We were the first ones in the world to inform about the infamous GoldenEye 007 adaptation that got cancelled on the Xbox Live Arcade. We were the only ones to tell the truth behind the Conker sequel that was never made and Sabreman Stampede’s fate. We repeatedly debunked rumours about future titles, like Killer Instinct 3, even before official sources commented on the subject.

However, keeping such rate of work soon proved to be too time-consuming. What we started as a hobby had become something else, and we decided that if we wanted to keep the website alive, we had to start getting something in return. So as Rare reached its 25th Anniversary this year, we felt that the site needed to grow again. But this time it had to help us grow professionally as well.

Wrong Turn

Early in May, we showed Rare our most ambitious project to date. We planned to film an hour long documentary about their 25 years of history, to be shot on location in England, presented in HD and ready to be distributed freely via Xbox Live and Internet.

The project was formally introduced through a briefing that included a fact sheet, script, interview guidelines, several resumes and a demo reel. The crew behind the movie consisted of none others but us, since we also happen to be a team of filmmaking and journalism graduates with very good knowledge of Rare’s history. And best of all, the project was going to be shot at zero cost, because we had access to all the equipment we needed through a variety of professional sources.

Unfortunately, some days ago, Rare’s PR department finally denied our permission to shoot arguing that the film wasn’t going to be “on message.”

Shutting down the website was an option we were already considering in case we couldn’t make the process of working on it worth the effort. Therefore, we designed a win-win deal that could have resulted in a wonderful project for us and a terrific treat for fans everywhere. Despite its ambitious scope, we felt it was an irresistible offer. In fact, we are still puzzled over their response. It was a risk-free operation to be carried away with all legal safety measures deemed necessary and full of good intentions. It simply makes no sense. It has changed our perception of Rare forever and leaves us with no other option but to end our support for them. Yet it wasn’t the only cause.

A Series of Unfortunate Events

During the last nine years, we have never criticized Rare without a good reason. Still, ever since Microsoft’s buyout, they have been receiving negative backlash in almost a constant basis. People turned their backs at Rare because they never really managed to deliver a hit like the ones of their Nintendo years. Still, their games were good enough and deserved more attention. The first and only time we wrote an openly negative review of one of their products was last month with Kinect Sports, which ironically was used as an argument to oppose our documentary idea at a time when negotiations where already going bad. Kinect Sports may have been Rare’s biggest artistic disappointment in years, but it’s far from being their only misstep.

At the time development focused on Kinect, projects like a third Perfect Dark were ruled out. Rare also spent an entire year working on GoldenEye 007 without even knowing if Microsoft was going to be able to release the game, which led to the cancellation of a finished product after wasting months of hard work.

Way before that, they debuted in Xbox with a minor title lacking the right audience, Grabbed by the Ghoulies. They adapted the controversial Conker late in the lifetime of the original Xbox, censoring some of its contents despite the alleged freedom that Microsoft’s ownership offered. Kameo and Perfect Dark Zero were delayed an endless number of times, only to be transferred into the Xbox 360 in a hurry, which affected negatively the quality of both games. More recently, Banjo-Kazooie Nuts & Bolts changed drastically the formula of its predecessors, a turn of events that was not well received by everyone. Only Viva Piñata seems to endure unblemished, although it was followed by a sequel that felt more like an add-on than a truly independent game.

Many blame Microsoft for these situations, although Rare claims to take its own decisions with little to no interference by the suits at Redmond. We don’t know what’s worse. And even though we can believe Nuts & Bolts to be an honest try to re-imagine an old saga gone wrong, it is really hard to think that a blatant copy of a four-year-old Wii game is the best idea Rare could come up with when facing a device with so much potential as Kinect. Sadly, we see Kinect Sports not only as an uninspired response to Nintendo’s success, but also as a major turnabout that collides with the interests of our website. As a game targeted to casual players, its audience doesn’t include our readers or us. Naturally, if that’s the path Rare wants to follow from now on, we can’t go along with them.

Farewell

Despite the circumstances in which we leave, we will always remember MundoRare fondly. Over these nine years and a half, we made new friends and started partnerships that forged our professional future. We also met excellent people from Rare itself and we wish them the best in their lives. While we may disagree with Rare’s direction as a company at the moment, we still believe many talented artists work at their studios in England. We sincerely expect to see more great games coming from them in the future, released either as Rare titles or under the seal of any other developer.

Finally, we also wish to thank all our past collaborators, partner websites and readers that supported MundoRare for such a long time. We wrote each word, took each picture and edited each video for you.

Hasta la vista,

The MundoRare Team.

According to Nick Burton, Executive Producer of Technology and Communications, “Lag is not an issue. As with any prototype stuff, of course it was in the past. That’s to be expected.”

He adds, “Where we’re at now, not at all. Yes, we’ve done a lot work to make sure it wasn’t a problem, but when you’ve got something that’s copying what you’re doing you can’t have a lot of lag.”

According to Eurogamer, the studio was “also keen to dispel the belief” that they’re now focusing exclusively on casual games. Perhaps if Microsoft’s E3 presser didn’t give us that belief to begin with, they wouldn’t have to dispel, but let’s go back to Burton: “It’s been the focus for the past couple of years, but we’re going to do all kinds of stuff,” Burton said. “Obviously the rebrand for us was more about we wanted to freshen up the image – it was just time for a chance. We’ve done it before, we’ll probably do it again.”

“We are continually looking at what the next thing’s going to be. It might be casual, it might be core, we’ve had such an eclectic mix over the years and we’ll continue to do that.”

“It’s not always going to be as casual as [Kinect Sports]; this is just something we got really excited about,” he adds. I’m guessing that the excitement is over the technology more than anything else.

Burton didn’t want to go into what else Rare’s been working on, saying that this is “the only Rare game you’re seeing at the moment.” It’s been rumored that Rare’s Natal Fit project was not in fact Kinect Sports, so that may be something else we see.

Speaking of the excitement of technology, Burton compares Wii Sports to its Kinect counterpart: “There’s so much more data, so much more fidelity, so many more things you can do,” he said. “Kinect’s not just about tracking – there’s voice recognition, identity, so many things. It’s more than the sum of its parts. I’ve been involved for a couple of years and even now we’re like, ‘Wow, there’s all these things we could do!’” It goes without saying that the jury’s still out, for those that still want to get it as soon as possible.

But wait! The excitement doesn’t end there. On Rare’s blog entries, Lee Schuneman, Head of Production, gives this hint:

“This is just the first salvo. We’ve got Gamescom and TGS yet to come where we’ll be revealing more and more each time. George has been working on his keynote for the Develop Conference in July and we’ve also got something in planning for our 25th Anniversary celebrations later this year. It’s going to be a busy year!”

So while KS is the only game we may be getting this year, there’s apparently something else on the horizon. It could be an announcement, which of course begs the question as to what will be shown. The most logical thing, given the circumstances, is Kinect Fit, or whatever they’re going to call it. Personally, I’m rooting for Kinect Mr. Pants to become a reality.

First off, GoldenEye 007 was announced. What was a particular slap in the face was that when Reggie talked about the game and how successful it was, not once was Rare mentioned. The boxart for the original game was shown, but Rare was never directly referenced. It’s actually quite sad, given that a GoldenEye game can be released, but Microsoft can’t do anything to stop it, or even negotiate to release GoldenEye on XBLA.

In the biggest surprise yet, Donkey Kong Country returns in… Donkey Kong Country Returns. Retro’s taking the franchise that Rare established and bringing it back to the Wii. Donkey and Diddy Kong are teaming up again to rescue their Banana Hoard from the new Tiki thread. Nearly everything that a DKC fan can ask for is in this game: Barrel Cannons, Mine Carts, Kong Letters, a better form of Co-op play… it’s, as Nintendo says, a “New Country for Old Friends.”

Naturally, DKC’s biggest fans are loving what they’ve been seeing, but again, it’s a bit sad to know that Rare’s working on their recent project(s) and not this game. Then again, the closest we ever got to them working on DKC4 is a quote in Scribes saying that they’d love to, but that it was Nintendo’s decision to make. Nintendo, as it seems, didn’t want to choose them.

While we’re pretty sure Kinect Sports will be better than Wii Sports, we really don’t think that it was worth getting past games canceled. At all. What’s even more disappointing is that anything else would’ve been good. An XBLA port from 4J. Kameo redux for Kinect. Heck, anything would’ve been better than one game that fans have waited for nearly a year and a half. Anything to assure fans that their wait wasn’t for naught. Yet, at this moment in time, it’s been for naught.

According to a reliable NeoGAF poster, Rare has a Fitness title in development, yet the theory is that they didn’t want to steal Ubisoft’s thunder.

As of this moment, it’s been -02 days since Rare promised they would reveal their new, undoubtely Kinect-focused, site. Rare’s latest tweets not only painfully feel as if our skin’s being peeled with a cheese grater in regards of Kinect Sports being the primary focus, but that it should be revealed tomorrow. The excitement, as you can probably tell, is palpitating.

As nearly every other developer has done, Rare has made its share of decisions that fell right on its face, with some justification coming out of it. This is, without a doubt, the only time where having a Rare game revealed was worse than showing nothing.

Which leads us to this morning. A USA Today article detailing 5 games is the first one to reveal that the “Natal Fit” rumor was true: Rare is working on Kinect Sports. Apparently, mini-games from football to hurdles are involved. The demo, however, includes hurdles and bowling. The game keeps track of how many calories you burn, which means that the more you’re enthusiastic, the better chances you have of winning. Bowling involves… well, bowling. According to Eurogamer, it’s “more advanced than Wii Sports” (not surprising, since Rare has taken Nintendo’s concepts and improved on them for years). The last event is described as “conducting a crowd.” You use motion control to do so and “bring them to various states of euphoria exclusively through use of gestures.” It almost sounds like V, only the seductive Anna isn’t stripping for the sake of Bliss.
Also, Kinect Sports lets you upload the “player view” camera feed to YouTube. While it sounds interesting, if it’s what I think it is (filming you playing the game), then a lot of people will pretty much be subjecting themselves to being YouTube superstars.

From Eurogamer’s impressions, the game itself has signs of lag. According to Nick Burton, lag “hasn’t been an issue during development” and perhaps it won’t be in gameplay.

Ever since the Natal Fit rumor came around, I wasn’t surprised at finding this out. Am I disappointed? Somewhat, yes, especially since Kameo’s appearance last night gave me hope that Rare didn’t forget about its fans and had a sequel on the way (despite reports of being cancelled). Before you consider committing suicide, we haven’t seen if Rare has any other games in development. If this is the only game, though, we totally understand if you do want to commit suicide; Kameo 2 and PD 2 were cancelled for this game, after all.

The way I see it, Rare needs a hit in order to survive these days. If they can do so while providing gameplay experiences for the fans, then that would be icing on the cake. If not, that’s not okay, and we frankly wish them the best of luck.

That being said, stay tuned to both MundoRare and our Twitter feed, as we’ll be reporting on the latest goings-on later today, when Microsoft is the first to have their press conference.

You’re now free to complain around the cabin.

Now that it’s confirmed to exist, here’s where things confuse us: if Nintendo was (and is) in a position to deny GoldenEye XBLA and ultimately screw over both Wii and Xbox 360 owners, why can’t Microsoft do the same this time around? As we mentioned in the past, the IP rights of the game are split between Microsoft, Nintendo, and Activision. Microsoft and Activision were more than content to release GoldenEye XBLA (and presumably GoldenEye on the Virtual Console). Nintendo was not. Surely Microsoft is in some position to either do what Nintendo did or provide some sort of deal. After all, with this game, Nintendo has three versions of GoldenEye for potential customers, both old and new. Microsoft, in contrast, only has one version to sell, which would be Rare’s XBLA title.

We think that the reason we haven’t heard anything from Microsoft is because, perhaps, instead of remaking Rare’s title, they’re remaking the game to be more accurate to the film, if that makes any sense.

What are your thoughts? Do you think that Rare’s version should come to light on both the Xbox Live Arcade and Wii in exchange for Nintendo being able to sell three versions of GoldenEye, or should they just leave any chance of remaking it alone?

Speaking of their site, they also mentioned that they’d be changing the ‘Welcome to Rare’ website we’ve grown adjusted to. And that they have, since yesterday. If you go on the main page, you can see that it’s now been replaced by a simplistic teaser design. Like the video and subsequent phonecall from The Ring, we all have 7 (well, now 5) days to find out exactly what Rare’s been up to. Either that, or we end up dying somehow.

There’s not much else to do at the moment on the site. You can put in your e-mail address for, according to Rare’s Twitter, “(potential) newsletters and (possible) giveaways.” Besides the lone Avatar there (as opposed to a more famous Rare-made character), the slogan “One in a million” is on the teaser page. Whether that’s their new slogan or a hint that will end up making sense in context is, again, something only Rare knows.

What’s worth mentioning regarding that line is a recent article from IGN; the theory they have is that the “One in a million” line connects with a recent Microsoft promotion. On Facebook, Microsoft is allowing users to download free music from Xbox as thanks for reaching one million users. The theory is that Rare’s next game will be something akin to Facebook, in which it’ll “allow your Avatar to interact” with other friends.

The site, as mentioned, opens in 5 days, which is when Microsoft is expected to have their Natal showcase before E3 officially begins on the 15th. At this rate, it’s very safe to say that we’ll be seeing something from Rare to merit the site updating.

Whether Rare’s current fans will like what will be seen is up in the air. Anyway, what are your thoughts on the current site?

According to Microsoft, “the new logo is both modern and classic, adjectives that could be applied equally well to Rare itself.” The rebranding will also appear on the website “soon,” according to Spock. If we’re lucky, maybe there will be another edition of Scribes to dissect.

“Both Rare and the games industry have seen massive changes over the past 25 years, and right now it feels as if both we and the industry are continuing to evolve at an ever-increasing pace. With this landmark anniversary coming up, and knowing that we have a really exciting future ahead, we felt now was the time to have a new image more in keeping with an innovative and creative entertainment company which aspires to be around for at least the next 25 years!”, said Mark Betteridge, Head of Studio.

Now, let’s get personal here; we’re not fond of it. As someone that has a bit of experience with graphic design, it looks a bit simple. No, the issue we have is that the name is being dominated over the logo we’ve become adjusted to for nearly a decade. While the logo itself could be a sign of the times (where everything they did before 2001 was great, as opposed to games that ranged from “great,” like Viva Piñata, to “okay,” like Banjo-Pilot, at the least after that), the Rare logo being a 3rd of the size of the full logo is a bit sad.

Of course, it makes perfect sense to change it, what with the comments and Rare’s committal to Project Natal and controller-free gaming (of which the jury’s still out). Enough about us; what do you think of this latest change?

This news is rather interesting and contradictory when we look at the facts. As MundoRare has pointed out in the past, Perfect Dark 2, taking from the Perfect Dark Zero engine, was in development a few years ago before being canceled. According to our sources, it was “overwhelming unlikely” that PD2 would’ve been in the PD universe, since in 2008 the game evolved into something that wasn’t PD2 before development stopped.

Then again, Rare are hopeful of making an FPS for Natal. Then again, they don’t see themselves reviving old IP (although with Banjo and Perfect Dark recently in the spotlight, perhaps they don’t count?) in the foreseeable future.

With this many facts making the rounds, the only thing that really can be done is to wait and see what happens. If this does happen, it begs to be seen if Rare have learned from what did and didn’t work in Perfect Dark Zero.

In fact, a Microsoft executive has just ‘accidentally’ jumped the gun announcing on the Saudi Arabian television that they plan to release Natal as soon as this October, so that may be the date for at least one of those games in development. And Rare themselves have just acknowledged via their Twitter channel that they “may release a game this year.” To be fair, we’d be quite disappointed if they don’t have at least one release title.

On a related note, which may or may not have anything to do with those Rare games for Natal, South Korean TV manufacturer LG has just confirmed a deal with Microsoft to release their new “LX5900 3D TV alongside Xbox 360 3D game bundles,” according to TechRadar. Hopefully this will mean something more than just a Wii Fit 3D on Xbox.