Astrosanity said:
Off-topic from trying to figure out which part of the management of Rare is to blame for their current state (does it matter at this point?), but seeing as some posters in here seem to have some inside knowledge, does anybody know why Donkey Kong 64 was made the way it was, or if there was any inner-company drama surrounding its development?
It's got to be the only Rare game I can't see anything salvageable in it (beyond I guess being technically impressive for its time) and I can't see how even if it started development as building off SM64/BK's game design how it wound up being as dull and repetitive as it is. I also partially ask since I distinctly remember scribes bringing up the game having 4-player co-op and, which leads me to guess it may have been closer to what DKCR is and less BK1.5. Might also bring up some interesting questions about Rare's management way before the MS buyout if it turns out its development was being dictated by Nintendo.
Not too sure about this one. I remember a few Rare people saying the backlash to the collectathon aspects of DK64 influenced the direction of Banjo Tooie and Conker: BFD. I mean, DK64 was a behemoth of a game. It mixed elements of RPG, adventure, platformer, FPS. It was the Irish Stew of Rare's N64 games. The thing was fucking huge and packed to the rafters with content, and even
other game's content. Remnants of Banjo Kazooie were ported into DK64 from memory, and I know Fungi Forest was originally meant to be a world in Banjo Kazooie, but got canned towards the end of BK's development.
If anything, DK64 helped Rare realise that forcing players to collection 1500 fucking coloured bananas was probably a poor design decision, and let's not even get started on Beaver Bother. It prompted a more focused, quest-based Rare style of platformer. The success and criticism of DK64 was a significant reason for Conker's BFD complete overhaul from cutesy platformer to mature-style/FPS/adventure platformer.
If any game epitomises Rare, it was Conker's Bad Fur Day. It was Rare unshackled, Rare in their creative and crass element, and it remains a minor miracle that Nintendo even let a polygon of the final game leave Twycross.
So at the very least, I guess you can thank DK64 for giving us Conker?