Hero of Legend
Member
It's no secret that DKR has numerous legal issues, the biggest question is just WHAT Nintendo owns out of the game.
Here's a screencap of a YouTube video showing the credits in Diddy Kong Racing DS which of course came out years after Rare was bought by Microsoft:
For those who can't see it, it says:
Now an old Rare Scribes back from around the time of the game's release featured an employee answering at least the subject of the characters, saying that basically Rare retains the rights of all the characters with the exception of Diddy, Dixie, Tiny, and the only newcomer, Krunch, who is considered to be a Kremling.
This makes sense to an extent (though I question if Nintendo even KNOWS they own Krunch due to his complete absence outside of both versions of the game. Not even in Mario sport games for some reason). And we see more proof in the artwork and screenshots of an old cancelled 360 XBLA game by Rare called The Fast and the Furriest:
This is the first time that T.T. and Tiptup have been seen on MS hardware, hence that's visual proof.
Now here's the other thing, what about everything else?
Does Nintendo own all the environments? This is a toughie, since the island is literally called "Timber's Island". And also, the credits say they own the scenario, but the story really is central to Timber and Wizpig.
Music's easy as Nintendo would own all of that, especially since there are no real legal hurdles to work though. There aren't any music tracks that are remixes of Rare music (Banjo's bit in the theme song is just the theme song of the game played on the banjo and nothing more, this was retained in the DS version even).
Program would just be the code I imagine. Aside it being among its many forms in development R.C. Pro-Am 64, I don't see any issues here.
Game would just be that individual release I'd assume.
Here's another point; Greenwood Village was in Jet Force Gemini and that actually was retained in Rare Replay. However, so was Jet Pac in Donkey Kong 64 on Wii U VC, and we all know Jet Pac is 100% owned by Rare.
There have been rumors over the course of the last few years about the rumored development of Diddy Kong Racing 2 by Monster Games and that Nintendo has possibly at numerous occasions attempted to buy the rights to the characters. But who the hell knows if that'll even happen and if it even HAS happened. We're still kind of waiting for DKR2 to show itself if it even exists.
Current talk is that it's an NX game, so... eh.
Maybe with Phil Spencer's more open approach to Nintendo these days (and even Microsoft putting their name on a Wii U game in Japan), even about Rare, you never know what crazy things will happen next.
What's your take?
Here's a screencap of a YouTube video showing the credits in Diddy Kong Racing DS which of course came out years after Rare was bought by Microsoft:
For those who can't see it, it says:
Now an old Rare Scribes back from around the time of the game's release featured an employee answering at least the subject of the characters, saying that basically Rare retains the rights of all the characters with the exception of Diddy, Dixie, Tiny, and the only newcomer, Krunch, who is considered to be a Kremling.
This makes sense to an extent (though I question if Nintendo even KNOWS they own Krunch due to his complete absence outside of both versions of the game. Not even in Mario sport games for some reason). And we see more proof in the artwork and screenshots of an old cancelled 360 XBLA game by Rare called The Fast and the Furriest:
This is the first time that T.T. and Tiptup have been seen on MS hardware, hence that's visual proof.
Now here's the other thing, what about everything else?
Does Nintendo own all the environments? This is a toughie, since the island is literally called "Timber's Island". And also, the credits say they own the scenario, but the story really is central to Timber and Wizpig.
Music's easy as Nintendo would own all of that, especially since there are no real legal hurdles to work though. There aren't any music tracks that are remixes of Rare music (Banjo's bit in the theme song is just the theme song of the game played on the banjo and nothing more, this was retained in the DS version even).
Program would just be the code I imagine. Aside it being among its many forms in development R.C. Pro-Am 64, I don't see any issues here.
Game would just be that individual release I'd assume.
Here's another point; Greenwood Village was in Jet Force Gemini and that actually was retained in Rare Replay. However, so was Jet Pac in Donkey Kong 64 on Wii U VC, and we all know Jet Pac is 100% owned by Rare.
There have been rumors over the course of the last few years about the rumored development of Diddy Kong Racing 2 by Monster Games and that Nintendo has possibly at numerous occasions attempted to buy the rights to the characters. But who the hell knows if that'll even happen and if it even HAS happened. We're still kind of waiting for DKR2 to show itself if it even exists.
Current talk is that it's an NX game, so... eh.Maybe with Phil Spencer's more open approach to Nintendo these days (and even Microsoft putting their name on a Wii U game in Japan), even about Rare, you never know what crazy things will happen next.
What's your take?
