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Sega design chief joins Rare
- Thread starter Frankfurt
- Start date
Pie and Beans
Look for me on the local news, I'll be the guy arrested for trying to burn down a Nintendo exec's house.
I'm not sure exactly how much Sega West had to do with the development of Sonic Generations, but I imagine a lot of people in this topic are perhaps putting a little too much weight on the notion that this guy was responsible for a lot of it.
jump_button
Banned
did he work on colours? Generations suck apart from old sonic look dont think this will help them made a good game they need alot more
Good point. I somehow overlooked that he's from Sega West, and just saw "creative director". Probably didn't have much to do with Generations being good.
Not really expecting much from Sega West in the future anyway.
Nocturnowl
Member
Well in this scenario at the very least there's a chance at a horrible franchise resurrection, Sabreman strikes back!
I thought the humour in the Banjo games was very British myself, not that I can explain exactly what that is.
Leon S. Kennedy
Member
At least now he doesn't have to loose sleep at night worrying if his paycheck will bounce
les papillons sexuels
Banned
nintendo created development hell for a lot of the rare games. They turned out one game for the gamecube, which wasn't even based on the original concept and just shoehorned into the role. That's what killed the culture of the studio, just like MS did with ensemble and fasa. When studios get into situations like that, where they're stuck working on games that never see the light of day, people dont want to work on the games anymore, the quality suffers, key staff leave.
les papillons sexuels
Banned
I hear two wongs make a white though.
Diddy Kong
Banned
I admit I'm being a bit bitter. I'm sure it is a fantastic sports game, but it's disgusting how they completely disregard their old IPs :/.
Enjoy your endless sleep.
snoopeasystreet
Member
One of the franchises is Halo. The other is Killer Instinct. It's not like they're comparable.
The only Rare franchises that I can see Microsoft getting behind is Perfect Dark and Banjo or maybe they'll give Conker to Twisted Pixel.
Bay Maximus
Banned
But 2 negatives can make a postive!
It truly is mind-boggling but I'm not sure I want current rare pissing on my nostalgia.
SatelliteOfLove
Member
Like how zombies are still the person they were before death, yes.
Nintendo could probably nail the gameplay, but Banjo would never be the same without Rare's sense of humor and awesome characters.
Naughty Dog might be a better fit for a new Banjo.
Then give it to another studio, NetherRealm Studios would be a great fit for Killer Instinct.
snoopeasystreet
Member
What about insomniac?
Talladega Knight
Member
i think you're mistaken. nintendo is one of(or THE) the reasons Rare was so succesful during the snes/n64 days. If I remember correctly, weren't Rare given a lot of space to develop how and what they wanted to by Nintendo? You can cite Starfox Adventures, but Nintendo also granted them the slack to develop Conker: BFD and have them pass on developing another Bond game (CASH COW) in favor of an original IP. Nintendo gave Rare the backing both monetarily AND creatively.
InaudibleWhispa
Member
I have no argument against that. I have had a great deal of fun with Kinect Sports, but Rare fans being disappointed with their recent output isn't surprising to me and I can't blame them. I just like people to know that they didn't just shit out any old bog standard Wii Sports rip off. It has a genuine spark, as much as a game of that type can have I guess. They've taken it about as far as it can go now though. There really is no need for a KS3.
lunchwithyuzo
Banned
Nintendo's production standards and practices are notorius, but the results speak for themselves. There's a reason devs like Next Level, Monster, Silicon Knights, Leftfield, even Rare themselves, hit certain levels of quality under Nintendo that they seem incapable of meeting otherwise. It's a pretty huge thing having the people who made Turok turn out a game like Metroid Prime.
In Rare's case that's beside the issue though. They didn't implode because mean old Nintendo made them move to a new console and slap their IP on something, Rare's problems stemmed from internal (not external) mismanagement. Nintendo saw the writing on wall, which is pretty much why they dumped them on Microsoft.
Killer Instinct is irrelevant and has never been a good fighting game to begin with.
Shotgun Kiss
Member
Criminal Upper
Banned
It was popular. That's all it needs. Deal with it.
I don't see such a title work too well with the Kinect audience. Just imagine the poor 8-year-old Hillary playing such software.
Pachterballs
Banned
um, sega west?
not even worth a thread. His game cv is ... averageness compiled.
not even worth a thread. His game cv is ... averageness compiled.
He'll fit right in.
Alx
Member
Well, they did try to revive Perfect Dark and Banjo/Kazooie, and failed. (plus the Conker remake for the original Xbox, I'm not sure it was successful either).
Those were the big Rare IPs, leaving only Killer Instinct but it never was a strong license to begin with. Jet Force Gemini might have been a better game, but is even lesser known.
They also tried several new IPs (Grabbed by the Ghoulies, Viva Pinata, Kameo) that were close to their traditional style.
That doesn't mean that you need to kill the entire studio. Just take a look at the success of NosyCrow or the Layton series. Wouldn't something like that would've worked pretty well on Kinect, even with the charming humour of Rare? Why let them produce only somewhat bland sport or racing games?
Was. Nobody cares about it now. And even if they did, Rare won't deliver a game even worth renting. Their best bet would be making a Smash Bros-like party game.
Alx
Member
Technically they've only done 2 games for kinect, Kinect Sports 1 & 2... I don't think they're condemned to do only sport games, they probably have other projects (some of them for the 720), and in the meantime they're exploiting the only recent success they had.
Rare never was a very productive studio anyway, they used to be famous for their long development cycles.
They appear to be a one-team studio nowadays as they shrank from 250 to ~100 people. And Scott Henson is making it pretty clear what they are going to do in the near future:
"A bold and bright future making simple, approachable, "get up off the couch" experiences for everyone with Kinect and Kinect Sports."
They are actually pretty quick these days with KS2 being pushed out within a year.
bigtroyjon
Member
Big Park did a lot of the work and is credited as the co-developer.
I won't doubt this, otherwise the game couldn't have been released that fast.
shaowebb
Member
I was going to mock and make a few cynical comments given Sega West and Rare's history recently, but the man worked on Sonic Generations and if he worked on that then he definitely has something good to offer.
I still hope like an idiot to one day see a revival by Rare of their Wizards and Warriors franchise from the NES days...the third one ended on a cliffhanger.
I still hope like an idiot to one day see a revival by Rare of their Wizards and Warriors franchise from the NES days...the third one ended on a cliffhanger.
Barrel Cannon
Member
All the Rare talk makes me always wonder what the certain Crytek(AKA ex-FreeRadical, AKA ex-Rare) developers are making.
Diddy Kong
Banned
I enjoyed Perfect Dark Zero. Banjo Kazooie Nuts n Bolts was junk with Banjo slapped onto it. All we needed was a nice simple Banjo-Threeie, but we got horrid designs (especially Kazooie), vehicles, and a magic wrench (I know where that really belongs). Viva Pinata was also a solid title, but Microsoft never put advertisement into any of Rare's games and they were overshadowed by Halo , Gears, etc. Even under Microsoft, they still made better games for Nintendo. Diddy Kong Racing DS was the best game they've made post buyout.
Alx
Member
Didn't they produce a whole TV show based on those pinatas ?
Shotgun Kiss
Member
Viva Pinata is an odd one. I think a lot of the kids who watched it might not have even been aware it was based on a game. And even if they were, a kids show was the wrong way of promoting it, as Viva Pinata wasn't a kids game at all, despite the visuals. Making Pinatas appear, much less become residents in your garden, involved meeting a great deal of very specific requirements, which would go completely over a kids head. So kids weren't too keen, yet making a kids show only reinforced most people's belief that it was a kids game, meaning it was written off by others as well.
Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise is one of my favourite games this generation, and in my opinion, is the last game Rare put out that is up to par with their SNES/N64 days (I really enjoyed Nuts & Bolts, but it had problems, not least of which the fact it should have been a platformer). It's such a shame the series didn't do better.
Criminal Upper
Banned
Except for the fact Rare has acknowledge several times it's their most requested IP ever.
But since you don't care, that must be everyone doesn't, right?