Candescence
Member
Recently, I've been playing DK64 on the Wii U VC, and while the restore point feature is a saving grace, it's remarkable to me how on the low end of Rare's N64 output is, even if it's merely decent. I'd honestly say it's the first big sign that Rare was losing their touch before it really became apparent once they started making games for Microsoft, and just went straight downhill from there.
I was thinking about that, then I remembered Star Fox Adventures, and how much of a mixed bag it was.
Adventures, as we all know, had a bit of a problematic development history, first being Dinosaur Planet on the N64, and then transitioning over to the Gamecube as a Star Fox game (the why isn't really clear, there's a lot of hearsay, whether it be either Nintendo mandating the change (possibly to deny Microsoft ownership of another Rare IP) or Miyamoto merely suggesting it, and whether the switch to the GC was another mandate or the result of Rare realizing that the N64 wasn't truly able to handle what they wanted to do with Dinosaur Planet), so I won't go into that in great detail. And then there was the Microsoft buyout, which forced Rare to rush development (again, why Rare wasn't retained by Nintendo is also basically the subject of speculation). The dev history of that game is really unclear, to my knowledge.
I still think Adventures is a pretty good game - the visuals, atmosphere and music are fantastic, they actually did a pretty great job with the Arwing sections despite them being mainly filler, the main dungeons were very different compared to Zelda and the combat simple and satisfying, but it does have some fairly glaring flaws. A chunk of the blame is probably due to rushing the game out (there are certainly parts of the game that we know got dummied out due to having to actually get the game finished), I think, but I'm pretty certain Rare didn't really know what it was doing for a big chunk of the stuff they screwed up.
Firstly, let's get the most annoying bugbear out of the way: Tricky. He was pretty much a prime example of an annoying kid sidekick, but he was around in Dinosaur Planet as well, and even was supposed to have a twin who would hang around Krystal for a bit. Aside from his voice and general character, he really didn't do much of, well, anything. Aside from the bits where you absolutely needed to use his abilities, unless you were going for 100%, he was pretty much, well, there. Kind of a waste, really.
Then there's Krystal. I really do feel bad for her, going from a co-protagonist to a distressed damsel for literally all of the game after the introduction sequence to right before the final boss, and considering the evidence of what Rare actually implemented in-game and what was in the game's files, I'm going to also say her role was mainly the result of poor design decisions, they could've actually fit her in the main gameplay without much trouble (or just replaced Tricky's role entirely so they wouldn't have to program him). Had she been a controllable co-protagonist who you could switch to and from in gameplay, she could've actually played off Fox, developed their characters and gotten enough time to show some chemistry, not to mention the potential for puzzles. Hell, she might not have had nearly as much of a hatedom.
Also, a lot of the stuff outside of the main dungeons, such as the Force Point temples, Krazoa spirits, etc? Pretty much filler. I'll probably chalk this one up more to dev issues, but I think there's some poor design here and there as well with these, such as the Lightfoot challenges and the Test of Fear, though the latter aced the presentation, I think.
The narrative in general? Yeah, that was a mess. Then again, if you were really expecting a well-written 'serious' plot from Rare, I would've slapped you. Rare's generally at their best narrative-wise when they're just being silly as all hell. The voice acting is mixed-to-bad.
These are pretty much the flaws I can really remember right now, feel free to bring up stuff I overlooked. I'd say Adventures was one of the big indicators of Rare's fall from grace, and I can't help but think that a lot of the game's flaws are their fault rather than being due to Nintendo or the MS buyout - I think some other devs would've done a lot better with what they were working with. But I was interested in seeing what others thought about how and why certain parts of Adventures ended up as they did.
I was thinking about that, then I remembered Star Fox Adventures, and how much of a mixed bag it was.
Adventures, as we all know, had a bit of a problematic development history, first being Dinosaur Planet on the N64, and then transitioning over to the Gamecube as a Star Fox game (the why isn't really clear, there's a lot of hearsay, whether it be either Nintendo mandating the change (possibly to deny Microsoft ownership of another Rare IP) or Miyamoto merely suggesting it, and whether the switch to the GC was another mandate or the result of Rare realizing that the N64 wasn't truly able to handle what they wanted to do with Dinosaur Planet), so I won't go into that in great detail. And then there was the Microsoft buyout, which forced Rare to rush development (again, why Rare wasn't retained by Nintendo is also basically the subject of speculation). The dev history of that game is really unclear, to my knowledge.
I still think Adventures is a pretty good game - the visuals, atmosphere and music are fantastic, they actually did a pretty great job with the Arwing sections despite them being mainly filler, the main dungeons were very different compared to Zelda and the combat simple and satisfying, but it does have some fairly glaring flaws. A chunk of the blame is probably due to rushing the game out (there are certainly parts of the game that we know got dummied out due to having to actually get the game finished), I think, but I'm pretty certain Rare didn't really know what it was doing for a big chunk of the stuff they screwed up.
Firstly, let's get the most annoying bugbear out of the way: Tricky. He was pretty much a prime example of an annoying kid sidekick, but he was around in Dinosaur Planet as well, and even was supposed to have a twin who would hang around Krystal for a bit. Aside from his voice and general character, he really didn't do much of, well, anything. Aside from the bits where you absolutely needed to use his abilities, unless you were going for 100%, he was pretty much, well, there. Kind of a waste, really.
The continuity nod in Assault where he's all grown up was a neat touch on Namco's part, though.
Then there's Krystal. I really do feel bad for her, going from a co-protagonist to a distressed damsel for literally all of the game after the introduction sequence to right before the final boss, and considering the evidence of what Rare actually implemented in-game and what was in the game's files, I'm going to also say her role was mainly the result of poor design decisions, they could've actually fit her in the main gameplay without much trouble (or just replaced Tricky's role entirely so they wouldn't have to program him). Had she been a controllable co-protagonist who you could switch to and from in gameplay, she could've actually played off Fox, developed their characters and gotten enough time to show some chemistry, not to mention the potential for puzzles. Hell, she might not have had nearly as much of a hatedom.
Maybe.
Also, a lot of the stuff outside of the main dungeons, such as the Force Point temples, Krazoa spirits, etc? Pretty much filler. I'll probably chalk this one up more to dev issues, but I think there's some poor design here and there as well with these, such as the Lightfoot challenges and the Test of Fear, though the latter aced the presentation, I think.
The narrative in general? Yeah, that was a mess. Then again, if you were really expecting a well-written 'serious' plot from Rare, I would've slapped you. Rare's generally at their best narrative-wise when they're just being silly as all hell. The voice acting is mixed-to-bad.
These are pretty much the flaws I can really remember right now, feel free to bring up stuff I overlooked. I'd say Adventures was one of the big indicators of Rare's fall from grace, and I can't help but think that a lot of the game's flaws are their fault rather than being due to Nintendo or the MS buyout - I think some other devs would've done a lot better with what they were working with. But I was interested in seeing what others thought about how and why certain parts of Adventures ended up as they did.
