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Everything about this Rare showcase is exceptional in its presentation. It has a full musical intro that's more than a minute long showing the celebration of Rareware's history. The menu is incredibly detailed with everything in chronological order of our favorite Rare games. There's a snapshots mode which are short challenge sections of selected games. Then there's a collection of Rare documentaries, from games that never passed the concept art phase to behind the scenes footage. But in order to watch these, you have to unlock them by playing the games from this collection. This video is more of a first impression and an overview of the features, because there's no way we could could complete all of these games for this review.
Starting with the N64 era, it's nice to see that these games work as well as the original. The N64 generation itself hasn't aged well, but the Rareware games are probably the strongest of the bunch due to their unique design. They've also been a little harder to access in modern times so it's great to have it here. With the incredibly unique Blast Corps where you blow up buildings and get money for it. To the classic platforming of Banjo Kazooie. Banjo Kazooie is actually the upgraded XBLA version, but that's great because it already has all the improvements of higher resolution and dual analog controls. Some games don't hold up well like Jet Force Gemini. They offer an option for modern controls, but no matter what you select it's incredibly awkward and can best be described as tank controls.
The old school games looks incredible blocky with the low resolution uprezzed to 1080p. There is an option for a CRT filter which makes it looks like an old TV and in my opinion it's a much more reasonable appearance even though it's designed for nostalgia. There's also a beautifully crafted border tailored to each game. I usually turn off these kinds of features because they are distracting, but these look so good I had to leave them on. One of the Rarest highlights from the collection is Battletoads Arcade. The game looks and runs really well for a 2D Beat Em Up because it was released exclusively for the Arcade and now this is the only way to get it without resorting to emulation.
Xbox 360 Era
The Xbox 360 era was the category that I was most interested in, but also most disappointed in. I was surprised how poorly some of these games ran. All games run under an Xbox 360 emulator instead of being ported natively. The game has to load the 360 interface and on the first game I ran, it took quite a while to initialize. Kameo Elements of Power ran fine. Viva Pinata runs ok. But Perfect Dark Zero suffered some slow downs even during somewhat simple moments. Then moving on to Banjo Kazooie Nuts & Bolts the slow down was unbearable. Walking around in the town and even sometimes during cutscenes was atrocious. I know I'm not the only one complaining about these slow downs you can look around the net to see other responses. But a lot of people tend to downplay the slowdown problem due to nostalgia glasses.
Other than that, the games handle and play the same as they did on 360, since they are the most recent games. Aside from slowdown, functionality and controls are all intact. It is nice to have access to these more modern Rare games in one place. These games have their own unique values to them. There's Kameo which is as an adventure game that focuses on transforming. Viva Pinata which is a strangely fun garden simulator. Perfect Dark Zero has some fun elements and really sets itself apart from modern military shooters. However it is dated in some ways. The characters really exude the mid 2000 fashion style. And the controls are incredibly floaty, it's very difficult to have precision when moving and shooting.
Remastering
The graphics are generally the same as the original versions, with the exception of the XBLA ported remasters like Banjo Kazooie. Of course we would all love 100% touched up graphics in the 3D games, but it's not really going to be possible.
The UI really shows a lot of care and they didn't leave you hanging in any way. There's options for everything you could possibly need to beat these old games. And even save states, rewinds, and unlimited lives in some of the old school games. That way you can actually beat those hard classics without driving yourself crazy.
I know everyone is wondering where's Donkey Kong Country? Or how about StarFox adventures? Those games are lost in licensing so you won't see them in this pack. But the classics that are included here are loads of fun and still maintain everything from the original.
Rare Replay is a huge package perfect for people who are hardcore fans of the old games. And even new fans who got a taste of Rare and now they want to go back can play all of the games. Rare Replay gets our rating of Try It. The slowdown is really a killer on the recent 360 games. And not every game has perfect controls, although Rare tried very hard to make it accessible. But it's a ton of fun games in one package overall. And for the most part these games still hold up ok. The slowdown and the Xbox 360 emulation is very annoying and I wish that wasn't the case, but it's still a very valuable package. It's priced fairly at $30 retail which kind of breaks down to a dollar per game. But you shouldn't really look at it that way. Rare is such a fan favorite and it's hard to hate on the company for how they've changed. Hopefully this is a sign that Rare will be returning to their roots with future games. These games aren't for everyone and some people may not have the same nostalgia. But for those who do enjoy it, this collection is loads of fun. And subscribe to the SKILLED channel for more reviews on cool XBOX games: http://bit.ly/SkilledSubscribe
