Rare Games

Rare's landmark first-person shooter defined console multiplayer gaming and demonstrated that licensed movie games could be exceptional. GoldenEye 007 introduced aiming, stealth mechanics, and objectives-based mission design to console FPS games, and its four-player split-screen became the standard for living room multiplayer.

Rare's stunning follow-up to GoldenEye 007 surpassed its predecessor in nearly every respect, delivering a sci-fi spy thriller with a phenomenal weapon roster, improved AI, and the most feature-rich multiplayer on the Nintendo 64. The technical achievement of Perfect Dark on N64 hardware remains extraordinary.

Rare's charming 3D platformer masterpiece sent a bear and a bird through nine inventive worlds brimming with collectibles, clever puzzles, and an irresistible sense of fun. Banjo-Kazooie refined the collectathon formula with exceptional world design and remains one of the N64's finest games.

The rare sequel that surpasses the original. Donkey Kong Country 2 improved on its predecessor in every dimension — tighter level design, superior music, more varied environments, and better boss encounters.

The graphical revolution that shocked the world. Donkey Kong Country's pre-rendered 3D graphics seemed impossible on SNES hardware, and the game underneath matched those visuals with excellent level design and music.

Rare's audacious, boundary-pushing platformer used the deceptively cute character of Conker the squirrel as a vehicle for adult humor, cinematic parodies, and surprisingly emotional moments. One of the N64's most technically impressive games and its most unexpectedly mature.

Rare's answer to Mario Kart 64 — an adventure racing game with three vehicle types (kart, hovercraft, plane), a full single-player story mode, and boss races that outpaced the competition in depth.

The ambitious Banjo-Kazooie sequel with nine interconnected worlds, a massively expanded moveset, multiplayer modes, and first-person shooter sections — bigger in every way than its predecessor.

Rare's ambitious collectathon platformer sent Donkey Kong and four Kong companions through eight enormous worlds in pursuit of 3,821 collectibles. Technically impressive and generously sized, DK64's scope is both its greatest strength and its most criticized aspect — a game of extraordinary content that some consider bloated.

Rare's N64 third-person shooter — Juno, Vela, and Lupus fight through insectoid armies to rescue enslaved Tribals across 13 planets in one of the N64's most visually impressive and ambitiously scaled games.

Rare's brilliantly odd N64 debut — pilot demolition vehicles to clear a path for a runaway nuclear missile carrier, destroying everything in its route across 57 stages using bulldozers, mechs, a dump truck, and a rocket cycle.

The third DKC entry — Dixie Kong and Baby Kiddy adventure through the Northern Kremisphere with water-heavy stages, multiple overworld paths, and Rare's signature pre-rendered 3D graphics.

Rare's technically audacious port of the arcade fighter brings pre-rendered 3D character graphics and the signature Combo Breaker system to the SNES in a package that defied expectations for what 16-bit hardware could deliver. The game's roster of outlandish fighters — skeleton warriors, cyborgs, and a two-ton dinosaur — and its lengthy auto-combo chains gave it a distinct identity that set it apart from Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat contemporaries.

Rare's beat-em-up masterpiece is one of the most technically impressive NES games ever made — and one of the most brutally difficult. The Turbo Tunnel alone has broken thousands of controllers.

A landmark crossover event for early 90s beat-em-up fans, Battletoads & Double Dragon unites Rare's bruising amphibian warriors with Technos' iconic martial arts duo against the shared threat of the Dark Queen and the Shadow Warriors. The game wisely tempers Battletoads' notorious difficulty with Double Dragon's more accessible combat pacing, resulting in a co-op brawler that rewards skilled play without punishing newcomers at every turn.