Rare Ltd.
| Rare Ltd. | |
|---|---|
| |
| Founded | 1985 |
| First Super Mario game | Donkey Kong Country (1994) |
| Latest Super Mario game | Diddy Kong Racing DS (2007) |
| Current president | Craig Duncan |
Rare Ltd. (also shortened to just Rare and trade-named Rareware up until Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge) is a British video game developer based in Twycross, Leicestershire. It was founded in 1985 by Chris and Tim Stamper, as the successor company to Ultimate Play the Game. As a prominent second-party developer for Nintendo, Rare created the successful Nintendo Entertainment System games Wizards & Warriors, Battletoads, and R.C. Pro-Am. Rare's only involvement with the Super Mario franchise was creating several Donkey Kong games, beginning with Donkey Kong Country. Since then, Rare has produced other well-known titles such as Banjo-Kazooie, Perfect Dark, and Sea of Thieves.
In 2002, following the original North American release of Star Fox Adventures on the Nintendo GameCube, Microsoft completed its acquisition of Rare, affecting the status of several games of the Super Mario franchise, including Donkey Kong Racing, Donkey Kong Coconut Crackers, and Diddy Kong Pilot. Under the terms of the merger, Nintendo retained the rights to all the Donkey Kong characters along with Krunch, while Rare maintained the rights to its own intellectual properties such as Banjo and Conker, both of whom appeared in Diddy Kong Racing. Consequently, Dixie Kong's hat no longer bore the Rare logo. For a while, Rare developed games for Nintendo's handheld systems, since Microsoft has not entered the dedicated handheld console market. Two of the games, Banjo-Pilot and It's Mr. Pants, were redeveloped from Diddy Kong Pilot and Donkey Kong Coconut Crackers, respectively. After the merger, there was a hard stop to using Nintendo and Rare characters in the same works of media, with even Diddy Kong Racing DS being unable to use Banjo or Conker in the character roster. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate would include one of Rare's properties, Banjo and Kazooie, as playable characters.
Nintendo itself would later publish remakes of a few Donkey Kong titles made by Rare, including the original Donkey Kong Country trilogy for the Game Boy Advance, as well as Diddy Kong Racing DS. While the first Donkey Kong Country was made available on the Virtual Console within a few weeks of the Wii being released, and Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest and Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! being rolled out there in 2007, all three games were delisted on November 25, 2012,[citation needed] and were gradually re-listed from 2014 to 2015,[citation needed] this time on both the Wii and Wii U, and all releases of the game have remained listed since then to the extent the consoles' online game stores have remained online. The Rare-developed game Jetpac somehow remained intact in the Donkey Kong 64 port for the Wii U Virtual Console.
History involving the Super Mario franchise
Mario Kart series
Rare is listed in the credits of Mario Kart 64 and Mario Kart: Super Circuit as "Donkey Kong 3-D model provided courtesy of Rare U.K."
Donkey Kong 64
Rare appears in Donkey Kong 64 in a few ways, and the company is named "Rareware" in the game. Rareware and Nintendo are the sponsors for the boxing match between the Kongs and King K. Rool as mentioned by the Microphone. Two items bear the logo of Rare: the Rareware Coin and a specific Golden Banana that is obtained from the Banana Fairy Princess.
Diddy Kong Racing DS
Rare appears in Diddy Kong Racing DS with its logo appearing on the coins.
Super Smash Bros. series
In the Super Smash Bros. series, "Rare Limited" appears in the Sound Test of Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS, Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as the original composers of several Donkey Kong songs, although the information clarifies that Nintendo fully owns the copyright to the compositions.
Appearances in the Super Mario universe
- Dixie Kong's hat is occasionally pinned with Rareware's logo. This can be seen clearly in some Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest and Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! promotional artwork, as well as The Super Mario Bros. Movie.
- One artwork of Wrinkly's Save Cave for Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! has Rareware's logo framed.
- Timber has a cap with Rareware's logo on it. This was changed to the Nintendo DS logo for Diddy Kong Racing DS.
List of Super Mario games
| Title | Year released | Console |
|---|---|---|
| Donkey Kong Country | 1994 | SNES |
| Donkey Kong Land | 1995 | Game Boy |
| Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest | 1995 | SNES |
| Donkey Kong Land 2 | 1996 | Game Boy |
| Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! | 1996 | SNES |
| Donkey Kong Land III | 1997 | Game Boy |
| Diddy Kong Racing | 1997 | Nintendo 64 |
| Donkey Kong 64 | 1999 | Nintendo 64 |
| Donkey Kong Country | 2000 | Game Boy Color |
| Donkey Kong Country | 2003 | Game Boy Advance |
| Donkey Kong Country 2 | 2004 | Game Boy Advance |
| Donkey Kong Country 3 | 2005 | Game Boy Advance |
| Diddy Kong Racing DS | 2007 | Nintendo DS |
Notable employees
- Kevin Bayliss (former)
- Grant Kirkhope (former)
- Leigh Loveday
- Eveline Novakovic (former)
- Gregg Mayles
- Steve Mayles (former)
- Chris Stamper (former)
- Tim Stamper (former)
- Mark Stevenson (former)
- Chris Sutherland (former)
- David Wise (former)
Gallery
Logos
Rare's first logo, used from 1987–1990
Logo used from 1990–1994
Logo used from 1994–2003 for the "Rareware" trademark
Donkey Kong and Diddy with the Rareware logo
Logo used from 2003–2010
Logo used from 2010–2015
Screenshots
Splash screen from Donkey Kong GB: Dinky Kong & Dixie Kong
Splash screen from Donkey Kong Country (Game Boy Color)
Splash screen from Donkey Kong Country (Game Boy Advance)
Unused splash screen from Diddy Kong Pilot (2001)
Logos of canceled games
External links
- Rare Ltd. on the Rare Wiki
