Two new Rare games revealed!

by Paul on Jun 16th, 2015

I still can’t quite believe it. After all this time of whispers, rumours and gossip we now know what Rare have been working on. Not one, but two amazing releases. Yesterday afternoon (the Xbox presentation didn’t start over here in the UK until 5:30 in the evening) I was getting more and more nervous. What would be shown? Would my dreams be coming true, or crushed underfoot by the weight of disappointment?

I had heard rumblings of a Rare ‘best of’ compilation to celebrate their 30th anniversary in the months before E3 but I had dismissed the idea as being in the realms of “too good to be true”. To see that these stories were accurate and we’re getting 30 classic Rare titles in a single $30 release … just wow! I have to keep pinching myself. Just look at them! 30 stone cold classics for only $1 each. It’s mental. Being able to play Jet Force Gemini and Blast Corps again! To sample the old school delights of Knight Lore and Underwurlde for the first time! Amazing. Rare have been under a lot of pressure to move away from the Kinect Sports titles and to reignite that spark that had seemed to have gone out since the Microsoft buy-out. As a response to the criticisms levelled at them of late I cannot think of a way that Rare could have smashed it more. Completely knocked it out of the park. As a fan, to be watching the show yesterday and to see this reveal completely fresh (the title had leaked the day before courtesy of GameStop listing it prematurely, but me being me I ignored it and forgot about it) I was so happy. Real elation to see all these instantly recognisable and well-loved logos flash before my eyes, and what really made me jump for joy was seeing that release date … 4th August! In two months we’ll be able to play the following;

– Atic Atac
– Banjo-Kazooie
– Banjo-Tooie
– Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts
– Battletoads
– Battletoads (Arcade version)
– Blast Corps
– Cobra Triangle
– Conker’s Bad Fur Day
– Digger T. Rock
– Grabbed By The Ghoulies
– Gunfright
– Jet Force Gemini
– Jetpac
– Jetpac Refuelled
– Kameo: Elements Of Power
– Killer Instinct Gold
– Knight Lore
– Lunar Jetman
– Perfect Dark
– Perfect Dark Zero
– R.C. Pro-Am
– R.C. Pro-Am 2
– Sabre Wulf
– Slalom
– Snake, Rattle & Roll
– Solar Jetman
– Underwurlde
– Viva Piñata
– Viva Piñata: Trouble In Paradise

It’s embarrassing how good that list is. What really gets me is that more isn’t being made of the fact that JFG and Blast Corps are part of this package. Both are excellent and will be the first games I play when I get it. It also gives me hope that sequels to these games could also be more realistic now that a new generation of gamers are going to play them.

All that and I’ve not even talked about Rare’s new game, Sea Of Thieves. A MMO pirate adventure game, it looks gorgeous. Really great art style … and those waves when they take to the high seas in the trailer are incredible. The music is excellent (not that there would be any doubt of that; Robin Beanland is doing the soundtrack) and it looks like it will be a lot of fun to play. I’m wondering if it will be a full release or a free-to-play affair with add-on content we can buy?

I had high hopes before the show and Rare and Microsoft did not let me down. An excellent presentation, with lots of great games for the Xbox One to look forward to, but Rare’s part of the show was the highlight. A real delight to see what Rare’s working on and the direction they’re taking. Part of me was not convinced it would be a new Banjo game, and the rest of my original predictions were surprisingly close if I’m honest (not that I’m saying I told you so, I’m as surprised as you are that I was quite close). My only regret is that GoldenEye couldn’t be in amongst the package. I don’t ever expect the Super NES Donkey Kong trilogy to find its way to Xbox One but I had hoped that Microsoft, Nintendo and Activision could have worked something out for Mr. Bond. Never mind. Here’s hoping it might eventually see the light of day as DLC or as a standalone release.

So, the future is suddenly very bright for me as a fan … I never lost the faith but over the last few years, it was getting quite frustrating to report on Rare news, only to have more Kinect Sports to write about. Don’t get me wrong, I love them but they just don’t scratch that particular Rare itch for me. Now with Sea Of Thieves and Rare Replay, consider me well and truly itch free and I’m not going to need to buy any other games for quite some time.

I have to take a moment and say a massive thank you to Leigh and Emma at Rare who were able to arrange a front row seat for Lerako at the show and he’s playing Replay right now. Lucky bugger. He will be bringing us his full impressions of the game when he returns from LA. I cannot wait to see what he thinks. Until then, here are the trailers for both games to whet your appetites.

Rare Replay E3 2015 trailer:

Sea Of Thieves E3 2015 trailer:

Lovely, aren’t they?

Also, a quick word on the one other thing that I loved in the show; the announcement of full 360 backwards compatibility with Xbox One. True, it should have been in place since day one, but the fact that Microsoft have implemented it at all and expanding the scope of the console to play all these games is such great news. What’s even better is that it’ll all be free! I really thought there would be some cost involved but it’ll cost us nothing. Ziltch. Nada. I’m so happy with that and cannot wait for it to go live later in the year.

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