Rare Replay: 10 minute impressions of all 30 games

What, you didn’t expect me to actually beat all of those games did you?

Rare Replay is a collection of 30 titles from the famed developer’s catalog that comes out tomorrow for the Xbox One. Frankly, playing through all of them for a review would have been impractical. Instead, I sampled each game for 10 minutes and wrote a few impressions. That’s a lot of games, so let’s get to it!

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Jetpac (1983)

This is a pretty simple arcade-style game. It’s kind of like Joust, except you have a jetpac, you don’t need to press a button repeatedly to fly, and you’re collecting fuel instead of eggs. OK, I guess it isn’t that much like Joust. Still, I thought Jetpac was fun in that classic, arcade-y sense. It’s nothing crazy, but it takes a decent amount of skill and reflex to avoid all of the stuff flying at you while hovering around the screen.

Lunar Jetman (1983)

Remember how I enjoyed Jetpac for its simplicity? Lunar Jetman is a complicated mess. It’s a side-scroller that tasks you with destroying an alien base. However, a ton of crap is flying at you from both directions, and it’s hard to avoid it all. Also, you can’t just shoot the base. You have to drop a bomb on it. So, first you need to pick the bomb, then you drop it on your rover, then you get in the rover, and then you start driving it over to the alien base. However, you’ll run into craters that you actually have to build bridges over. You do this by getting out of your rover, picking up support beams that I guess are stashed in the trunk, and then laying them down. This whole time, crap is flying all over the place and trying to kill you. It’s convoluted.

Atic Atac (1983)

This was kind of like Gauntlet … a bad Gauntlet. Maybe it’s kind of a Rogue-like? You’re running around a maze full of monsters, food, keys, and locked doors. It’s impossible to really know where you’re supposed to go, so you just sort of run around aimlessly. That would be kind of OK except that your life bar is always slowly depleting, so you need to constantly find more food. However, I did like how my axes bounced off of walls when I threw them.

Sabre Wulf (1984)

This is another top-down, exploration-based game, except now you’re a guy with a sword in a jungle. You collect gems and slash animals to death. Weird plants can also give you invisibility. It wasn’t much, but at least my health wasn’t constantly depleting, and I didn’t have to stare at locked doors every other screen. So, compared to Atic Atac, I guess this was OK.

Underwurlde (1984)

You’re the same guy from Sabre Wulf, but now you’re in a 2D platformer where you’re going deep into caves looking for gems. The jumping physics are pretty wonky. You can only go straight up or at a strict angle forward, and missing your jump or hitting an enemy makes you bounce around like crazy. Mario it isn’t. Heck, it isn’t even Pitfall.

Knight Lore (1984)

Man, Rare made a lot of PC games in 1984. This stars the same dude from Sabre Wulf and Underwurlde. This one, however, is an awkward, isometric platformer. The in-game geometry makes it really hard to tell what items are supposed to be closer to the screen than others, so I died a lot just by running into spikey balls that I thought were further away from me. This game did have a mechanic that turns you into a wolf every minute or so, but it didn’t really seem to make any difference to the gameplay. The transformation animation was kind of cool, though. More than the previous games, I can appreciate Knight Lore’s ambition, and I’m sure this was an eye-opening game in 1984. However, it hasn’t aged well.

Gunfright (1985)

This uses the same isometric view as Knight Lore, but this game holds up a bit better. Basically, you’re a cowboy who walks around a classic Western town looking for a wanted man to shoot. For some reason, walking into the random women who roam the town kills you. It’s also kind of a pain to line up your shots, since everyone is moving so fast and the hit-boxes are tiny.

Salom (1986)

We are thankfully leaving the ancient PC era behind and entering Rare’s days on the Nintendo Entertainment System. Salom is a simple skiing game. You race down tracks avoiding trees and other skiers, and you can jump off of snow mounds and do tricks for extra points. It’s basic, but it’s amusing.

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R.C. Pro-Am (1987)

This is the first piece in this collection that I have any kind of nostalgia for, since I owned it as a kid. It’s an isometric (what’s with these guys and isometric games?) racer. Boosts and items litter the track, making this something of a precursor to the Mario Kart series. It’s still fun, but the isometric view makes it hard to actually see what’s coming ahead of you, so you’ll only get all the items and boosts if you’ve memorized the tracks.

Cobra Triangle (1989)

I did not play this back in the day, but it’s awesome. It’s kind of like R.C. Pro-Am but with boats and a lot more variety. One stage is a race, another has you shooting targets while being carried away by a current, another has you protecting swimmers, and then you’re suddenly fighting a giant sea monster. Also, your boat sprouts a tiny propeller so it can fly between levels. Where has Cobra Triangle been all my life?

Snake Rattle ‘n’ Roll (1990)

This is an isometric platformer. Again, the view makes it hard to properly line up attacks and jumps. However, the snake characters you play as are pretty adorable, and I did enjoy the colorful graphics. I also got to swim up a waterfall at one point, which was kind of cool.

Solar Jetman (1990)

This is a successor to the first game mentioned in this article, Jetpac. You’re still searching for fuel for a space ship, but now you have a capsule, so you can fly around moon caverns. It has a lot more depth than the original, but the capsule can be a pain to control. You have to turn it and then fire a thruster to move, so it’s easy to accidentally crash into a wall. Also, picking up an item like fuel or a spaceship part significantly weighs the capsule down and really makes it a pain to maneuver.

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Digger T. Rock (1990)

This one is actually pretty similar to Underwurlde. You’re a guy exploring caves and searching for treasure. It’s kind of like an early precursor to Spelunky, but with wonkier controls and a confusing inventory system. The sprite for the main character, however, is adorable.

Battletoads (1991)

Here we go. Battletoads is a classic beat-’em-up for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Even today, its oversized fists and exaggerated sound effects make pummeling its enemies super-satisfying. It also has the greatest pause screen jam of all time. Yeah, it’s incredible difficult, but Rare Replay’s rewind feature (you can hold the L button for select games to rewind time) actually helps you finally beat this monster from your childhood.

R.C. Pro-Am II (1992)

This is a lot like the first one, but tracks have more slopes, and you can use a store between races to improve your car. It’s definitely a bit better than the original, but the isometric view still makes it difficult to actually see boosts and items. Still, as far as NES racers go, this might be tops.

Battletoads Arcade (1994)

This is a Battletoads sequel a lot of you might not know about, since it never got a console release. It’s awesome. The graphics and sound are much better than they were in the NES game. It’s also a lot more violent. You’ll actually see some blood on the screen. It’s great to finally have this game easily playable.

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Killer Instinct Gold (1996)

We’re now entering Rare’s golden era on the Nintendo 64. I actually didn’t really play much Killer Instinct back in the day, so 10 minutes wasn’t a lot of time for me to get a handle on special moves and combos. Still, I was beginning to figure things out and was even able to take down a couple of computer opponents. Really, having a fighting game in the collection really spices up the variety. Also, you have to love that announcer: “C-c-c-combo breakerrrr!”

Blast Corps (1997)

This is a game that could only exist in a pre-9/11 world. You drive around vehicles and mechs with the sole purpose of destroying buildings to make a path for a nuclear missile carrier. Yeah, it’s silly, but it’s fun. You have a nice variety of vehicles, and each one has different abilities. This is really a great showcase for Rare’s creativity.

Banjo-Kazooie (1998)

Banjo-Kazooie is a delightful 3D platformer starring a bear and a giant bird that lives in his backpack. I never found the 3D acrobatics to feel quite as immaculately responsive as they are in Super Mario 64, but Banjo-Kazooie makes up for that with loads of charm and a great soundtrack. Ten minutes hardly gets me past the tutorial, but Rare managed to even make that part entertaining and rewarding.

Jet Force Gemini (1999)

Jet Force Gemini is a third-person shooter in which one of the characters is a dog with a laser gun strapped to his back. Sadly, 10 minutes didn’t give me enough time to play as the deadly pooch. As a shooter, Jet Force Gemini can feel a bit dated and wonky. You move your character like he was in a 3D platformer with the left stick, and the right stick strafes. You hold down the L button to manually aim, but the slightest movement on the stick sends your cursor flying. The soundtrack, however, is pretty awesome.

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Perfect Dark (2000)

I’m going to be a grump here, as I was never a big Perfect Dark fan. It’s basically a sequel to Rare’s 1998 GoldenEye game. Playing Perfect Dark now reminds me of everything I used to dislike about shooters: the unclear objectives, the dead-end rooms and confusing labyrinths of levels, and the blocky, boring textures. You want to excuse Perfect Dark for being a product of its time, but Half-Life came out in 1998, two years before this, and is way more sophisticated. Also, my 10 minute experience was kind of unsettling. I was just walking around some building easily killing people with one shot of a pistol (thanks to some generous auto-aiming) while they said things like, “Please don’t kill me.” I felt more like a psychopath than a spy.

Banjo-Tooie (2000)

This is the sequel to Banjo-Kazooie. You can’t really tell much of a difference between the two in the first 10 minutes, but this one definitely has a longer opening cutscene. You also start out with more abilities.

Conker’s Bad Fur Day (2001)

This is one of Rare’s more bizarre games. On the surface, it’s a lot like Banjo-Kazooie: A 3D platformer starring cute animals. However, the squirrel hero swears and gets drunk. It’s definitely not what you’d think of when you imagine Nintendo 64 exclusives. However, Conker is a funny, self-aware game. It even has voice acting, which was rare for Nintendo 64 games.

Grabbed by the Ghoulies (2003)

Now we’re entering the Microsoft era of Rare, and we get to play the developer’s sole game for the original Xbox (minus a remaster of Conker). Ghoulies is a 3D action game that takes place in a haunted mansion. Oddly, it reminded me of Battletoads, at least in how enemies eventually enter a stunned state that allows you deliver a big hit that sends them flying. The cutscenes, cheaply presented in a series of comic book frames, were painfully frequent, though.

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Perfect Dark Zero (2005)

One of two launch games Rare created for the Xbox 360, Microsoft hyped Perfect Dark Zero as the must-have title when it released its new system. History had other plans, and Perfect Dark Zero is little more than footnote now. Still, it’s not bad. It’s a pretty typical first-person shooter, but it looks nice and plays smoothly. Well, after I messed around with the control options for a while, anyway.

Kameo: Elements of Power (2005)

Rare’s other 360 launch game is far more interesting. Kameo is a 3D action-platformer where the main character can transform into different monsters, each with special attacks and abilities. Even today, it plays like a unique experience when it comes to combo and counter-based action games. Also, the epic soundtrack really stands out. It’s like something out of a The Lord of the Rings film.

Viva Piñata (2006)

Viva Piñata was Rare’s surprise 360 success. It’s a garden simulator, where doing certain things (like digging dirt and planting grass or flowers) attracts different creatures. You then need to figure out how to get those creatures to become residents of your garden (even if it means they want to eat a different piñata animal). It’s simple, relaxing, and addicting.

Jetpac Refuelled (2006)

This is a remake of the first game on this list, Jetpac. Gaming technology came a long way since 1983, so this one features some prettier 2D graphics. Still, it’s all about jetting around and collecting fuel for your spaceship. I liked the original because of its simplicity, and I feel the same way about the remake.

Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise (2008)

This is a sequel to Viva Piñata, and I kind of had a hard time telling what was different in just 10 minutes. I did start with more tools, and it began, oddly enough, with a cutscene where a clichéd villain was trying to take over the world. I guess someone thought Viva Piñata needed more plot.

Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts (2008)

The third and last Banjo-Kazooie game ditched traditional platforming for car-building and racing. I think fans would have embraced the change better if the game’s opening wasn’t so, well, mean. A new character tells Banjo and Kazooier that they’re second-rate, outdated characters and that gamers don’t want another 3D platformer. The other games were self-referential, but this almost feels like the dialogue is making fun of anyone who liked the originals.