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 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 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.