Rare Replay – Xbox One

Lets dive right in, shall we?Presentation: 10/10 Thirty games spanning thirty years in almost every genre you could want on a console. Including Banjo Kazooie, Killer Instinct, Conkers Bad Fur Day, Perfect Dark, Cobra Triangle, Battletoads, RC Pro AM, and Kameo, to name a few. This collection is an interactive museum of the evolution of console gaming from Commodore 64, to Nintendo 64 to Xbox 360. A near-perfect tribute to a studio with one of the richest and diverse libraries the industry has yet to see.Gameplay: 8/10 Some games play better than others. The pre-NES titles were clearly products of limited technology and pioneering mechanics that have since come a very long way. It shows, but these games are more here because they were significant to the history of the studio. When you have thirty titles, there are sure to be a few more lackluster than others. I can say that after a patch that fixed Jet Force Gemini, I have hope that another patch could tweak the few hang ups I found with certain other games. It's got Battletoads though. That counts for alot.Graphics: 8/10 Solid throughout. Frame-rates can fluctuate but never experienced a freeze or crash. Given my experience with both console and emulator versions of many of these games, I've come to expect major technical hiccups from time to time but so far, these builds of each game seem to be most definitive versions yet. It's a nitpick but I wish they could have stretched the post-NES titles to full screen so the Banjo and Perfect Dark titles didn't stand out as much as they already do, being the Xbox 360 versions.Sound: 9/10 Each game sounds good for it's time. Rare never lacked for competent music composers and it's easy to see here. Each game has it's own style and the menu tracks help add dimension to the pre-NES titles, so even the less technical tunes don't feel out of place. Every tune, every sound effect feels nostalgic and creative. It makes me nostalgic every time I play an older game to listen to soundtracks made before every game had an orchestrated soundtrack. The intro tune is infectiously catchy too.Value: 10/10 For $30 you get a handful of some of the best games ever made, and about 20 more worth playing just for the experience of seeing how far we've come in three decades. When you consider that Microsoft could have spent the next year slowly leaking each Rare Replay title onto the Xbox Live Marketplace for $5 each, the value becomes immediately apparent. Until the release of Rare Replay, it would cost over $1000 to play all these titles legitimately, and this is where the true value in Rare Replay shines. Making these old title available to the masses is a much needed step in the preservation of these great ole games.The concept in and of itself is a noble and ambitious one to say the least. It serves as both a solid tribute to Rare as a studio, and a glimpse at popular genres and graphic styles evolution. Rare Replay sets the standard for what will be expected from retro game compilations moving forward, and I can't wait to see what the future holds. Anyone who plays video games as a hobby, owes it to themselves to pick up Rare Replay.

When Microsoft purchased Rare midway through the original Xbox lifespan it was a defining moment for them as a platform holder. Rare brought with them a storied history as a developer of some classic cult favorites and blockbuster titles. They were an important part of the Xbox 360 launch and continued releasing quality games like Banjo Kazooie Nuts & bolts and Viva Piñata throughout that generation. However even still Rare was mostly under utilized by Microsoft and relegated to Kinect in recent years.Well it seems the old Rare we know and love is making a grand comeback starting with this lavish 30 game collection featuring some of their most beloved characters along with some underrated gems that fell victim to over expectations after the Microsoft purchase. Included in this collection is the infamous Battletoads for the NES as well as the excellent arcade version. Rare's most popular mascot Banjo Kazooie returns with all three games in the series and you'll also find many more gems from the Nintendo 64 era like Conker's Bad Fur Day, Blast Corps, Killer Instinct Gold and Jet Force Gemini. Of course Rare has also included their Recent Xbox and Xbox 360 releases Perfect Dark Zero, Viva Piñata, Kameo and Grabbed by the Ghoulies.Not simply rehashing these games on a disc, Rare has produced a loving tribute to the games that defined them as a studio. The menus and interface all animate and simply picking through the games is filled with the quirky humor and personality Rare are known for. Additionally the collection is loaded with making of and behind the scenes features that explore the origins of some of Rare's popular favorites. Additionally there are "snapshot" challenges that act as mini games where you must complete short tasks within the games sort of like Nintendo's NES Remix games.Rare has also made some of their older games more digestible by adding a feature that allows you to rewind up to a minute of past gameplay to correct a death or improve your strategy. You can also save and reload coming back to the games later and resuming your progress. Overall this is one of the best game collections I have ever played. With 30 games to chose from there is something for everyone in this collection and at only $30 Rare Replay is an incredible value. Highly recommended!

This game is a lot of fun

A great collection of Rare classic games from 80s-2000s lots of fun challenges for each game as well as great behind the scenes action of development stories for a lot of your favorite Rare games. At least 40 hours of gameplay. You really can't beat the price.The only thing that irritates me about this game is that most of the games don't have online play. As In, if the game didn't have online play originally then it doesn't have it in this. That was a major sticking point for me. Like it's not hard to build in online play for these retro titles. Lazy that they didn't include it.