Company: Rare
Donkey Kong Land III
Blast Corps
Battletoads
Banjo-Kazooie
Star Fox Adventures
Donkey Kong Country
Ken Griffey Jr.'s Winning Run
Jet Force Gemini
Mickey's Speedway USA
Rare Replay
Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge
Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts
Donkey Kong 64
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Banjo-Tooie
Kinect Sports
Banjo-Pilot
Killer Instinct Gold
Snake Rattle 'n' Roll
Donkey Kong Land
Diddy Kong Racing DS
Sea of Thieves
Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest
Conker's Pocket Tales
Kameo: Elements of Power
Perfect Dark
It's Mr. Pants
Conker's Bad Fur Day
Killer Instinct
Battletoads
Grabbed by the Ghoulies
GoldenEye 007
Perfect Dark Zero
A Nightmare on Elm Street
Conker: Live & Reloaded
Donkey Kong Land 2
Diddy Kong Racing
Viva Piñata
Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!
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One of the prototype games Rare had created to test programming for the Kinect had the player control a seagull, and attempt to poo on passers by.
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During their time as "Ultimate Play the Game", Rare were known for minimal marketing - to the point of not even releasing screenshots in magazines, and having print advertisements comprise of game logos and nothing else.
Also Appears On: Ultimate Play the Game (Company)
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A common internet rumor, typically pushed by Nintendo fans upset over rival console manufacturer Microsoft's purchase of former Nintendo collaborator Rare, is that the Kinect Sports franchise was mandated by Microsoft and not an idea that employees of Rare wanted to work on. According to Yooka-Laylee creative lead Gavin Price, this was not true, claiming:
"Phil Spencer taking the mantle of Xbox is one of the best things that could have happened for Rare. Because he’s always said to people at Rare [as general manager of Microsoft Studios], ‘Do what you want to do and we’ll back you,’ and he’s always stayed true to his word in that regard. It was people in Rare’s management at the time who said: ‘Well, Kinect is a great opportunity for the studio – go all in on it.’ So when executives at Microsoft see that the management team are passionate about doing that, they back them. Microsoft to their credit did that, and perhaps the story online isn’t quite reflective of the truth."
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Grant Kirkhope, music composer for Rare at the time, reused songs he had composed for Rare's unreleased game Project: Dream for several other titles, including Banjo-Kazooie, Banjo-Tooie, Donkey Kong 64 and Viva Piñata.
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According to Chris Seavor (creator of Conker's Bad Fur Day), Rare wanted to explore 'amiibo styled things' way back during the days of the Nintendo 64. Rare even made figures of two of their characters for an unproduced fantasy video game called Urchin. The idea went nowhere with Rare and Nintendo at the time. Later, Nintendo decided to introduce the concept of Amiibos for the Nintendo Wii U and 3DS on June 10, 2014.
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When Microsoft had acquired Rare, they'd decided to keep their in-house Game Boy team as Microsoft had no intentions of entering the handheld market. Rare would continue to develop games for the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS. Microsoft themselves had also released other games on rival platforrms.
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The company started out as Ultimate Play the Game (often shortened to Ultimate), making games for the popular 8-bit home computers of the time.
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According to former Rareware employee Chris Seavor, when the company was purchased by Microsoft, a number of the Microsoft executives thought that they had the rights to Donkey Kong until Rare corrected them.