by jeremyf
When I got my Xbox, I, like many Nintendo kids, gravitated towards Rare Replay. Then, a mental deficiency told me to get all the achievements for the collection. It took a whole year! This list is ranking the games - or, to be more exact, the experiences I had with them. Were I playing them in their original context, some of these games would be... pure suffering.
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Banjo-Kazooie is like a warm blanket. I can settle in for a play session at any time and be totally absorbed into its quaint, low-poly worlds. The nostalgia will probably keep it forever at the very top of the Rare catalogue for me. You explore imaginative levels filled with characters that leap off the screen. It's a perfect package of charm and whimsy that keeps bringing people back all these years later. And it's a respectable size without going overboard like Rare's later platformers tended to do. The Xbox enhancements make this the ultimate version of the game.
Banjo-Tooie is a much more daunting game than its predecessor, with worlds ballooning into a gargantuan interconnected maze filled with a lot of running between places like an errand bear. By the same token, though, that development leads to a more immersive sense of place than before. I was prepared for an aggravating grind to finish Banjo-Tooie, but that was hardly the case. The folks who decided on the achievements for the HD port were very generous. I only had to spend one day with the game, not even getting past world four, before I had the gamerscore needed for the Rare Replay credit. I could have reduced my playtime even more if I was more focused about it. There are plenty of things to complain about in Banjo-Tooie, which I will encounter when I return to roll credits, but you don't have to deal with them in the early game. Instead, you can just enjoy the new sights for a few hours.
Not what anyone wanted from a Banjo sequel, but the game is still fun. With how much freedom you have to build vehicles, each challenge practically invites you to cheat it by thinking outside the box. The structure is kind of weird, and sometimes the writing is a little TOO self-aware for its own good, but it's ultimately a well-made title that's possibly ahead of its time. Achievements are pretty much a breeze. DLC is included that adds a lot more wiggle room - if you don't mind clunky 8-bit games. Hey, in this collection, I'm used to those by this point! With the way this list bore out, one could draw the conclusion that I'm more of a Banjo-Kazooie fan than a Rare fan. These games were the most fun to go back to, and I really hope the series gets another entry in the next few decades.
I was worried about this one because sandbox games can become quite dull for me without short-term goals to work towards. Luckily, the achievements serve that purpose well. The game is tuned so that you keep unlocking more things whether you're trying to or not. As more pinatas show up in your garden, your little plot develops into its own ecosystem while keeping control in your hands. I have to admit, though, some of the requirements for endgame progression are overly complicated. I strategized around them so that my last achievements were for having a shit-ton of cash on hand. That meant scorching earth and selling every critter and object in my garden. Hey, I didn't get into the Pinata game for the love of it, I did it to get rich.
A fun shooter that moves well and doesn't waste your time if you want those stamps. There are so many guns here, and the majority are fun to use. I also enjoy the length of the campaign levels; they become quite fast once you learn them. The Goldeneye style of difficulty, adding extra objectives, is still an inspired idea that should be more common. And if you're here for multiplayer, it includes a paralyzing amount of customization. The only knocks I have include a lack of signposting in certain missions causing me to wander around confused for a while and the fact that the story lost me pretty early. The audio mix wasn't great so I'm not sure if I missed some key lines or if we really did just end up in new locations without explanation. I appreciate the desire to freshen things up unbound from the 007 license, but I prefer espionage to aliens.
Shoot things, you're a speedboat. Why not? This game gives you a variety of missions, from races to swimmer defense to boss fights. However, you're always using the same mechanics, so it's refreshing instead of tiring. Not my favorite NES game ever or anything, but it's a fairly good time.
It's almost a shame that cheat codes let me skip past most of Killer Instinct, because I was vibing with some of the stuff I saw here. The human characters are frightening, but the skeletons and ice monsters and whatnot look cool. For an honest cash-in on Mortal Kombat, there are plenty of novel ideas. Thing is, I'm crap at fighting games, so I didn't feel motivated to put in the time here. And if I were to get into the series, it would be with the modern version.
The kindest thing to say about Grabbed by the Ghoulies is that it's hardly aged at all. Its cel-shaded graphics are still appealing, and the gameplay is almost always functional. The flip side of that is, the game wasn't exactly lighting up the world when it first came out, either. Rare's obligatory charm is present, of course. However, despite the many flavors of challenges attempting to diversify the game, you really are just doing the same thing the entire time. Fighting is not precise due to the quasi-dual stick control scheme. While you can get the hang of it and eventually master the game, not enough variety made it into the game to serve its already short length. That's made even worse by the NES-style "hard loop" of the game to get one crummy achievement. It was bullshit at times, but I'm probably in the top 5% of Grabbed by the Ghoulies players on the planet now? So that's something to take away, I guess.
Jetpac Refuelled is interesting. A few years later, it would have been a crappy mobile game. A few years after that, it wouldn't have been made at all. Now, it's cribbing off the success of Geometry Wars, as evidenced by the copious particle effects with every blasted alien. It expectedly adds a lot of new mechanics to the original: powered-up lasers, EMP bombs, and more than one stage layout. When you're going through all 128 of its stages, though, things eventually spiral out of control, with a ludicrous amount of enemies that bring your survival down to luck. But it gives you a new starting point every four levels, so progress is never far away. You maybe shouldn't play this game that much - it's not designed for it - but it's still pretty neat.
It's rare to see a game find such a fun concept and then ignore it. In Blast Corps, you drive vehicles that blow up buildings before a nuke-carrying truck collides with them. The premise is knowingly ridiculous, but it leads to exciting moments when you bump up against that time limit. Problems arise before too long, though. First, only about half of the vehicles are fun to drive, with the other half being a pain. The amount of the game that leans on the Backlash truck is way too high. Second, the game has maybe two or three times the number of bonus missions it needs. These have you racing or blowing up featureless spheres or playing Pac-Man, and they just aren't what I'm here for. To get the achievements, you must 100% the game the hard way - no cheats to help you here. That means getting gold times on every stage and combing each for every last thing that can be interacted with. The game just keeps going and overstays its welcome by a lot.