If Rareware never left Nintendo...

S

supermariofan

Dry Bowser
Have you ever imagined what would it be if Nintendo always had Rareware by their side? I have and this is what I imagine if we still live in that era:

GameCube:
Banjo and Kazooie are added as playable characters in Melee
Banjo Threeie is released
A sequel to Donkey Kong 64 is released with improved mechanics such as less backtracking
Grabbed by the Ghoulies is released on GameCube as originally planned
Conker's Other Bad Day is released
A new IP was created
A new Killer Instinct is made, this time going for an M rating

Wii:
Conker, new Rare IP from Gamecube era, Jago and Gruntilda are added as playable characters in Brawl with Mumbo and T.J. Combo as assist trophies

Banjo Fouriee was released
Another open world Donkey Kong game is released with Dixie and Kiddy added to the team
A new IP is created
A sequel to Jet Force Gemini is made
Casino Royale was released and is equally as successful as Goldeneye
A sequel to Perfect Dark was made



Wii U:
Joanna Dark, protagonist from the Wii game, and Juno are playable characters in Smash Wii U and 3DS with Cooper added as an assist trophy
A new Conker game is released
Banjo Fiviee is released
Banjo and Conker are DLC characters in Mario Kart 8
A new Diddy Kong Racing was released for the Wii U and 3DS
The highly anticipated Dinosaur Planet sees the light of day
A new Battletoads was released
A new Killer Instinct game is released

Switch:
Cooper and T.J. Combo get promoted to being playable characters in Smash Bros Ultimate along with The Wii U IP being a new character and the Battletoads added as assist trophies
An HD remaster of Donkey Kong 64, and Banjo Kazooie get released
Instead of a new Banjo and Donkey Kong game, we get a crossover game with Donkey Kong and Banjo teaming up to stop King K. Rool and Gruntilda.
 
supermariofan said:
Banjo Fouriee was released
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supermariofan said:
Banjo Fiviee is released
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I guarantee you a lot of this would not have happened.
 
-They probably would've still struggled, albeit in different ways.

Rare employee Oliver Davies did a Reddit AMA a while and when asked, he opined (he also had another reply that went into it quite a bit more in depth but I can't find it) Rare wasn't well prepared for the 6th gen transition because they were still reliant on having a lot of small knight-tit team when "next gen" development meant considerably bigger staff and budgets. Indeed, Rare was consistently late with its N64 releases and that was a big factor of why Nintendo didn't fight more when the Stamper brothers looked to cash out. Staying under the Nintendo roof could've avoided some problems (e.g the comapny wouldn't probably haven't been required to redo Perfect Dark Zero three times over in this AU) but there certainly would have been growing pains.

Plus, considering Nintendo is the company that stuck on a very controversial series direction for Paper Mario Color Splash because they felt having two Mario RPG series was redundant, I don't think you would've gotten a quintilion Banjo platformers lol
 
- Kameo: Elements of Power and Donkey Kong Racing would release on the Gamecube. Fun fact: there are screenshots of both games on the back of the Gamecube box.
- Diddy Kong Pilot would launch on GBA instead of being rebranded as Banjo Pilot
- Banjo Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge and It's Mr Pants would still release on GBA.
- Banjo Threeie would launch late on Gamecube. It would use the GC+GBA connector thing to do stuff with Grunty's Revenge.
- There would be a Banjo or Donkey Kong spin-off early on Wii, utilising motion controls.
- They would not make another James Bond. The team would still leave to make Time Splitters.
- Perfect Dark sequel on Wii using motion controls.
- Chris Seavor keeps trying to make a new Conker but keeps running into roadblocks and eventually loses his love for the character and the project. It takes until the launch of the Switch for his love to come back and we'd be getting a new Conker now. Along with a tie-in Netflix series.
 
Frankly, I don't imagine that a lot would have happened. but I've been thinking things like Banjo joining smash earlier, a banjo game on the Wii that plays like mario galaxy, and more dk games.

Things definitely would be different, but I feel like rare is gaining their spotlight again, especially with Banjo in smash.
 
fantanoice said:
- Chris Seavor keeps trying to make a new Conker but keeps running into roadblocks and eventually loses his love for the character and the project. It takes until the launch of the Switch for his love to come back and we'd be getting a new Conker now. Along with a tie-in Netflix series.
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Also Conker is a dad.
 
If Rareware was still working for Nintendo to this day, DKCR and DKCTF, arguably the best entries in the Donkey Kong Country series, would have not existed.

Actually, I'm taking "arguably" back.
 
We'd have a Dinosaur Planet that wasn't forced to become a Starfox game, for one thing.
 

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Kass said:
Wouldn't that have happened regardless since Rare was still working for Nintendo at that point?
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I thought that happened so Rare's final game would be a Nintendo exclusive they couldn't port to other systems. Am I wrong?
 
WeirdRaptor said:
I thought that happened so Rare's final game would be a Nintendo exclusive they couldn't port to other systems. Am I wrong?
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The story is literally Miyamoto saw it, thought it would make a good Star Fox game and told them to make it Star Fox.
 
fantanoice said:
The story is literally Miyamoto saw it, thought it would make a good Star Fox game and told them to make it Star Fox.
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That is one version of the story I've read. Honestly, I've heard about three or four different ways. The most cynical but believable to me is that they were told to make it Starfox so it could never be ported to another console.
 
Rare already had plenty of original IP so I don't see why Nintendo would complain about an extra one.
 
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