Rare Replay is a monumental celebration of thirty years of history of the British studio Rare, bringing together thirty full games from across its output, from the eighties to the more recent era, all for the price of a single standard title. The collection includes eight-bit classics like Jetpac and Atic Atac, titles from the era of home computers and Nintendo consoles, the golden age on the Nintendo 64 with games like Banjo-Kazooie, Blast Corps, Jet Force Gemini, and Perfect Dark, and closes with more modern additions like Viva Piñata or Kameo: Elements of Power from the early Xbox 360 era. The titles are moreover arranged chronologically on a timeline, so simply browsing the menu functions as a tour through the studio's history.
Each game runs via emulation directly on Xbox One and is accompanied by archival interviews with the creators, concept materials, and so-called Snapshots — short, custom-designed challenges derived from individual games that let players sample even titles that would otherwise require hours of play. The emulation also adds modern conveniences like rewinding time and quicksaving, thanks to which even merciless eight-bit games are finally completable without memorizing every screen. Unfortunately, for licensing reasons the collection does not include the studio's most famous titles like GoldenEye 007 or the Donkey Kong Country series, whose rights are held by other companies.
Rare Replay thus functions as an interactive museum of game development, showing in one place how a single studio managed to adapt to several generations of hardware and to genre trends alike — from simple arcade games through platformers and shooters to experiments in raising virtual creatures. For fans of retro gaming, it's a unique opportunity to experience the history of one of the most influential British studios in an authentic and legally available form on a modern console, which makes Rare Replay a significant entry for this retro-gaming-focused site as well.
Game 20 of 204 for Xbox One
