Rare Replay Review

 

Developed by: Rare
Published by: Microsoft Studios
Reviewed on: Xbox One

 

There are 30 games, 10,000 worth of Gamerscore points, and over 30 years of gaming history represented in Rare Replay. Will you actually play everything included on this compilation? It’s unlikely, unless you REALLY care about your Gamerscore. But there are still lots of great games in the disk, so there’s something for everyone in this collection.

With a collection as big as Rare Replay, some games are without a doubt going to be overshadowed by others. Sabre-wulf was surprisingly addicting for me and Jetpac was alright, but many gamers will overlook them in favor of games like both versions of Battletoads, Perfect Dark, and especially Banjo-Kazooie. The 30 games for 30 dollars is a really good selling point with each game costing a dollar. However, considering that you may only be playing a couple of games out of this entire collection, you might consider it as paying maybe five to ten dollars for a couple of games and getting a bunch of others for free.

The newer games in the list are the original Xbox 360 versions brought over to the Xbox One. People who buy Rare Replay can get a glimpse of how backwards compatibility will work once Microsoft rolls out the update that lets Xbox One consoles play old Xbox 360 games. The transition between the two consoles feels smoother than playing Xbox original games ever did on the Xbox 360. These games, Banjo-Kazooie, Banjo-Tooie, Kameo: Elements of Power, Perfect Dark, Perfect Dark Zero, Viva Pinata, and Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise, are only available on the Xbox One through Rare Replay. Once you install the games from the disk, they can be booted up directly from the “games and apps” area in the dashboard.

It would have been nice to have to see other classics in this collection rather than the ones that were included. While it is nice that you get some of their very first games that Rare developed, many of them don’t feel very playable. I don’t really know if it’s because I’ve played too many current generation games that are nothing like the 8-bit era video games, but I kept getting my butt handed to me. I understand that due to obvious copyright reasons that we’ll never see any of the Donkey Kong games on an Xbox system. Many of these games I’ve never even heard of before playing Rare Replay, which is one major point of releasing Rare Replay in the first place.

 

Through Rare Replay I actually played many games for the first time ever, such as Killer Instinct Gold, Jet Force Gemini, and Battletoads. While many people will be buying this game collection only for a handful of games, it’s still worth the price to get access to some of your favorite games as a child as well as some games you may have missed. Combine that with unlockable videos offering glimpses into Rare’s history and challenges that offer a new twist while playing some of the older games, Rare Replay is definitely a treat to own.