Nuts & Bolts decided to ignore (and even diss) the series’ main genre in favor of something new “in order to broaden the demographic”: building Lego cars. The reason is simple: while Perfect Dark Zero had nearly nothing to do with the original game, it was still a first-person shooter. “Gamers nowadays just want to shoot things…”īanjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts came out in 2008 and was, for a lot of people, even more disappointing than Perfect Dark Zero. Well, either Rare or, maybe, whoever else told them to “innovate”.īut if you think PDZ was the only severe disappointment for Rare-loving Xbox 360 fans, you’re so so wrong. Why Rare decided to go this way is beyond anyone’s comprehension, guess they didn’t listen to the good old “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” saying. To sum it up, gone was what made Perfect Dark special, leaving behind nothing more than a very generic and forgettable FPS, which had zero charm or charisma, something that was constantly present with the N64 original. Gone was the unlimited arsenal size, in was a frustrating system which only allowed you to hold a maximum of three weapons at a time.

Gone was the super customizable combat simulator, in was the by-the-numbers multiplayer with an over-the-top narrator. Gone were the dozens of varied weapons, in were just a few uninteresting leftovers (no Farsight, no Slayer, no Reaper, no Phoenix). Gone were the aliens using human factions as puppets, in was a Shang Tsung lookalike as a (very cheesy) main villain. Not long after the latter, Microsoft announced its new flagship console, the Xbox 360, and with it Rare saw the opportunity of bringing back two of its most famous franchises. Grabbed by the Ghoulies was okay at best but it had its charm, and Conker Live and Reloaded had a pretty good online multiplayer and incredible visuals. Their first years with Microsoft were, well, okay, I suppose. Sadly, Rare’s honeymoon with Nintendo ended in the early 2000s, and the company was then bought by Microsoft. Those brits were truly magical, as they could pretty much pick any genre they wanted to and make a masterpiece for that genre, be it fighting ( Killer Instinct), puzzle ( Blast Corps), third-person shooter ( Jet Force Gemini), and more impressively, FPSs ( Goldeneye and Perfect Dark) and platformers ( Banjo-Kazooie). Rare achieved fame and fortune making some pretty amazing games for Nintendo platforms. If you’re a bit older, you may remember a little magical company called Rare.

Perfect dark zero joanna dark