Review: Rare Replay (Xbox One)

To celebrate its 30th anniversary, Rare brings together the adventures of its iconic characters in a collection that spans the decades.

Pros:

• 30 classic games in one package.
• 10000 Gamerscore. 4000 gamerscore for games on the disc/Rare Replay then a further gamerscore on the backwards compatible games.
• Cinema style presentation complete with classic old style poster loading screens,  Rare replay curtains and general UI.
• Rewind button in nearly every game.  Use this to go back in time and undo mistakes.
• Save/load whenever and wherever you like.
• Handful of save slots in every game.
• Rare Replay menu can be bought up whenever you like by holding down start.
• Display game library by A-Z, Z-A and release date filters.
• Banjo Kazooie Nuts and Bolts contains all DLC.
• Some games have cheats options saved within them and can be turned on or off.
• All vintage games have a border on/off and CRT filter options.
• Cheap price point.
• movie ticket: complete milestones and earn achievements to earn stamps. Earn enough stamps and you rank up your ticket.
• unlock new videos by ranking up your movie ticket.
• newer games boot through the new 360 backward compatability function and act like a BC title.
• Snapshots: take on set challenges in a handful of vintage games,.  very much in the same vein as the NHS remix games on Wii U and 3DS.
• Conker contains a crude content warning.
• Rare revealed section:
  • Featurette: history and culture of Rare videos.
  • Making of videos.
  • Concept showcases.
  • Previously unseen projects and videos.
  • Rare tunes which show off unheard music from games.

Cons:

• Huge HDD space hog taking up near on 50GB.
• Banjo games, Viva Pinata games,  Perfect Dark games, Kames and Jet Pac refuelled HD are seperate huge downloads.
• Achievements cannot be filtered or viewed on a game by game basis meaning a lot of scrolling and reading through.
• Some games have not aged well.
• Second account for local play does not earn it’s own achievements and movie stamps.
• No online leaderboards for the older games.
• No online Co op play in earlier games all though this is how they were back then.

So Rare Replay is a breath of fresh air to gamers. Coming to us in a complete package,  Gamers get to revisit Rare and all its history. See where it all began and play through their entire catalogue. Microsoft giving us this with a small price point is just too generous.  Whilst the older games have not aged well and are notoriously difficult,  the newer titles hold up really well and are a joy to play. the overall presentation is superb from the opening song to the UI freshness.  Having an overall rank tied to a movie ticket is genius. This is really a well thought out experience and doesn’t feel cheap in any way.  The younger gamers amongst us can now see how tough it was to be a gamer in the 80s and 90s and show us some respect!  I kid but man they are tough. the game will appeal to achievement hunters thanks to the 4000 Gamerscore,  Retro gamers will flock to it thanks to the vast catalogue and younger players will come here due to the cheap price point coupled with the sheer wealth of content.  In short Rare Replay has something for everyone and is a joy to play and swear at! Top work and I hope we see more collections like this going forward.