Did Rare's character designs suck?

[Aussie2B]

I think some of you are missing exactly what "good design" is.

It's got nothing to do with whether the style is Japanese or not, it's got nothing with what extent the technology is being used (that is, you can have amazing detailed graphics that push a system to the limits and still have poor character design, and you can have very simplistic graphics that have amazing design), and it's got nothing to do with the popularity of games because a game can still be very enjoyable to play even if the character design is awful (however, if you want to get into pure "game design" then it's a different matter). There's not much beyond that that can be said about good design, since it's just an innate aesthetic sense. Having some background in art helps to give you an ability to judge if the design of a piece is harmonious and truly pleasant to view, but even then there's always a strong degree of opinion.

Personally, I think Rare has done well at times, but they've also had some pretty poor designs. Overall, I'd say they've had more misses than hits. Just looking at the Donkey Kong Country series, I think they gave DK quite a nice makeover, and I don't see anything wrong with Diddy either. However, Dixie is just ridiculous looking, and Kiddy makes me want to barf. Most of the side characters didn't fare too well, either. Don't even get me started on the Donkey Kong 64 designs.

The Battletoads look plain disgusting, as opposed to, say, the Ninja Turtles (I'm ignoring the recent TMNT stuff).

[Cambot]

Maybe. Then again, I hated Elvis.

[tom]

Would Rare be as successful as they were if their characters were so poorly designed, would sequels be released? Why have they been in the market since the ZX Spectrum days if they were so bad at design!? Why are their early 'Ultimate Play The Game' titles so collectable!?

Something doesnt add up to the poor character designs here!

UptG, all the games sucked on C-64, they just couldn't program the C-64. Spectrum owners had to put up with UptG, because didn't have anything better on Speccy.
Collectable? Brits are silly to pay loads of money for it on ebay.

[j_factor]

The "character" "designs" in Snake Rattle n' Roll were god-awful. Battletoads were okay, as was Joanna Dark, but most of the rest of their characters have been pretty lame. I've always found the characters in Killer Instinct to be stupid. Mr Pants was particularly laughable.

[Greg2600]

My personal opinion on RARE is that they've made great games, great technical and very fun games. But yeah, the characters and story have been largely strange. I loved their racing and game show games on the NES, and KGjr Winning Run on SNES, though characters were irrelevant on those games. Goldeneye was terrific, but their other N64 games didn't appeal to me (donkey kong, conker, banjo), and Perfect Dark was a fun game but one of the most boring stories I have ever experienced. The games looked terrific, but the characters in Donkey/Diddy, Banjo, and Conker were really bizarre and way too cartoony for me.

[VGfan]

I like most of Rare's character designs including the DKC series, Battletoads and Snake Rattle & Roll.

If you want to see laughable character design just play the latest Street Fighter III or Final Fantasy.

[Jorpho]

What was wrong with SFIII? Well, aside from maybe Gil and Urien.

[RegSNES]

Some of Rare's character designs didn't really grab me (Kiddie Kong comes to mind), but on the whole, I really like Rare's characters. Donky Kong looks great and I've always thought Diddy Kong looked cool.

[miserere01]

I think some of you are missing exactly what "good design" is.

It's got nothing to do with whether the style is Japanese or not, it's got nothing with what extent the technology is being used (that is, you can have amazing detailed graphics that push a system to the limits and still have poor character design, and you can have very simplistic graphics that have amazing design), and it's got nothing to do with the popularity of games because a game can still be very enjoyable to play even if the character design is awful (however, if you want to get into pure "game design" then it's a different matter). There's not much beyond that that can be said about good design, since it's just an innate aesthetic sense. Having some background in art helps to give you an ability to judge if the design of a piece is harmonious and truly pleasant to view, but even then there's always a strong degree of opinion.

Personally, I think Rare has done well at times, but they've also had some pretty poor designs. Overall, I'd say they've had more misses than hits. Just looking at the Donkey Kong Country series, I think they gave DK quite a nice makeover, and I don't see anything wrong with Diddy either. However, Dixie is just ridiculous looking, and Kiddy makes me want to barf. Most of the side characters didn't fare too well, either. Don't even get me started on the Donkey Kong 64 designs.

The Battletoads look plain disgusting, as opposed to, say, the Ninja Turtles (I'm ignoring the recent TMNT stuff).

Gotta keep in mind though, at the point when these games came out, they were blowing people out of the water. I was looking back on some old Nintendo Powers the other day, and while thumbing through I actually found that pretty much all the DKC's as well as Battletoads were dominating the tops of the favorite lists at each games' specific time of release. Rare seems to always do a good job putting a "WoW!!" in everyone's mouth, though not sure if I can speak for them anymore. One important thing to note however, is and it might just be me...but, doesn't it just seem like alot of Rare games don't really age quite as well as most games? Sure Donkey Kong Country is still loads of fun but, its just not quite as enjoyable here several years in the future to play over and over as it is to play MegaMan X or Mario World over and over.

Also, as for Donkey Kong 64, I despised that game when I got it as a child. After already owning about 50 other of Rare's 3D scavenger hunt games (Banjo-Kazooie etc.) I wasn't too thrilled with the gameplay involved, but what REALLY broke it were the ridiculously idiotic fart jokes that just held me by the throat and pushed me backwards into 1996. Also really appreciated the pathetically written rap song to appeal to the demographic to cover up for an otherwise poorly developed game with no ingenuity whatsoever.

[asharru]

Also really appreciated the pathetically written rap song to appeal to the demographic to cover up for an otherwise poorly developed game with no ingenuity whatsoever.

lol!!