The Elusive Rare Ltd.

You may have heard of Rare, Ltd. Once belonging primarily to Nintendo (creating the Donkey Kong games, "Star Fox Adventures," the Banjo-Kazooie games, "Goldeneye 007," and the incredible classic, Battletoads), the company is now owned by Microsoft. After playing a round of "Donkey Kong Country" recently, I had Rare on the mind. What have they been up to?

Well, clearly, I didn't listen to Griffin closely enough over winter break. Enter "Viva Piñata."


Rare developed "Viva Piñata," a game involving little piñata animals that you have to attract to your new plot of land. It was released in November of last year for the Xbox 360. I never played it - although Griffin said nothing but good things.

But despite their development for Microsoft, it seems as though there's being a backtrack to their old Nintendo habits. A version of "Viva Piñata" will be released for the Nintendo DS, while the tentatively titled "Banjo-Kazooie 3" is in development. The company has also recently released "Diddy Kong Racing" for the DS.

So what's next for Rare? "Battletoads" for the Wii? Come to think of it, where are the Battletoads in "Super Smash Bros. Brawl?"

Coming soon: the BTVG team decides who else should be in "Super Smash Bros. Brawl."