It’s no secret that today’s Rare is a completely different development studio than the classic Rareware brand that most of us remember. Back then, the company delivered some of the best games of its time, but after being acquired by Microsoft, things got way different, not just for the fans, but for the folks working at the studio, as well. Speaking to Nintendo Enthusiast, former Rare employee and current Nyamyam dev Phil Tossell explained how changes occurred at his former studio once it had been bought out by Microsoft.

“I think most of the people who worked at Rare at the time were Nintendo fans and we loved working closely with Nintendo,” explained Tossell. “Rare was also a close knit family and so it was something of a shock to suddenly become part of such a huge organization as Microsoft. There was a severe culture clash which perhaps didn’t become apparent at first as Microsoft mostly allowed us to continue as we had always done.”

Of course, things would soon change. “However, as time passed and there were staff changes at MGS, together with Tim and Chris (Stamper) leaving, the culture changed and it began to feel more Microsoft and less Rare,” continued Tossell. “While Rare continues to put out high quality games, for me it lost some of the spark that had made the company special.”

I think we can all agree that Rare is no longer what it once was. In fact, it’s very much a shell of its former self, and I’d personally argue that it’s not a company worth getting totally stoked for like it used to be back when it was turning out incredibly heartfelt experiences like Banjo-Kazooie and Goldeneye 007.

As a major part of Nyamyam, however, Tossell is excited to be working with Nintendo once more. The studio is currently working on bringing its papercraft adventure Tengami to the Wii U, and it’s very likely that we’ll see more content from the dev on Nintendo’ gaming machine. “The Wii U is a fascinating piece of hardware,” said the dev. “I’m very much looking forward to delving into it in more detail to see what we can do with it.”

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