29th August 2009, 10:04 AM
That game was the result of Rare being sold. Remember they more or less pushed it out the door the moment Nintendo sealed the deal with MS. If they'd been able to complete it, I'm sure it would have been great. As you said, it felt like two entire dungeons got scrapped when they just handed you two spirits. The last boss fight just... didn't happen at all, and instead you fight Andross who really does feel tossed in at the last second. Further, the space battles aren't nearly as refined as Star Fox 64. That's understandable considering it was not really supposed to be a space battle game, but then they shouldn't have made that the final boss.
What really irked me was the puzzles though. When your inventory system automatically switches to EXACTLY the item you need, and everything in the game has a holographic icon saying "DO THING AT HERE NOW!", it's really hard to put decent puzzles in the game. I only actually got stuck once, when there were some hidden switches I had missed in one of the dungeons.
However, it is still one of the best looking games on the Gamecube, and better looking than a lot on the Wii for that matter. Further, the battle system showed a lot of promise, and there were some unique items to be had. The dinosaur prince thing was underrealized, but also showed promise. The boss fights, aside from the rather silly last one, were also pretty well done.
All in all, it's a game that is a testament to what happens when you sell a company when it's making something for you. I have no doubt Rare WANTED to finish it, but when the talks were finalized I'm sure word came down from MS that they wanted Rare to get started on projects for them as soon as possible, and so they more or less had to push it out the door against the typical Rare "when it's done" time frame.
What really irked me was the puzzles though. When your inventory system automatically switches to EXACTLY the item you need, and everything in the game has a holographic icon saying "DO THING AT HERE NOW!", it's really hard to put decent puzzles in the game. I only actually got stuck once, when there were some hidden switches I had missed in one of the dungeons.
However, it is still one of the best looking games on the Gamecube, and better looking than a lot on the Wii for that matter. Further, the battle system showed a lot of promise, and there were some unique items to be had. The dinosaur prince thing was underrealized, but also showed promise. The boss fights, aside from the rather silly last one, were also pretty well done.
All in all, it's a game that is a testament to what happens when you sell a company when it's making something for you. I have no doubt Rare WANTED to finish it, but when the talks were finalized I'm sure word came down from MS that they wanted Rare to get started on projects for them as soon as possible, and so they more or less had to push it out the door against the typical Rare "when it's done" time frame.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)