Once upon a time Rare was one of the most respected development houses around. With the instant classic "Donkey Kong Country" on the SNES back in 1994, Rare quickly won the hearts of many gamers. But the best was yet to come, and when "Goldeneye 007" hit the N64 in 1997, millions of gamers just went crazy. Somehow the game proved that FPS's could be on consoles too, even with the rather awkward N64 controller. "Banjo-Kazooie" and "Donkey Kong 64" would then roll out and solidify Rare's greatness. But if that wasn't enough, "Perfect Dark" and "Conker's Bad Fur Day" would end the N64's life with a bang. With five AAA titles in a single generation, Rare convinced many gamers that it was the developer of the generation.

So what happened? By the time GameCube arrived and Rare was well into developing "Star Fox Adventures", Nintendo sold the developer to Microsoft for $375 million. And to many, this marked Rare's death. The development house would eventually release "Grabbed by Ghoulies" and "Conker: Live and Reloaded" for the Xbox, both receiving rather mediocre reviews. Many gamers said that without Nintendo's creative help, Rare was nothing. The highly anticipated prequel to "Perfect Dark" and the intriguing "Kameo" would both be delayed to the Xbox 360, and Rare suddenly had gone through an entire generation without releasing a single AAA title. At this point, there was nothing to argue about - Rare was suddenly just a fading memory of greatness.

The controversy came when gamers began to discuss Rare's future - could Rare ever come back? And even with Perfect Dark Zero and Kameo released and reviewed now, there's no clear answer from the gaming community. But as an owner of both games, I can confidently say I believe Rare is back. Some Xbox 360 owners have played Perfect Dark Zero with mediocre responses, but that's simply because they were expecting another Halo. Perfect Dark Zero doesn't offer the run-and-gun fast pace of Halo, and it doesn't try to. It's much more similar to Counter-Strike's style where aiming accuracy is a very large part of a player's skill. It's a different style then Halo, but still just as fun if you give it a chance. Kameo is brilliant, and coming from me, a guy that didn't even enjoy Donkey Kong 64 or Banjo-Kazooie all that much, that means something. There's tons of depth and life in the action, and graphically it's breath-taking. And I have a feeling there's even greater things to come to the Xbox 360 from Rare. They've already developed two games for the console now, so they have twice as much experience with the console than anyone else. And they have well over 100 games under their belt now. Whatever happened when Rare was sold to Microsoft is over now and just another part of the developer's intriguing past. They know what they're working with, they've steadied out, and they have about four years ahead of them to just shine. The shadow has been lifted, the clouds have scattered - Rare is back.