Day 28: Best Game Developer

This was a very tough call. I actually put up a Blizzard image first, because, well, they're pretty awesome, and I've been to a concert of Blizzard music. Bioware is also an amazing company with good ethics and an excellent ability to create games.

The winner today though has to be Rareware. I thought they were an excellent choice just for making Banjo Kazooie and Donkey Kong 64, both of which are fantastic games with a really good sense of humour. However, then I saw their full list of games. They made Goldeneye... winning. Also Jet Force Gemini and my friend's favourite - Conker's Bad Fur Day, not to mention Diddy Kong Racing.

They haven't done much in recent years, it must be said. However, during their N64 days, they rocked our worlds. Goldeneye is often rated the best N64 game of all time, and one of the best multiplayer games ever. Jet Force Gemini is a good solid game with an excellent co-op campaign mode. Both games keep up Rare's legendary sense of humour (DK Mode in Goldeneye anyone?) and JFG includes a playable character which is a dog built into a mini tank with a jetpack. Awesome.

And those are just its best FPSs. Banjo Kazooie and Donkey Kong 64 are two of my favourite games for the N64 as well. Adventure games with a pretty solid plot and creative characters, they make a powerful combination when put side by side. Banjo Kazooie I've already talked about, with its excellent character design, brilliant soundtrack and good humoured gameplay and dialogue. Donkey Kong is very similar, especially in game structure. Briefly, it has better graphics and gameplay, and is much larger, with 5 playable characters. However, the villain is rubbish compared to B-K (see Best Antagonist), and there isn't quite as much of the humour as you see in B-K and apparently Conker's Bad Fur Day.

Add in Diddy Kong Racing to the mix, and the fact that they also recently did one of the starting games for the Kinect on the Xbox, and you have a well rounded, solid gaming company with a reputation for excellence and sillyness. I love both.

There are other excellent developers out there, no question of that. But Rareware has such a variety of high quality games that it stands out of the crowd, even if it was mostly for the N64. They were my childhood in essence, and especially for their sense of humour which has stayed with me, they win today's challenge.