26. Viva Piñata Pocket Paradise (DS)

Although the company was still active on Nintendo handhelds long after Microsoft purchased it, Viva Piñata Pocket Paradise represents something of a homecoming for Rare. The entire Viva Piñata series has a Nintendo feel to it, and parallels can easily be drawn between it and the Pokémon series. Pocket Paradise feels perfectly suited to Nintendo's DS portable, and is one of the highlights of the entire franchise.

25. Conker: Live & Reloaded (Xbox)

One of Rare's biggest projects following its sale to Microsoft, Conker: Live & Reloaded includes a remastered version of the single-player story mode as well as an online component which is made up of game modes such as Deathmatch and Capture the Flag. This portion of the game – intended as an advert for Xbox Live – pokes fun at WW2 movies like Saving Private Ryan. Despite the technical enhancements, many fans prefer the N64 original.

24. Monster Max (GB)

It may say Rare on the title screen, but Monster Max is very much a Jon Ritman and Bernie Drummond game. The pair had previously developed isometric adventures such as Batman (1986) and Head Over Heels (1987), and joined Rare after failing to complete the arcade football game Final Whistle for Ocean. Monster Max has been hailed as one of the Game Boy's greatest games, and rightly so; not only is it a technical masterpiece given the humble nature of the hardware, it's incredibly enjoyable, too.

23. Diddy Kong Racing (DS)

Diddy Kong Racing DS is good but not quite great. Generally, it's very well presented with clear menus, pleasant visuals, and nice sound. However, the controls aren't quite there, probably to do with the fact the DS only has a D-pad, so it just doesn't feel as good as the original N64 classic. If you had to choose between this and Mario Kart DS, there's no competition.

22. Donkey Kong Land (GB)

We remember the first time we saw Donkey Kong Country on the SNES and wondering how a 16-bit machine could pull off its 'amazing' graphics — those pre-rendered sprites felt pretty special at the time. Seeing them approximated on the lowly Game Boy hardware in Donkey Kong Land felt like actual dark magic, though. With impressive animation and detailed backgrounds, sometimes you could get disorientated for a moment as enemies blended into the backdrop, but the way DKL managed to capture the essence of its 16-bit brethren makes it a fascinating and worthy entry in the Kongpendium.

21. Star Fox Adventures (GCN)

Star Fox Adventures was Rare's only GameCube release and the developer's swansong on Nintendo hardware before becoming a Microsoft Game Studio. This game — which began life as Dinosaur Planet on N64 — is a solid adventure with lush visuals and fun characters, but dull controls put a dampener on things and despite so much promise, Star Fox Adventures is lacking when it comes to execution. There's a sense that it could and should have been so much more, especially considering the pure gold Rare produced the previous generation. Still, taken on its own merits, this is still an engaging action-adventure that gives you a chance to explore the world from outside Fox's cockpit.

20. Killer Instinct Gold (N64)

A port of Killer Instinct 2 from the arcades, Killer Instinct Gold was the second KI to appear on Nintendo platforms (well, third counting the Game Boy port) following the original on Super NES. The N64 didn't get many great fighting games — the legacy of Smash Bros. is far and away the console's greatest contribution to the genre, but platform fighters are very much their own sub-genre these days — and KIG is one of the system's few fighters of note.

19. Sea Of Thieves (Xbox One)

Sea Of Thieves has managed to successfully steer a course through turbulent waters during its first few years. Its once somewhat sterile and empty world is now full to bursting point with activities and distractions and it's got a sense of direction and purpose which means players don't need to work nearly as hard to find ways in which to indulge their inner Black Beard.

18. Killer Instinct (SNES)

A great-looking game from genre-hopping studio Rare, the SNES port of arcade fighter Killer Instinct is yet another feather in the Twycross studio’s considerable cap. Bringing the arcade experience into the home on 16-bit hardware was most impressive back in the day, and the series would go on to be one of the few fighting games to appear on Nintendo’s next console.

17. Viva Piñata (Xbox 360)

Originally conceived as a gardening game for the Pocket PC platform during Rare's time as a second-party studio with Nintendo, creature-creation sim Viva Piñata would blossom into something far more ambitious, eventually becoming one of the company's most notable Xbox 360 releases. It would spawn an animated TV show as well as three sequels, Viva Piñata: Party Animals (2007), Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise (2008) and Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise (2008), although Party Animals was developed by Krome Studios and not Rare.

16. Jet Force Gemini (N64)

An underrated entry in the Rareware library, Jet Force Gemini coupled cute design with chunky, gungy third-person blasting in a world-hopping quest to defeat insectoid overlord Mizar. Juno, Vela and trusty good boy Lupus' adventure is not without flaws, but JFG is a surprisingly deep and satisfying one that's worth investigating if you're a Rare fan looking for gems that passed you by around the turn of the millennium.

15. Donkey Kong Land III (GB)

Donkey Kong Land III is a handsome Game Boy title which also sounds particularly lovely and caps off the Donkey Kong Land GB trilogy in fine fashion — it's arguably the pick of the portable bunch. Lucky Japanese gamers even got a version enhanced for the Game Boy Color which looked even lovelier. This was to be Rare's final 2D platformer featuring the DK clan and Twycross' custodians of Kong certainly went out on a high.

14. Donkey Kong Land 2 (GB)

It might have his name on the box, but Donkey Kong is barely in this one! Donkey Kong Land 2 has Diddy and Dixie rescuing the captured DK from the clutches of vile crocodile Kaptain K. Rool. By simplifying background elements in comparison to the original Game Boy rendition, it's a little easier to see what you're doing here and, as with all the DKL games, the way it captures the look and feel of the SNES DKC games on such modest hardware is impressive to this day.

13. Super Battletoads (Arcade)

Some fans consider this to be the shining apex of the Battletoads series. Bolstered by powerful arcade hardware, Rare's developers created a side-scrolling action title which boasts some of the best presentation seen in the entire series – it's a shame, then, that it wasn't as commercially successful as it should have been. Thankfully, it is included on the excellent Rare Replay, so you can finally see what all of the fuss was about back in the '90s.

12. Blast Corps (N64)

Blast Corps involves clearing a path for a slow-moving truck carrying a malfunctioning nuclear missile to a safe detonation zone - a zone which is blocked by buildings and other structures ripe for destruction. As with many 64-bit titles, its early polygonal visuals are arguably looking a little dogged these days, but don't let its looks put you off. This incredibly silly concept makes for one of most fun games on the N64.

11. Donkey Kong 64 (N64)

There are some who blame the collapse of the collectathon 3D platforming craze on Donkey Kong 64, and while it's hard to argue that Rare perhaps went a little too far with the huge number of inconsequential collectible doohickeys, it's a game which turns everything up to eleven and there's something admirable about its unapologetic 'more is more' approach. With five playable Kongs (you know them well), huge worlds, and an abundance of minigames (including emulated versions of the original arcade Donkey Kong and Ultimate Play the Game's Jetpac), DK64 was one hell of a value proposition back in 1999 and we think it probably deserves re-evaluation after decades of bashing. C'mon Cranky, take it to the fridge.

10. Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! (SNES)

Rounding off the Super NES DKC trilogy nicely, Dixie and Kiddie's adventure is still a pleasure today. It arguably can't quite reach the highs of the second chapter in Rare's trio of DK delights, but Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! looks better than ever and gives you some choice with a non-linear map to explore and options should you hit a roadblock on your adventure.

9. Conker's Bad Fur Day (N64)

Another iconic entry in the N64 catalogue from Rare, Conker's Bad Fur Day stood out proudly from the pack of cutesy platformers as a fouled-mouthed, blood-filled, scatological comedy. We're still a little blindsided that a Nintendo second party put out a game full of swears, to be honest — even the Xbox remake bleeped most of them out. Conker was a technological triumph for the ageing 64-bit system when it launched in 2001, and while the movie parodies are very much of their time and the humour won't hit the spot with everyone, the drunken squirrel still knows how to have a good time.

8. Banjo-Tooie (N64)

Following the James Cameron school of thought for sequels, Banjo-Tooie takes a 'more is more' approach, with larger worlds, a host of minigames, an expanded moveset (including new first-person sections), Mumbo Jumbo as a playable character, bosses, and a multiplayer mode, plus the ability to separate the dynamic duo at certain times. Although it arguably flirts with the sort of excesses that made Donkey Kong 64 feel grindy at times, it's a big, chewy sequel, and one that holds up very well all these years later — perhaps thanks to a couple of decades' worth of training in the huge and interconnected open worlds of other games. Banjo-Tooie is filled to the brim with the series' trademark brand of cheeky fairytale wonder and fans will find a whole lot to love.

7. Rare Replay (Xbox One)

Travelling through the virtual halls of Rare Replay is like venturing through a well-preserved museum, one that proudly showcases the many timeless works of an extraordinarily creative developer. This package isn't merely a collection of 30 games carelessly slapped together for the sake of doing so; it's concerned with little details and extras, and it's presented in a way unlike any compilation before it. Even though it costs actual money, Rare Replay feels like a heartfelt gift from Rare to its fans, and it deserves your time, money, and appreciation.