"You might see Killer Instinct, you might see Battletoads."

rare2feature - No Rare IP is dead suggests developer

Speaking to VideoGamer.com at Develop last week, Rare senior software engineer Nick Burton, an employee at Rare for over 10 years, has revealed that when talking about the studios' owned intellectual property "there's a good chance of seeing any of it again".

"You might see Killer Instinct, you might see Battletoads. Or as I said the other month Killer Instinct meets Battletoads in the GoldenEye universe!" joked Burton.

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The titles the Microsoft owned studio is currently working on is something that's constantly debated on internet forums, and speculation isn't helped by Rare's constant teasing. Do you remember the Rare 2007 Christmas card that hinted at a new Killer Instinct? Burton was all too happy to reveal the story behind the card.

"You'll probably have to rephrase this, we're just fu!$ing with you!" he joked. "Have you not noticed a theme in our Christmas cards? We do it every year! It's just sometimes people don't notice it because it's that subtle.

"Ryan (Stevenson, senior concept artist), when he was doing it said, oh I'm putting Killer Instinct in that, I am. The conversation was, put Battletoads in as well! Or Snake Rattle and Roll, come on do it! We have a reputation for teasing. Sometimes we do it for good reasons and other times it upsets people. We're English, we're allowed to!"

Burton wouldn't be drawn on confirming the existence of a new Killer Instinct title, but say that "you could pick anything in our back catalogue and then turn it into something new".

"For arguments sake let's take a real old one, Captain Skyhawk on the NES. Brendan Gunn, that's the first game he did, he's still a programmer with us now," said Burton. "He celebrated his 20th anniversary with us the other week. That's incredible. Absolute great guy - he's doing stuff on Banjo at the moment. Skyhawk was a vertical scrolling shoot-em-up, had a plane in it... do something like Ace Combat with it! Would it be in a garden? I don't know. That's the thing now, the technical limitations are such that it could be anything. For me games are still escapist. Let's face it we're all off escaping into some alternate reality, and realities have just got better and better and better. I reckon you could pick anything in our back catalogue and then turn it into something new."

For more from Nick Burton head over our week-long interview.

If Rare brought back one of its older IPs which would you want it to be? Let us know in the comments section below.