Rare: We should have scrapped Kameo

Xbox 360 launch game Kameo: Elements of Power should not have been released, developer Rare has admitted.

Speaking in an interview with Edge, creative director George Andreas said, "I was on that project from start to finish, so it's quite painful to talk about it in some ways.

"It started as a GameCube project, and it was actually one of the games we demoed at E3 along with the hardware. And then it jumped from GameCube on to Xbox. We changed direction slightly because of the new audience we were trying to aim at.

"We called Kameo an elf, but really she was a fairy," he continued. "We tried to disguise that a few times, but it didn't really work out. It was a game with a fairy for an audience that likes shooting and killing things.

"In hindsight it probably would have been best to scrap everything and start again."

Indeed. Eurogamer's Tom Bramwell gave it 5/10 when it eventually launched in 2005.

Andreas also revealed that Rare still receives hate mail from Nintendo gamers to this day. The developer was once owned by Nintendo, for whom it made GoldenEye 007, Banjo Kazooie, Perfect Dark and Donkey Kong 64, but was bought out by Microsoft in 2002.

"[The Microsoft deal] happened relatively quickly. It was generally supported company-wide as well. No one was that unhappy that we'd gone with Microsoft."

Design head Gregg Mayles added, "We got [angry] letters every step of the way. Once they got email, it was like opening the floodgates."

"We still get them now," said studio head Mark Betteridge.

Rare's next title is Kinect Sports for Xbox 360, out on 10th November.