You know what was fun enough to gain somewhat of a cult following? Rare's Kameo: Elements of Power for the Xbox 360. I guess Rare doesn't feel the same way though, because they've recently stated that they wish they had "scrapped everything and started again" with the Kameo property. The worst part about the whole thing is that Rare lied to you, and potentially your children, about Kameo being an elf because... she was a fairy all along -- I know M. Night Shyamalan just found that plot twist intoxicating.

If you've followed the long winding path that Kameo took to land on your Xbox 360 then you can probably understand why Rare may feel this way. Kameo originally started as a Gamecube title, but after the company was sold to Microsoft they started developing it for the original Xbox, only to be moved a final time to the 360 as a launch title. "I was on that project from start to finish, so it's quite painful to talk about it in some ways," Rare's George Andreas said in an interview with Edge magazine pertaining to Rare's 25th anniversary.

"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. 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. And then we jumped on 360 as a launch title. We weren't far off finishing [when that happened]."

Even if George wasn't a huge fan of Kameo he realizes that "sales-wise it was pretty healthy", unfortunately Rare is super busy with Kinect right now so we won't be seeing sequels of any kind until they can stop focusing on that fancy motion camera. I didn't find Kameo to be a phenomenal experience and I feel that there are other games that should take priority over another installment (i.e. Conker), but if Rare can alter Kameo and make the game they always wanted then that would truly be a sight to behold.

Rare Ware is capable of great games as we have all experienced, but we haven't really seen a truly phenomenal title from those crazy Brits since the N64 days (even though I loved both Viva Pinatas and Perfect Dark on Xbox Live). Hopefully after Kinect has launched they'll be able to spend time on game that will recapture their N64 glory days -- after all we still haven't seen a true Banjo Threeie (and no Nuts and Bolts does NOT count).

Do you feel that Kameo didn't live up to your expectations? What was the last great Rare game you played?

Source: Edge (via CVG)