Mapping the Rare Universe 

Hey guys I realize this is something people may be passionate about and by no means is my video the “end all be all” for this discussion. I simply did this for fun and because I love these games. I definitely missed titles and you may get upset at how I connect certain things. But please be positive and kind to each other. In other words… Chill. These are video games. 🎮

I love the idea that all these characters live within the same world. It makes everything feel so big and vast, like there are other islands we have yet to explore. I will note that DK JR. is actually the father of modern donkey Kong, and cranky is modern DK’s grandfather

In the ending of Grunty’s Revenge (a GBA Banjo game that takes place between Kazooie and Tooie), multiple Banjos & Kazooies travel to the present after the real duo arrive to the present from their time-travelling shenanigans. This could explain all the mounted Banjo heads on the walls of numerous games.

This is most interesting Rare topic video I've seen in almost a decade.

I love the implication that Conker's Bad Fur Day is part of the Mario Universe.

This was originally scheduled for Friday, but due to the recent Rare hype and convincing of pals I’m releasing this…today.

Holy crap I didnt even know half those games even existed

I've read before that the Kongs in DK64 were actually going to use real guns before Miyamoto stepped in and replaced them with coconut guns (etc) to make the game more kid-friendly. If Donkey Kong had been rocking a PP7 in DK64 then a shared universe with Goldeneye would have been confirmed 😎

when the monster hits extra hard and all you can think about is how everything is connected until you look like that guy in its always sunny

Bruh this is a good idea

So, in Donkey Kong Land for the Game Boy, the final world is Big Ape City, which is stated to be the location of the original 1981 Donkey Kong arcade game. However, in Super Mario Odyssey, the same claim is made of the Metro Kingdom stage. It's possible that the warp pipe to the Mario universe may be connected to the Metro Kingdom, which the Kongs may know as Big Ape City.

Dude, it looks like your channel is beginning to grow at a pretty good pace. The DK64 video got 10k views and this one already has almost 3k. I'm glad to see a fellow Rare fan succeed. Keep it up!

Very fun narrative timeline! Great job!

really love that about nintendo(also capcom.:3) in that it is funny to think of these series being on the same world having things like dk/banjo-kazooie stopping king k. rool and grunty blowing their homes up(even if a little late in the bear and birds case.) or just the image alone of conker existing in the mario universe.(even if outside a few jerk moments/bad habits he's honestly not that bad a guy,moreso mature screwy squirrel if he got lazy if anything.)

This awakens such childlike wonder in me and makes me smile from ear to ear. I love it! Guess all of us have done something like this when we were younger but never to this extent.

I was always a bit fascinated by how Rare connected their games via cameos and references and thought about a connected universe.

This is my favorite video ever, ever since I was a kid I was always so fascinated by the Kremisphere and my mind was blown when I grew up and saw its original SGI renders

Good job I like the connections you made. The work you did was well worth it! Keep it up! 🎉

I like the idea that a novelty mounted Banjo head was made for a promotion or by some weird taxidermist fan, got won by or sold to either the owner of the pub in Windy or one of its regulars who decided to give it to the owner to mount on the wall as a gift, then years later after it got all withered and creepy, got sold at a garage sale or pawn shop or something and wound up in the hands of whoever owns the mansion in Grabbed by the Ghoulies, who clearly was collecting creepy taxidermies.

Awesome video! Congrats on the channel blowing up!

The Rareverse is my favorite in all of gaming and seeing it all mapped out so joyously sates a curiosity I've held since early childhood back when Rare was just getting on the map with DKC! It's times like these I wish Rare has retained all their contributions to the Donkey Kong universe, just not being able to use the Donkey Kong, so they could have continued DK games and maybe even crossed over DK and Banjo more. Maybe they'd have called him Dumpy Kong since he's as strong as a dumptruck. On the Nintendo side, they may have gone back to DK and DK Jr. type games and characters, maybe even making a Ms. Pac-Man-esque Mrs. Donkey Kong as a mother to Junior. One can dream.

As a huge old school Rare fan and a Sea of Thieves apologist since launch day (still wear the day 1 patch and the launch crew sniper), my life is immeasurably better knowing that grabbed by the ghoulies takes place after it.

The Rare universe is probably my favorite gaming universe since Rare is my favorite gaming company. They made a lot of my all time childhood favorites. The original DKC trilogy for SNES as well as Diddy Kong Racing and DK64. As well as Killer Instinct, Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, Jet Force Gemini, Conkers Bad Fur Day, Banjo Kazooie, Banjo Tooie, Star Fox Adventures, Grabbed By the Ghoulies, Blast Corps, and Kameo: Elements of Power. Truly and underrated company. Their games always had some of the best things about any games, the music, the characters, the graphics and art design, the story plots, etc. Truth be told I would love to write a book about them maybe even make a documentary. Hell a theme park attraction based on the universe of their games could even work.

I am beyond excited for your explanation I have been thinking about this FOR YEARS AND YEARS. I always wondered WHAT IS BEYOND BANJOS & KAZOOIES WORLD? Is there more that we havent seen beyond the woods? So curious!! I wonder where Threeie would take place if we ever got one! Would it be in the same world? I wonder if Grunty has been living on the island longer than Kazooie or Banjo?

This is an awesome video! Lots of fun to watch. I have to say though, I'm pretty sure it's been confirmed that DK Jr. Is not our current DK.

Loved this video so much! It makes so much sense! Great work again buddy!

As a huge Mario fan, I've never been too keen on the idea of DK sharing a world with these other Rare characters. I firmly believe that any connection that _did_ exist has been severed. And Nintendo has always been connecting Mario to DK, and with Mario on his own world. Even as far back as Donkey Kong '94, in which the Big City is on the same planet as the Mushroom Kingdom. Mario Odyssey expanded upon Big City, making it New Donk City. Further cementing DK Isle as being on Mario's World. It just never made sense to me that the Rare games would all be connected. However, we can't ignore the references to the Mario and DK worlds in the Banjo games! This has lead me to come up with my own headcanons and theories. *#1: L.O.G. Meddling* A lot of Rare games show extremely self-aware characters that know they're in Video Games. Some of the instances in Banjo and Conker go FAR beyond the jokes Cranky would crack in the OG DKC games. Mario does not live in an explicit "video game world," but Conker and Banjo do. Diddy Kong Racing is the only direct point of contact between Diddy, Banjo, and Conker. And Banjo references Diddy Kong Racing in Nuts and Bolts. But Diddy Kong Racing had a remake on the DS that RETCONNED those 2 guest characters. So if it was retconned, how does that work for the Rare side? What if the Lord of Games picked up Banjo and Conker, and placed them in the LITERAL VIDEO GAME of N64 Diddy Kong Racing. This isn't the actual events that occurred in Mario's universe, this is a literal video game in Banjo's. Mario/DK exists as a video game world in the Rare universe, which is separate from the normal non-video game world in Nintendo's games. *#2 Warp point:* Came up with this while reading other comments on the video. What if there's a Bermuda triangle-esque area that connects Mario's World to the Rare earth via a Warp point. You would boat or fly to that area and suddenly be teleported to the other world. It would be somewhere around DK Island on Mario's world, and somewhere around Timber's Island in the Rare World. Where and what the warp point is doesn't matter, as long as the kongs can access it. With all this being said, I thought this was a really cool video. Love all the details and connection points you found. I usually just ignore stuff like this, due to the Mario contradictions, but I ended up having a lot of fun pondering new ideas on how to work around those contradictions (even if I don't believe them). Also mad props for saying the two Tricky the Triceratops are separate characters. Always confused me how people saw them as the same person. Just doesn't make sense. And also I gotta mention that DK Jr is DK's dad. I know about the DK64 thing, but I think 1 time out of all the other times before and afterward that DK has been Cranky's grandson isn't enough to prove that. I would of course change my mind if Nintendo ever made them officially the same, though. Sorry for writing such a huge wall of text lol

Cool video. I appreciate how much thought and work went into this. It's great to see :)

Discovering your channel has been such a nice surprise! Loving the vids ❤

Jiggy I’m loving your content! These are the in depth videos I thrive on. The hidden content; the conceptual connections; the LOREEEEE. You’re killing it man, keep up the in depth research and connections. Also I love how you and your editor made the map! So cool! Great job!

Criminally underlooked channel. Great video thanks 😊

Jiggy, just found your channel a few days ago. All I have to say is keep it up, fantastic quality and content generally!!!

Bro at this is the best connected map of the Rare ever! You should keep this up with more additions into the future!! Like Nintendo, Sony, and more!! Great Video!

Awesome video. A lot more games that were connected than I thought. I love it when games connect to each other like how Wrinkly Kong plays Mario 64 on an N64 in DKC3

This was such an interesting take on analyzing the Rare lore. And ngl, I always figured that all of these games were connected to one another, not because of similar styles, but because you would see references all over each game in any shape or form. As a huge Rare fan, I find stuff like this to be very cool and interesting.

So happy this came out tonight, I needed a good vid for a distraction ❤️

I don't know why I never considered all these Rare games could be connected to each other like this. Now it seems so obvious! Excellent video, thanks for taking me down this rabbit hole!

fantastic job, we always thoughts these things when we were younger, playing these games

Smash Bros is all a kid's wild dream of his collecction of figurines fighting each other. Master Hands are his hands and are meant to be the top beings in the world of smash. In Brawl his own identity of master hand is prisonned by Tabu and brings on the "other dimension" idea in which all have to team up to defeat them, including rescuing Master hand & Crazy Hand and them helping reach out to the other dimension in the Ultimate game

This was really interesting! Thank you!

10:19 One thing about including Smash Bros. is that Smash Bros. is technically a different universe known as the World of Trophies, where the Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong of Smash Bros. are not the same Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong of the Rare World, but are living Trophies, or Plushies in the original, based on them. However, the World of Trophies seems to be connected to the Kirby Universe, located in the Candy Constellation, home of Master Hand and Crazy Hand.

Bro your channel is the best i dont realy see much youtubers talk about rare so yours is a nice surprise

What an amazing video. I love it. Thanks for the awesome content

This was fun to watch. Nice job! 👍

The algorithm has showed me 3 of your vídeos in one day lol, You've earned a sub

Another epic video dude!!! I want more banjo!

This was really well put together. I love Rareware games!

But Smash is it's own thing where all the fighters are trophies.

Still hilarious to think about how, before the DS remake of Diddy Kong Racing, Conker’s Bad Fur Day was canon to the Mario universe.

i love this video!

Cobra Triangle needs to get it's flowers!!! That game is so highly underrated

Great video dude! A lot of great connections here. I always love stuff like this ha! I am always open to talk DKU/Rareniverse stuff! Watched it with the GF and she was surprised and pleased to have the art in. Shes subbed now too and we look forward to more related content. Cheers bro! ❤👌

I can just imagine James Bond meeting Banjo and Kazooie lol

Hell yea man! New sub! Gonna watch a bunch of videos

Battletoads also connects to Double Dragon. Meaning there's probably other connections to other Arc System works games as well? I guess Battletoads takes place a little bit closer to the Perfect era, assuming the Double Dragon Earth and Rare Earth are the same

yeah, just the video I needed, cheers from Brazil!

Amazing video! Seriously a gem 👍🏼

me: I gotta work in the morning, better go to sleep my brain as soon as it hits the pillow:

The timelines thing is a crazy idea to consider. I always figured that the "Funny Animal" lands were part of the planet the Nintendo places (Mushroom Kingdom, Hyrule, so fourth), a separate dimension from normal Earth.

Double Dragon is also part of the Rare-verse, thanks to the Battletoads crossover.

I just love the fact that the funny monkey game takes place in the same universe as the game with the great mighty poo.

I remember commenting on some of your videos when you first started, and it's honestly incredible to see how good your videos have become since then. I can tell you've put a lot of work into improving, and I'm happy to see your videos are starting to take off more. Your narration is SO good now--you've definitely hit your stride! It sounds completely natural and I can see you're intentional about keeping a good pace. The hard work you've been putting in is really evident. I also love the extra work you put into the editing here, especially the islands that you kept adding throughout the video. (Did you make those yourself, btw?) Glad to see your efforts are finally paying off more and more!

So many of my favorite childhood games all in the same universe !!!!

If you're going to include the entire DK franchise into the timeline, I would like to know where Donkey Kong Jungle Beat figures in. I've always believed it to be a prequel to the DKC trilogy hence why none of the other Kongs ever show up, but still; the setting and terrain are so vast and diverse that you have to wonder WHERE every one of the kingdoms seen in the game are located…

I personally try to make the "Rare Universe" more comprehendive! If we look at Rare, it must be taken at some factors: 1. "Nintendo Rare" and "Microsoft Rare" will make two universes as the split-up will break things up. 2. Goldeneye, Mickey's Speedway and various licensed products Rare have done can't be canon as Rare themselves don't count them as "real original work". 3. Super SMash Bros. are all spin-offs and don't have a lineal line with there normal counterparts. a) The Nintendo Rare Universe: Yes, here we have a collaborating universe where Rare's Sabrewulf crew, Banjo & Kazooie, Conker the Squirel, Mr. Pants, Jet Force Gemini crew etc. goes with Nintendo's Donkey Kong (obviously) crew, Mario's crew and Star Fox crew. On a side note; yes Battletoads could arguably exist in same universe, but are distant from the others because they share little in common to co-exist. However, Killer Instinct is something very difficult to piece togheter just as Perfect Dark as they focus on humans and more to the "real world". I would rather think they could be in same universe at different times. b) The Microso´ft Rare Universe: Now it is only Rare's Universe. All connections with Nintendo are cut due to owner-shift. That won't erase the past but for evreything past the early GameCube days are now over. Sabrewulf crew, Banjo & Kazooie, Conker the Squirel, Mr. Pants, Jet Force Gemini crew etc. is still the same. Killer Instinct and Perfect Dark is staying the same. So beside the Donkey Kong connection loss, it remains the same.

Great video and editing! Love it alot.

This is a rare universe

Correction: there are 2 Krocodile Islands, one sunk at the end of DKC2 and the other is the mechanical replacement. Despite the name, the Northern Kremisfere is on the south of Kong Island, but it's not precisely clear if it's part of the island itself of a nerby arcipelago (i'd go with the latter, considering we don't see anything resembling the Kremisfere in DKCR and DKCTF)

This is a good video. It made me cut the rare logo in my arm.

After seeing your DK64 video, I got so excited during today's Direct Partner Showcase at the Rare stuff coming to NSO, thinking 'this is it - DK64!' - Maybe next time :') This new video was a lotta fun

Question, then the Rare-verse takes place in Mario's universe, since, you know... ♪D-K... Donkey! Kong!♪

There's quite a few logical leaps here, as it sees _any_ reference to a game property and concludes they exist... but I'm certain they have the concept of fiction. Thus the initial connections from DK to Perfect Dark, Killer Instinct, Mr. Pants, and Jet Force Gemini are all moot due to them just being posters or TV shows (neat that Pants is in Gemini though). And tying Star Fox into this was an even _bigger_ stretch. Those two characters are entirely different, with nothing to suggest a connection other than a shared name and reference to walking on earth (note I didn't capitalize earth, as the correct interpretation here is "dirt", not "our planet"). I _will_ give you Sea of Thieves though. If it were _just_ the stylized Banjo picture, _just_ a place that looked like Treasure Trove, or _just_ Blackeye, it would again be a stretch, but all three together suggest it's the same world. Which... means I now need to consider how Shovel Knight fits into all this, since it's connected to Sea of Thieves via Battletoads. And since he shows up all over the indie game scene... Anyway, dismissing Mario's presence in that specific world is just as much of a stretch as including Star Fox. Discounting Smash makes sense, as even if it's the "real" characters, there's some dimensional shenanigans going on there, but doing the same for Mario spinoffs is quite silly. Heck, as non-canon to the games as the Mario Movie is, it clearly shows that Nintendo themselves think DK and Mario live on the same planet. And you got the DK family wrong (as most do), DK isn't DK Jr. grown up, but the son of DK Jr. No, we don't know what happened to DK Jr. The Ghoulies connection is sketchy too, for the same "fiction is a thing" reason previously. That may look like Banjo's species, but it's clearly not his head... and a Banjo head being in Conker clearly shows these things can be artificially created. And the mansion in N&B's background is too generic from this distance to suggest a connection, as is the supposed connection between Ghoulies and Viva Pinata. Oh, and LOG's "connections" to worlds are _as video games,_ and thus possibly fiction. Not for certain mind you, but not every game can be a "true story" now can it? Now, as for Link... I'm going to suggest that this is _after_ Smash 64. There simply aren't any spots in Mario's world large enough to house any version of Hyrule, especially after Odyssey. And that goes _quadruple_ for Sonic, since Unleashed shows its _own_ map of the planet... though he still crosses over from time to time, if Olympic Games are to be believed (which are a much stronger tie than shoes). Jim's blaster? I can't think of either a way for him to be in the same world _or_ brought in via Smash, so maybe it's just fiction. That doesn't sound right, but neither does it _not_ being fiction. And that "mask" is just a smear of Jim shaking his head. I should also mention that, since Mario's and DK's worlds are _definitely_ one and the same, that connections to Metroid and Kirby also exist (the former shows up both in SMRPG _and_ Kirby Dreamland 3). While the former could just be a dimensional visit, the latter cannot, because there's no way _actual Metroids_ are appearing on Popstar if it isn't in the same universe... but that's a shared world with Metroid, not Mario.

one fun thing of note is that you can actually connect the Marioverse to this without opening the floodgates. The main lynchpin that connects pretty much everything to Mario would be Super Smash Bros, However by the lore of SSB that is not the actual Mario and thus can't connect anything by default. SSB is effectively it's own mostly* contained setting based around the idea of the Spirit of what each character represents to the fans being given life. Without SSB, the Marioverse then becomes slightly more simple. Pikmin gets connected as Mario Golf has them show up on occasion when your ball goes through a patch of flowers, F-Zero and Animal Crossing get a connection through Mario Kart, Metroid gets connected as Samus has appeared a couple times in Mario RPG titles. Legend of Zelda gets a much stronger tie as Link has appeared several times as well as had Mario enemies show up in Link's Awakening. and Finally Punch Out gets connected as Mario was the Referee in the original game. All of these can be reasonably fit into a single overall setting with the exception of Pikmin which would need timeline stuff similar to Perfect Dark and Killer Instinct did. * I say Mostly cause it's debatable that Sora may actually be the real deal that simply ends up arriving in the SSB world to save its dying heart somehow. but that is an entirely separate can of worms to deal with.

I’m pretty sure Blast Corps did all the demolition work on Timber’s island so they could build the race courses. Then Wizpig followed BC back after they did the space levels and attacked the island. 😉

I feel like this makes more sense if we look at through Dinosaur Planet's perspective rather than Starfox Adventures imo. Since Timber was supposed to Sabre and Sabre was supposed to be fox lol But this is awesome 😁🤘 i love this video

The only issue I have is that we can argue that Kazooie's joke about Elvis from Perfect Dark and the JFG posters could merely be the case of PD and JFG being games in the Rare world. After all, Banjo Tooie shows an N64 on the menu that might imply that Banjo and Kazooie owned an N64 at some time and with multiple characters making 4th wall jokes implying that they know about their adventures being games, particularly in Banjo Kazooie and Cranky Kong's cynical humor. That said, it's still very likely that JFG could still be in the same universe as DK and crew, but given PD is supposed to be our Earth in the same way as James Bond is that series would likely be in an alternate timeline which is where I also think KI takes place in since the Sabrewulf in KI is actually a werewolf in reference to the third entry in the Sabrewulf series, Knight Lore, the original Sabrewulf that hunted Sabreman was an invincible but otherwise ordinary jungle wolf. Speaking of Sabrewulf, this also implies that the Underwurlde and Gunfright both exist given that the former is the 2nd Sabrewulf title and the latter shares a similar art style. All that said, it's still theoretically possible that Perfect Dark and Killer Instinct do indeed take place on the Rare Universe. It's possible that the Kong Islands are either too small to exist on the world maps of those two titles or that the cartoonier cast actually live on a separate planet and "our" Earth is merely another planet in the Rare Universe.

I really like this idea! I wanna make a timeline chart based off of it

I like this! You get my sub!

Seems pretty neat, but surprised you didn't mention another big connection: Spinal's Age from Killer Instinct(namely the first one) being 2,650 years old, which crossed over with the time of Killer Instinct means he was animated around the 400s-which would seem a fitting timepoint to slot in the Sea of Thieves games assuming he was a pirate alive then before his rebirth as a vengeful spirit. Also you don't really need to fuss too much about Smash Bros., since the whole MO of that seriesis that they are figures(later trophies) of famous game characters reanimated by a magic force and living in an expanding world of imagination so that's it own entire thing there.

Don't forget "DK Mode" in Goldeneye, which clearly shows there was some genetic experimentation using the DNA of the extinct Kongs.

I love this so much bro

I'm not a rare fan, but video is very high quality, and I was entertained. Good on you.

Edit the art by ScribbledPixelz was the wrong one they were just pointing the pixel that they misuse and that confused as the submission Bubbles from clu-clu land who was in DK king of swing would like to have a word with you /j

Its often mixed up that dk jr is the current dk, but in dk 64, its confirmed that he's the grandson of the original dk now known as cranky. Its often speculated that mario rpg is also connected considering certain enemies you encounter

Only thing I want to add is Mario can get to Donkey Kong Island via New Donk City and probably flying in his Skypop plain. Mario doesn't need a warp pipe. Also In Yoshi's Island DS DK lands on Yoshi, meaning Yoshi's Island is also near these areas; most likely DK Island. If Link is there than Hyrule is near too. Link can probably travel to other lands via Forari's Wind or the Great Lion King Boat. Also is the diffrent lands from SMB3 connected? And than you mentioned a sky kingdom: Link, Mario, and Pit could all be connected. Than if you mention Star Fox you have to mention F-Zero. This could REALLY spin out of control. Anyway these are just my thoughts. Good video. Oh and I once heard DK Junior is DK'S father. DK is a third. Cranky. Junior. Donkey Kong.

Smash brothers are toy dolls, and stuffed animals being played with by a child and his imagination. The first game opens with the master hand pulling dolls out, super smash melee are figures, brawl are gotcha collections, and the newest one appear to be stickers. The last one seems the most likely because there ain’t proof either way. But from the first 3, they are toys. Besides, using smash is OP like dream theory.

I also feel that conkers country, was originally sunshine and rainbows, I think what happened was, it got distorted due to a wish that conker made. That's why it looks the way it is now in Bad Fur Day.

this video feels like old youtube, and I mean that in the best way possible

Lol why the shade for Grabbed by the Ghoulies? I loved that game when I played it on XBOX MAGAZINE DEMO DISC #25 never got to play full version however

Second comment just to say that I love this video, usually only DKvine talks about these things and I don't have good enough English to do anything. Thank you very much for your service to the community.

I think its pretty much established that DK Isle and The Mushroom Kingdom exist in the same universe. I mean...Donkey Kong started out as a Mario character. If they are separated in any way, its possibly just as it is in the Mario movie, where they travel the Rainbow Road to get there.

My only argument is about the placement of Showdown Town and, by extension, the GbtG mansion. L.O.G. calls it a "brand new game world," and that doesn't necessarily prove that Showdown Town *doesn't* take place on Isle o' Hags, but I don't know if I'd agree that the mansion being present in the former proves 100% that it's in the latter. Loved the video though, great job!

Well, ain't this an interesting topic? It's intriguing to think of how many connections there are between Rare's catalogue of games. I'd definitely be interested in seeing you cover other companies with videos similar to this. Nintendo, Sega and Bandai Namco especially.

Jetpac canonically exists as a property in the Donkey Kong Country universe!

Finally, the Rareware Cinematic Universe we have been asking for.

DKVine will love this

I believe that Link came from the same universe of Mario

And I thought that the Ubisoft universe was insane.

This falls apart because DKC2 has a ton of references to killer instinct. So i think the kong era is in the distant future, after humanity is extinct.

Nuts and Bolts was just a dream/nightmare, not to be taken as canon