well to be fair, they did undergo some sort of sex change when M$ bought them over (or at least what's left of them). Since their best game is pinata (far better than people who haven't played it think it is) and games like perfect dark zero and nuts and bolts are just wrong (yes own them both). Having played the N64 rare games recently (blast corps still amazing, DKR is the idea that Nintendo never thought for mario kart, the Banjo games still hold very well today on XBLA, Jet Force OWNS and is one of the best 3rd person shooters I have ever played and Conker was not amazing gameplay wise but it did push some boundaries) I can safely say they are not who they used to be.
As for DK64 to be fair I did not like it very much. It was a monstrous collectathlon (500 bananas per world on top of bananas and the other things you had to collect? Tiring) with levels not as inspiring as their other 3d platformers. Still miles better than any other third party N64 game (though rocket was simply brilliant) but not as good as it could have been.
PS: To the 1st poster, do they know your name is a trademark swear word in Greece?