Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts

[Mimternet]

I must be losing my mind, I can't remember if I have played Banjo-Tooie or not!! Oh my god, I'm going mad!!

 

I loved the first game, thought it was absolutely brilliant. This is yet another reason for interest in Xbox 360. Now, if only I had more money...

[Sméagol]

I've watched the trailer, it was a pleasant surprise. The trailer is funny, but I really hate the looks of both Banjo & Kazooie. Knowing Rare fans though (just read Scribes), they'll send plenty complaint mails, demanding they improve the models. I'm actually surprised I haven't seen such mails last Scribes, but I guess it was too early. But yeah, I'm very much looking forward to it, 1 & 2 were my favourite platformers of all time (allthough I can't recall playing a recent pure platformer). I don't have an X-Box 360, I actually hoped to get one with Perfect Dark & Kameo (I'm still interested in those games, even after all the generally negative response), but now I'll have a new chance with Banjo Threeie (you know there's not going to be another name, they have to please the fans ). So, I reckon I have 2 years to get a Wii, a PS3, and then a X-Box 360 with Banjo, Joanna & Kameo .

[Garden_Pigeon]

Look at Viva Pinata and Kameo, Rare are amazing at using the 360s dev tools because those games look amazing (especially Viva Pinata). I have nothing but high hopes for this game, and now I know the original Rare team are on board this cant go wrong. Give it a chance.

[Jimbob]

This makes me want to dig out the original and play it. Pity i can't, my N64 and most of my games were nicked. Lent it to a mate, then he moved away with my stuff.

 

I'll have to buy another N64, only £20 on e-bay.

[Guest Stefkov]

I really want to play the origianl now. Who thinks they'll bundle the original gamse onto an exra disc for people who buy, if theres on, a special edition disc?

Would be nice, as i dont see th first 2 coming to the VC.

[Mikey]

Just download an emulator, and the roms.

[AshMat]

You may aswell, nintendo won't make money from you getting it off ebay.

[www.n64fan.co.nr]

I think the new look game is something that has to happen. Every game needs to evolve in order to keep up to date with the latest trends. Woud you rather Banjo looked like he did in the N64 version? Zelda is a prime example of a game trying something different. If developers dont experiment then we'll all just end up playing the same games but with slight differences to levels. I must admit I was starting to worry about Rare but they seem to be getting back on track. I think the initial games they released should be ignored as I'm pretty sure they were totally rushed to get these ready for the 360 launch. Now the machine has launched they will be allowed to develop their games till they are 100% happy. This is looking to be the case with Viva Pinata. Microsoft need to lay off Rare and give them the time that they need, just like Nintendo did.

[ZeldaFreak]

I wonder if this is banjo-three(ie) or a banjo kazooie remake. Just I can remember at the end of banjo-tooie game gruntilda said 'wait unil banjo three(ie). So you would think that Microsoft would anounced the game as banjo-three(ie) not banjo kazooie.

 

Any thoughts on this guys?

[Retro_Link]

I wonder if this is banjo-three(ie) or a banjo kazooie remake. Just I can remember at the end of banjo-tooie game gruntilda said 'wait unil banjo three(ie). So you would think that Microsoft would anounced the game as banjo-three(ie) not banjo kazooie.

 

Any thoughts on this guys?

Not sure if it will be a remake; it's possible considering what Rare did with Conker on the Xbox, but just have to wait and see.

 

The trailer shows the same area outside banjo's house... spiral mountain etc... suggesting Banjo Threeie will still start/take place in the same world.

[That Guy]

Considering Rare's recent return to form, I'm confident this will be good, although I do hope this doesn't have the problem a fair few Rare games have in that every time it auto saves the frame rate stutters.

[Aussie]

ncroal.talk : During the course of our Playstation 3 reporting last October, we asked Playstation worldwide studios boss Phil Harrison for his thoughts on Rare. Here's our previously unpublished exchange:

 

This question is a bit separate from your bailiwick, but I've got to take advantage of your insights while I have you here. Being based in the U.K., you're obviously plugged into the local development scene. Why do you think that Rare hasn't been able to regain its former glory?

 

[Long pause.] Rare is traditionally a very closely held company, a very secretive company. The founders, the Stamper Brothers, almost never gave interviews. They were very private individuals. In fact, before Rare, they had a company called Ultimate, which made games for the 8-bit home computers that were popular in the the 1980s, like the Spectrum and the Commodore 64. I remember that their approach to journalists and reviewers was that if you want to review our game, well, you can go and buy it in the store. They had their own game publisher, that was very successful.

 

Then they started working for Nintendo, who were themselves a very secretive organization. And so I think that they became quite insular and quite inward-facing, and they missed some of the trends that were going on in the business generally. Now also, if you sell your company to Microsoft and get hundreds of millions of whatevers, currency in the bank, it does tend to defocus management a little bit. But Rare, and prior to Rare, Ultimate, are responsible for some of the best games ever made. And from an industry point of view, I hope they continue to make good games, because they're an inspiration to many of us in the business. I'm sure they'll get their groove back.

[rokhed00]

Considering Rare's recent return to form, I'm confident this will be good, although I do hope this doesn't have the problem a fair few Rare games have in that every time it auto saves the frame rate stutters.

 

It's not as if their games are the only ones that do that.

 

ncroal.talk : During the course of our Playstation 3 reporting last October, we asked Playstation worldwide studios boss Phil Harrison for his thoughts on Rare. Here's our previously unpublished exchange:

 

Thanks for the history lesson baldy.

[arab_freak]

God he looks horrible. It's terrible to see a character inspired a little by Miyamoto (he plays the banjo a lot) being raped.

 

Took the words right out of my mouth.

[Gizmo]

Wow, that video looks horrible...I hope they improve it, because the first two games were amongst my favourite on the 64.

[1UP]

Wow, that video looks horrible...I hope they improve it, because the first two games were amongst my favourite on the 64.

 

Looks horrible? Are you crazy?

[Guest Stefkov]

At first I thought it looked horrible, then it grew on me.

Due to the recent up in form by Rare, what with Viv Pinata, I'm really hoping they take elements fromthe first 2 games, and make it much like them. I didnt play the seond, but the first with all its different levels, being able to transform into objects was great. Hope they include that in this game.

[Aussie]

GT : Rare Developer Interview -

Future of the Banjo series

[AshMat]

It's still looking good, man i can't wait.

[McPhee]

I play Wii and DS, i dont care about how a game looks and... HANG ON A MINUTE! WHAT THE FUCK HAVE RARE DONE TO BANJO! IM GONNA KILL THEM! BASTARDS!

[Aussie]

Rare on the next Banjo-Kazooie title.

 

 

Gamesindustry.biz : At X06 in Barcelona last year, Microsoft showed the first teaser for Rare's next Xbox 360 project - the latest instalment in the Banjo Kazooie series. As you'd expect from such a well-loved franchise, it's the sort of announcement that has dedicated gamers foaming at the mouth; and it's not just the loyal fans who are excited, either.

 

"The team that are doing it are the guys that did the original Banjo Kazooie, so they're probably more passionate about it than the kids that have bought the game," observes Schuneman.

 

"[Creative director] Gregg Mayles had the same position on the original Banjo-Kazooie, he did it on Banjo-Tooie, and now he's doing it again on the new Banjo title. He's passionate to maintain the Banjo vibe and what it was all about, but also to bring in something entirely new, which is going to be interesting. There are elements that are going to be very different; I don't think people are going to expect it."

 

According to Schuneman, "We've got a lot of work to do on getting the new ideas that the team have come up with to be right and playable and fun. And the team is making good progress with that. There's other stuff that we're doing too and when we're ready to talk about it, we'll talk."

 

Rare's titles have always had a unique style; you don't need to see the title screen to know you're looking at one of their games. And in an industry where some titles are barely distinguishable from another, it's important to have a clear sense of identity and individual design philosophy. But is there a danger that the staffers at Rare are making games for themselves, rather than a wider audience?

 

"When we look at all the Rare games, going back ten or 15 years, we've always enjoyed being that country in the middle. Of all the games we've done we've never thought 'This is for the US' or 'This is for Japan'," states Schuneman.

 

"We've just always thought that we want the biggest market. That was the way with the Nintendo games and it's exactly the same now. We want the UK, the US, the Europeans and the Japanese consumers."

 

The concept of not targeting a particular audience may have marketing departments sweating over their promotional budgets, but Rare isn't phased. The studio is confident enough to assume that a quality game will find an appreciative audience - regardless of decisions made on spreadsheets.

 

"We never think, 'Let's make a worldwide product.' But in our minds the approach to design - the approach to playing a game and the feel of it - has always been thought of in terms of mass appeal," says Schuneman.

 

"We've got a legacy in the UK for creating games with a British sense of humour, but we all grew up on Japanese Manga and Japanese NES and SNES games, and then with our little UK mix we've created games with a worldwide appeal.

 

"That's part of the Rare appeal," he concludes.

[nekunando]

I just can't get over how ridiculous Banjo and Kazooie have been made look.. I much preferred their design on the Nintendo 64.. though I am in no way saying the game will be any worse off because of it.

[Daft]

TBH I don't really like the looks of most RARE games nowadays, with the exception of Viva Pinata which I think the look suits, everything is just way too shinny and big.

[Aussie]

Peter Moore Defends Rare

 

 

newsweek : Moore discusses the implications of the then-recent announcement that the founders of the Microsoft-owned developer Rare were leaving the company, explains the kinds of games he envisions the studio making in the future and talks about why Microsoft is absolutely comfortable with Rare's perverse sensibility.

 

What should we make of the Stampers' departure from Rare?

 

Nothing. Chris and Tim have been tremendously loyal to Microsoft since the acquisition of the company. They've been behind everything we continue to do. Certainly Viva Pinata, both of them were instrumental in their own way of getting Viva Pinata up and running. Their legacy will live on with Banjo-Kazooie. The time had come after many, many years of service to Rare that the founders move on and do something different. We wish them nothing but the best. They've put us in great position with Gregg Mayles and Mark Betteridge to come in and step up. Betteridge in particular has been there 19 years, and it's great that we can have somebody with Mark's background in the company be able to step into the shoes. Nothing to be made of it whatsoever.

 

I asked Phil Harrison about Rare

 

I saw that.

 

--and why they were having trouble regaining former glory. They used to put out games that were five million unit sellers, seven million unit sellers, much higher Metacritic ratings than where they're at. He said that he felt that they were a company that was always prone to insularity; got moreso with Nintendo, and then maybe got a little defocused by the windfall that they got from Microsoft. Perfect Dark Zero certainly got good reviews when it came out--very good reviews, though not GoldenEye-level, but good reviews--

 

Yeah.

 

But in hindsight, there are a lot of people saying, "Maybe we scored it too high." Hindsight's 20-20--

 

The same people who scored Kameo too low. But that's a personal opinion. [Laughs.] So that's fine. It all washes out in the end.

 

Viva Pinata is certainly a return to form according to reviewers. There are a lot of people who are very passionate about it.

 

Absolutely, yeah.

 

But sales aren't there, considering that Microsoft spent $375 million to buy Rare. On the balance sheet, that's already been written off, for sure. But how do you start to earn out on that investment? What's the plan for Rare in the future? Where do they fit in and what are they going to do for the company in order to deliver the hits that they were presumably purchased to make?

 

Well I certainly think people underestimate the platform-driving presence that Perfect Dark Zero and Kameo had, in particular Kameo. It signaled that this wasn't going to be the same as Xbox 1, which was dominated by Mature-rated games, if you will, and for many people will go down in history as the Halo box or the shooter box. Kameo was very important. Kameo has done well; Perfect Dark Zero hit our expectations from a sales point of view; but these were two launch titles--and in Kameo's case, brand new intellectual property--that allowed us to get where we needed to go very, very quickly.

 

Viva Pinata, sales have been...fine. I think that the thing that people underestimate is the power of Viva Pinata to continue to sell on an annualized basis, as well as the ability to build intellectual property that's very unique and different. The animated series is doing well. 4Kids [Entertainment] in New York City is delighted. The second series has been greenlit for this year. And as a result, we feel real good that in Viva Pinata, we have established brand-new intellectual property to a consumer that typically has not been somebody we've been able to get to, which is the 8-12-year-old. Also by putting a very rich online element into it.

 

I'm a big fan. I first saw Viva Pinata in 2003, as they were starting to concept the whole thing out and prototype it out. So don't underestimate the long-term ability of Rare to continue to have a positive effect on the Xbox 360 and further platforms in the future.

 

Back to Rare for a minute on the games side. Should we take from Viva Pinata and the new Banjo Kazooie--you talked about the importance of Viva Pinata, even before it shipped, for broadening the audience--should we take from those two games that Rare is being put in the playroom, and not going to be doing the Perfect Darks of the world anymore now that you've got Bungie wildly successful, Gears of War wildly successful? Does it make sense to say we want to build out the platform side? Or are they as free to imagine new concepts across all genres as they've always been?

 

 

I certainly think their strength is the former. But their ability to continue--which they've always done--coming up with great ideas for games that are potentially a little off-center, if you will, we always allow them the reins to sit down with us when we do concept reviews and allow their creativity to say, "Here's something three of us have been working on. We've got an idea, and we'd like to prototype this out." Always very willing to hear that from Rare.

[The Bard]

Never liked the original, so probably won't get this.