Original Banjo-Kazooie Rare team working on the new Xbox 360 game

2 October 2006

Posted by:Ferry

N64 Banjo & Kazooie fans rejoice! A top Microsoft exec has told Eurogamer that the original team responsible for Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie is working on the new Xbox 360 game announced at last week’s X06.

Microsoft Game Studios general manager Phil Spencer revealed: “Team sizes are so different now and we have more animators now than the full Banjo 1 team, but the key core team is really the same.”

Spencer was also keen to play down suggestions that Banjo-Kazooie 360 is being created for younger gamers, insisting: “Certain people look at the bear and the bird and think it’s a kids’ game. What we think is that Banjo as an intellectual property has the ability to span audiences.

“For us in the next Banjo game it was about evolving the gameplay while keeping the approachability of the characters, but the depth of the gameplay is very important. This can’t turn into some minigame-based paper game. It has to be something that has a ton of substance.”

Given the Fort Knox-style levels of secrecy at the Twycross-based UK developer, specifics are predictably thin on the ground at this stage, but Spencer vaguely revealed: “I think where we are with that game right now is something that is extremely innovative,” he continued. “We’re not talking about the game idea yet, but what you’ll see coming from Banjo is a game that has even more depth than Banjo-Kazooie or Banjo-Tooie, more variability, more gameplay – but keeps the face that is Banjo on the game to make it more approachable.

“It’ll be familiar to fans of the originals in terms of style, absolutely, and in terms of setting, story and characters. In terms of it being another platformer? I think that genres evolve, and that’s what we’re doing with this game. So you might call it something else when it comes out, but it’s the same team and it’s staying true to that team and what it believes in.” and concluding that “the gameplay is already solid.”

What did you say? You want to see the “Banjo Threeie” teaser video again? Oh alright then!
PS: I know Rare said Mumbo Jumbo wasn’t a Jinjo, but he sure looks like one to me underneat that skull!

Categories: Interviews, News, Videos

http://aaag.2ya.com Y.V.Reetesh

No Rare For me
supadupagama

If you’re going to say something that makes me sad, at least explain yourself

I personally loved playing the Banjo-Kazooie games on the N64, so I’ve got fond memories I want to add to with this upcoming game (from the same team just makes it extra fun in my eyes).
http://aaag.2ya.com Y.V.Reetesh

well.. I thought I told that thing in the previous banjo threeie mention..

I loved all rare games in N64 But Now I wont be having a 360(Unless I get it for Free:lol:)

and If Rare is PERMANENTLY in M$’s Possesion I can do nothing but watch vids of Rare games
Juffen

Im so sad. Banjo Kazooie and Banjo tooie are probably in the category of the best games ever. But just on the 360? It sucks. They’re so expensive. AND Rare made the first banjo games on a nintendo console. Why not continue and make them on the Wii? The wii will be much less expensive, and I think it can have just as good of performance as the 360. Now hear me out, I’m glad they’re making a new banjo game, but seriously. Multi-platform.
Devin Hands

My generation cherished this game. The approach these game developers NEED to take when it comes to getting the word out and marketing this game, is to maintain all the feartures that made the game popular, such as the joyfull original melodeies and character personalities, BUT at the same time, they CANNOT come off as a little kids game.

The game must attain to complexness and logic, because my generation, as “little kids” (10 or 11 years old) are now 16, 17, and 18, but we all love the game, and will without hesitation buy the first 360/Wii game that comes out. My generation grown up still will buy the game but it must show that it has complex logical puzzles that rquire at leatst teenage smarts. Because nobody wants to buy a childish tellatubies game. This game will undoubteld be successfull and sell in the masses, as long as they attract an older audience, which means we are not in kindergarden anymore, we want to seea game that looks fun, but not childish, looks like a challenge, looks serius, but not too serious, and this game is a surfish best seler and fan favorite!!!!

I CANNOT wait for this frigging game to come out. It is my destiny that I will play an awsome new age Banjo Kazzoie game and one of the new systems. And hundeds of thousand, possibly millions of others in my generation feel this was as well!!!
http://NO Andrew

This is f*cking bullsh*t. This is nintendo’s game and it should be for the wii and not 360.
http://www.smashbros.com Name (requierd)

yeah that is why Super Smash bros can’t take Banjo and Kazooie unless Sonic is denied by the head of Sega

AND DAMNIT I WANT THE GAME BACK ON THE NINTENDO SYSTEMS LIKE GAMECUBE Or Wii!!!! I’m so pissed i have been playing Banjo Kazooie and Tooie for 2 weeks with almost no sleep!! I went out sometimes but I beat Banjo Kazooie 3 times and Banjo Tooie twice!!!
i have no life
Vasa

hell yea b*tches lets get this sh*t back on nintendo even if it means life or f*ckin death!!!!
http://hotmail aj

If they don,t make the new Banjo game i will go
cazzy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!