One of the beautiful things about our modern gaming age is that there’s plenty of potential for older franchises that have “faded away” over the gaming generations to return with new life and vigor. After all, it just takes the right developer to bring things to life in a way they couldn’t previously or see the “vision” that would make these classic franchises “pop” again like they did when they were on older consoles. We’ve seen plenty of remasters and remakes over the last several years, and fans hope Banjo-Kazooie will soon be on that list of revitalized franchises.
The problem is that it’s been 15 years since the last title dropped on Xbox, and fans know exactly which title we’re referring to. The “Nuts and Bolts” of it all was that the title was a complete departure from what came before, and its fans knew it didn’t match the magic that Rare had back when they created the beloved duo on the Nintendo 64. Despite that, fans have been hopeful that Rare, or someone else, would jump onto the property and bring it back to its former glory, and there have been rumors saying that Xbox is working on that right now.
Fast forward to now, and that same “insider,” Nate The Hate, posted on ResetEra to highlight that his prediction is “still correct” but that he “spoke too soon” regarding when it might be released. He also noted that they were “adjusting the scope” of the title, though he didn’t elaborate on what that meant.
There are many ways to look at this, including taking this “report” with a grain of salt. Even some people who worked on the original titles don’t know if the series could ever be truly revived.
However, given the state of Xbox right now? They absolutely could use a Banjo-Kazooie title to help bolster their first-party ranks since they own Rare and deliver something that would bring gamers to their system. We know that platforms of all types are still incredibly popular right now, as Mario’s last 2D and 3D-style platformers have proven, among others, of course.
The key thing here is that whoever is developing it for Xbox, whether it be Rare or someone else, is to honor what came before and build off of that in a substantial way. Fans know what they want from this duo, and they know what works. So respect that and build the game off of that!
