Nintendo has revealed the next big addition to Nintendo Switch Online’s Expansion Pack, and it’s a Microsoft title.
Banjo Tooie is coming to Nintendo Switch Online’s N64 app on October 25, 2024. This will be the first time the game has been released on a Nintendo platform since it debuted on the Nintendo 64. And when it first released on the Nintendo 64 all the way back in 2000, it was a critical and commercial success, selling 1.49 million copies by 2008.
In a time when the Dreamcast was already raising standards for graphics and scope, Rare managed to deliver a gigantic world on the Nintendo 64. Banjo Tooie was also a technical highlight or the console, boasting detailed textures, shadow generation, and long draw distances.
Interestingly, it suffered in framerates at certain points, but most reviewers agree that Rare designed the game in such a way that it did not harm the fundamental game experience. It seems that Nintendo’s philosophy hasn’t changed all these years later, as that’s the same consensus reviewers reached with last year’s The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
Banjo Tooie first saw rerelease on the Xbox 360, with an Xbox Live Arcade version developed by 4J Studios in 2009. This version of the game had HD graphics and smoother framerates.
It also had interactivity with other video games, allowing players to swap data with the XBLA version of Banjo-Kazooie. It also unlocked content in Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts.
While this version of the game received less favorable reviews, Rare and Microsoft seems to consider this the definitive version of the game. It was one of the first titles enrolled into Xbox’s Backwards Compatibility Program in 2015. That made Banjo Tooie one of the first games that XBLA owners were able to bring over and play on their Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S consoles.
But on 2015, Rare also released Rare Replay, a compilation of their classic games that included Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo Tooie. In 2019, this version of Banjo Tooie found in Rare Replay got upgraded to run at native 4K on Xbox Series X.
Microsoft has fallen short of making the Rare Replay games available to download on Windows. Game Pass Ultimate subscribers are only able to stream it on PC. So Microsoft’s decision to bring Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo Tooie to the Nintendo Switch is a big one for Microsoft and Nintendo.
Microsoft has demonstrated good faith in working with Nintendo in the past, and that’s only been to the benefit of gamers. We certainly wonder if this can open up other opportunities in the future, such as Rare Replay and other Microsoft games coming to the Switch and Switch 2. It seems highly likely that their big AAAs can be ported to the Switch 2, if rumors are true.
For now, you can enjoy the official announcement trailer below.
