Xbox Fans Excited About Banjo-Kazooie Revival Leak
Don't get your wings in a flap, but... Banjo-Kazooie could be coming back. Forget Ratchet & Clank or Jak and Daxter, for many, there's one dynamic duo that still rules the roost of the platformer double act. Sadly, Banjo and Kazooie has been confined to being a cult classic for the past 14 years.
Even before the bear and bird bowed out in the disappointing Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts in 2008, many felt the series had lost its spark. At a time that RARE was the N64's golden goose, the developer gifted us GoldenEye 007, Conker's Bad Fur Day, Diddy Kong Racing, and two beloved Banjo-Kazooie games.... so where's our third proper entry?
What's Going On With Banjo-Kazooie?
Click to enlargeWe'd also be amiss not to mention the underrated Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge for the Game Boy Advance. By the time we got to Nuts & Bolts, RARE had jumped ship from Nintendo, meaning the bizarre builder was a multi-platform release. Jump forward to 2022 and the franchise has been forgotten. Instead of making more entries, there was the bizarre Yooka-Laylee as a spiritual successor from Playtonic.
Over on ResetEra, NateDrake previously said that something in the world of Banjo-Kazooie is in development, and if it isn't revealed at the Microsoft showcase (which it wasn't), we should wait a bit longer. They reiterated, "There is a Banjo project in development, where and when it shows up is speculation." The floodgates opened with speculation on whether this is a remaster of the OG or a full-blown reboot, and to be honest, we hope it's the latter.
Things have gone quiet since then, but now, Xbox insider eXstas1s has backed up NateDrake and added that Sackboy studio Sumo Digital could now be heading up development. Then again, they said it's pure speculation. Either way, it would be sad if RARE isn't returning to Banjo-Kazooie. It would also be odd for a developer who helped develop one of Sony's big exclusives to move to Microsoft.
Will We Finally Get Banjo-Threeie?
If (and it's currently a big if) Banjo-Kazooie is coming back into our lives, it looks increasingly likely RARE won't be involved. These days, the developer is deep in Sea of Thieves and is also working on Everwild. We already saw outraged Sony fans furious that Microsoft now has the keys to Crash and Spyro, and we imagine Nintendo nostalgics are just as raging at the concept of an Xbox-exclusive Banjo-Kazooie.
Only recently, we covered how fans created a trailer for the mythical Banjo-Threeie. Made in Unreal Engine 5, it showcases what a new-gen Banjo-Kazooie game could look like. It had us yearning for the platformer's long-awaited return, and if it's good enough for Kao the Kangaroo, it should be enough for these two.
