A Rare interview concerning Banjo Kazooie 3
by Jared Rea 
{ Feb 19th 2007 at 1:45PM }
Rare is in good company these days. As a part of Microsoft Games Studios, they exist under the same umbrella as Bungie -- another studio that loves to be elusive. This of course means that if they let out so much as a squeak, we listen. GameTrailers caught up with one of the crafty devils (Concept Artist, Ryan Stevenson) recently to talk about everything Rare. Banjo Kazooie 3 in particular.If you enjoyed previous entries in the Banjo Kazooie saga there will be plenty for you to love on your 360 as Stevenson says "It's still the same characters and the same thing. It's a game for the people who appreciated the game years ago and also for new people that are coming to the 360."
A hint concerning the main villain of the series, Grundy, is also dropped and the Stop'N'Swop drama makes a special guest appearance. Stevenson gives the most rational idea for the infamously dropped Banjo-Tooie feature in that it was probably just a really bad idea. We, however, still believe.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
WhatIsThatThing @ Feb 19th 2007 1:48PM
Aw...now I might just have to get a 360...well played, Microsoft, well played.
Mike Schramm @ Feb 19th 2007 2:21PM
I think I am more excited for this than any other 360 game. And that includes Assassin's Creed and Halo.
REUYL @ Feb 19th 2007 2:26PM
BK3 is one of the reasons I am buying a 360 as soon as the new revision ("Zephyr") comes out.
I've always enjoyed Rare's games, and I hope Threeie will be an instant classic like the first two!
sheppy @ Feb 19th 2007 2:35PM
Rare has some lost ground to make up before I get too excited. But anytime a platformer is announced, I crack a smile regardless.
Mr Khan @ Feb 19th 2007 2:36PM
This game caused my friend to stop before buying a PS3, now he's got a hard choice to make (already has a Wii)
But for me, i never really cared for Banjo Kazooie, for the same reason i didn't like Donkey Kong 64 or StarFox Adventures, item collecting taken to stupid levels
Tom Fronczak @ Feb 19th 2007 2:37PM
He also confirmed a Viva Pinata sequel
steve17 @ Feb 19th 2007 2:50PM
@5 im with u man. item collecting gets boring for me too. but once in a while a decent one comes buy. i have heard good thing about it. i might just check it out. i used to love jak and daxter. that kind of item collecting was fun.
sheppy @ Feb 19th 2007 2:53PM
Banjo never went insane with the collecting like DK64 did.
I mean, seriously, 500 bananas per stage. Nothing was more frustrating than finally finding the last green banana and suddenly screaming "FUCK! I'M DIDDY KONG RIGHT NOW!" and backtracking to the change barrel. DK64, one of the few platformers I never finished... with good reason.
boot @ Feb 19th 2007 2:54PM
Too bad microsoft bought out rare :( I enjoyed the first 2 on my N64 its a shame they cant make a wii version.
Stu L Tissimus @ Feb 19th 2007 3:04PM
It's Grunty, Joystiq! GRUNTY! Not Grundy!
*childhood persona strikes out in anger*
Jake @ Feb 19th 2007 3:11PM
I really enjoyed DKC and Banjo on N64 and never tried to collect items. You don't have to go for that stuff if it isn't fun, you know.
Evan @ Feb 19th 2007 3:21PM
BK3 is the game that's making me lean in favor of the 360 over the PS3.
Jak and Daxter has gone downhill (they abandoned everything I loved about the first game in a pathetic attempt to become a "dark" shooter and an "Xtreme" racer). Ratchet and Clank was never my favorite because I felt it was too much shooting and too little melee. SuckerPunch's Sly Cooper is the only Sony platformer that I really care about anymore, and there's been no confiration or date for Sly to appear on the PS3.
why not the LS2/LS7? @ Feb 19th 2007 3:57PM
Banjo Kazooie was great. The only problem with it was the empty promises of the key in the ice cube.
But Banjo-Tooie was a loser.
It's difficult to get too romantic about an extension of that series given how disappointing Banjo-Tooie was and how awful Conker's Bad Fur Day (the next game on that engine) was.
Banjo-Tooie made you backtrack huge. Through the "seasons" system, you had to play each level 4 times, and in the case of the one with the tall tree in the middle, you also had to fly to the top several times in some of the seasons. They overextended the gameplay, with very few levels to actually play.
I cannot comprehend the idea of selecting your gaming system based upon the idea of BK3. After the awful Conker games, awful Kameo, disapppointing Banjo-Tooie and Perfect Dark, and lousy Perfect Dark Zero, any one who awaits a future RARE is likely setting themselves up for a fall.
I mean, it's possible their next game could be a good one like Viva Pinata, but the chances are slim.
SynikaL @ Feb 19th 2007 4:03PM
"It's still the same characters and the same thing. It's a game for the people who appreciated the game years ago and also for new people that are coming to the 360."
If Rare hasn't evolved past the arbitrary trinket collecting crap concept, you can count me out.
-Kimosabae
SID SPACE @ Feb 19th 2007 4:19PM
This may be the game that forces me to finally buy a 360. I do hope they make Banjo and Kazooie less hideous than the BK3 trailer models, though.
Not that ugly characters would make the game any less fun, but those two are seriously ugly.
3cubedminus3squared @ Feb 19th 2007 4:24PM
This game and Gears had me leaning to buy a 360. It wasn't until Assasin's Creed was announced to be for both the PS3 and 360, did I buy a 360. Now if only I could find a Wii.
Jeff @ Feb 19th 2007 4:27PM
"I cannot comprehend the idea of selecting your gaming system based upon the idea of BK3. After the awful Conker games, awful Kameo, disapppointing Banjo-Tooie and Perfect Dark, and lousy Perfect Dark Zero, any one who awaits a future RARE is likely setting themselves up for a fall."
Right on, man.
You're one of the only people here that isn't looking at Rare's recent output (and by recent, I mean mid-N64 era on up) through the rosiest of rose colored glasses. I just can't even believe the lack of skepticism in the comments here. Where were you people when Banjo Tooie was out on N64? My bet is half of you weren't even old enough to play it yet. Yet still, you're going to buy an Xbox 360 solely based on a sequel to a poorly-made game from a developer that's been *at best* hit or miss over the last 10 years.
Makes you wonder.
WhatIsThatThing @ Feb 19th 2007 4:48PM
Jeff, we're not all cynics like you (although sometimes I try to be). It's not that we look at previous Rare games and say, "I hope it's as good as that." It's that we see a developer who has made some bad decisions in the past working on a tried-and-true franchise. Even said that, though, I'm still a little skeptical...call me a hypocrite if you want, I don't mind.
NintendoFanbot @ Feb 19th 2007 5:10PM
@ Jeff
BK RULED. Just the fact that it was so good and packed with variety was one of the reasons people were let down with DK64 (including myself).
Anyways, I can't disagree about the shape of Rare today though. They lost a lot of people in the transition from Nintendo to MS.
REUYL @ Feb 19th 2007 6:41PM
@ #13:
"Banjo-Tooie made you backtrack huge. Through the 'seasons' system, you had to play each level 4 times, and in the case of the one with the tall tree in the middle, you also had to fly to the top several times in some of the seasons. They overextended the gameplay, with very few levels to actually play."
No, that was the level "Click Clock Woods" in Banjo-Kazooie. Banjo-Tooie didn't have any such levels (except for the ice/lava world).
you know @ Feb 19th 2007 8:20PM
"Banjo-Tooie made you backtrack huge. Through the "seasons" system, you had to play each level 4 times, and in the case of the one with the tall tree in the middle, you also had to fly to the top several times in some of the seasons. They overextended the gameplay, with very few levels to actually play."
yeah as the above said, you don't know what the fuck you're talking about
Pikachelsea @ Feb 19th 2007 9:02PM
My nostalgia for Banjo-Kazooie, Banjo-Tooie (to a lesser extent), Diddy Kong Racing and the Donkey Kong Country series makes me interested in this game.... but not enough to overlook the recent deluge of Rare crap in the past few years, and certainly not enough to make me want to purchase a 360 just for that (there's no other game on 360 that I give a rip about). Donkey Kong 64 was the beginning of the end for Rare (although the completist in me forced me to collect each and every last collectible item in that game... call me a glutton for punishment).
Gin @ Feb 19th 2007 9:35PM
^ Even at age 13, I knew that DK64 was a big mess. Also, Banjo 2. I think I only got about halfway through it before getting bored.
That said, BK is probably my favorite platformer ever. I tend to rediscover it every few years and play it all the way through. I think it's more fun then Mario64. It's brillant, and that alone gets me excited for BK3.
samfish @ Feb 19th 2007 10:38PM
I'm with the others who have said, a new Banjo game might finally push me over the edge and get me to buy a 360.
I just need one game that'll be good enough to drop $360 or so on.
...as long as it's not like DK64 and sucks, this might do it!
Anonymous @ Feb 20th 2007 1:04AM
You spelled never wrong. It's "nevar".
Vanth @ Feb 20th 2007 1:15AM
Whoa now am I the only one who disagrees with the above comments about DK64 and Banjo Tooie? Those two games were great and I liked BT just as much as I did with BK. DK64 was awesome and I really liked how you could explore and find secrets and collect items and so on and so on and it kept me playing for days but I loved it!
and to top those two off I can't wait for a Jet Force Gemini sequel. Where are the GFG fans?