Rare's next project : Banjo-Kazooie set to take the World by storm?

by Steven Williamson on 13 February 2006, 09:39

Tags: Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Xbox 360, Platform

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Banjo Kazooie

March's edition of Game Informer magazine claims that Rare are working on a huge project, codenamed Viva Pinata.

Microsoft recently announced a partnership with 4Kids Entertainment, famous for promoting brands such as the enormously popular, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. We'd make a educated guess that the two are connected.

Microsoft have been busy hatching something marketable that will appeal to children world-wide; a cartoon that will hook them as much as the Pokeman series, and allow them to capitalise on a range of products associated with the brand.

Ed Ventura, Microsoft's Director of Franchise Development said they hope to, "Explore the opportunities our collective efforts can create when we combine 4Kids's proven expertise in bringing engaging children's properties to life with Microsoft's leadership and knowledge of interactive entertainment."

The Viva Pinata project is being closely kept under wraps, but our money is firmly behind Banjo-Kazooie to appear on the Xbox 360 , be turned into a cartoon and anything else that can sting the public for a few extra quid here and there, such as card games and toiletries. A previous installment of the Banjo-Kazooie series,Banjo-Tooie even shows an opening cut-scene of Banjo-Kazooie, Mumbo, and Bottles sitting around a card table. This game is geared towards numerous money-making spin-offs.

Although Banjo Kazooie can't be compared to Pokemon gameplay wise, we feel that Microsoft, RARE and 4 Kids entertainment are planning an assault on the public, not seen since the Pokemon phenomenon.

The only other suggestion would be a brand new show, but Rare's 3D platformer must be top of the list of candidates.

Perhaps Sony could follow suit with the Ape Escape series, dozens of cheeky monkeys to collect, all with different attributes, sounds like a card game and cartoon in the making!


HEXUS Forums :: 7 Comments

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erm first of all, how on earth can you compare banjo-kazooie to pokemon? seriously just don't do it. Banjo-kazooie/tooie we're two of the best games on the n64, not aimed at kids, but at all ages (many of the in-jokes would never be noticed by children..)

Also, great that there might be a 3rd BJK game, just a shame I will never get to play it if it's 360 only :(
Consider this is coming from a 23 year old male, I agree 100% with Spud1 - Banjo Kazooie and Banjo Tooie are two of the greatest 3D adventure / platform games of all time. I put them (particularly BK) right up there with Zelda: OOT. Us fans have been anticipating a 3rd game in the series for 6 years now, so this is fantastic news… but I've got to say the whole “for kids” thing does not sound good whatsoever, let's hope that any cartoon / card game / whatever spin-off has no bearning on the quality / maturity level of the game.
Forgot to ask, do Hexus maybe have the power to dig up some more from Rare regarding the game?!
Spud1
erm first of all, how on earth can you compare banjo-kazooie to pokemon? seriously just don't do it. Banjo-kazooie/tooie we're two of the best games on the n64, not aimed at kids, but at all ages (many of the in-jokes would never be noticed by children..)

Also, great that there might be a 3rd BJK game, just a shame I will never get to play it if it's 360 only :(

I agree, no comparison at all - game-wise, only we think that RARE and Microsoft are planning Banjo Kazooie to be a world-wide phenomenon, like Pokemon (i.e cartoons, board games, collector's cards etc)

I added an extra line in the news post to make it clear.
ok fair enough steve, I read the feature differently the first time around :)

Still really annoying that it will most likely be locked to the 360 though, however sad it may be it still pisses me off that rare sold out to microsoft, although I fully understand why (nintendo are and always have been a bitch to work with, but they do produce some of the best video games ever created so their process works :) )