Banjo-Kazooie Spiritual Successor

Re-releases aside, it's been a very long time since Rare brought gamers a legitimate Banjo-Kazooie platformer. The most diehard fans have seen of the long-dormant franchise appeared in the form of a spin-off called Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, and while it was a decent distraction, the game simply did not live up to the lineage of the original N64 classics. Microsoft may have no current plans for series, but a handful of former Rare developers who worked on the original games would love to take one more crack at the universe.

Sadly, as previously mentioned, Microsoft owns the rights to Banjo-Kazooie and doesn't appear to want to surrender ownership anytime soon, so the group of determined Rare Ware veterans have announced that they plan on making a "spiritual successor" to everyone's favorite bird and bear combo — provided they can get enough support from the community.

So far the project has Grant Kirkhope (the series' composer) and artist Steven Hurst on board, which means that fans of the original are in for a very authentic Banjo-Kazooie-inspired atmosphere. Despite being assured a very familiar look and feel, this game is in no way affiliated with Rare or Microsoft, so this will not be the Banjo-Threeie that fans have been longing after for the past decade or so.

Development on the title hasn't even begun yet, but the staffers created a Twitter account in order to gauge the interest in the project. The Twitter handle, for anyone hoping to show support for the game, is @MingyJongo, and their follower count has continued to grow exponentially since gaming news sites got wind of this story.

"So, what is this twitter thing all about? Right. Firstly, it is to test the waters really, about whether anyone would even think making a game that shares that same kind of humour, silly characters, fun game play, great tunes and all that stuff that we enjoy making."

Right now it appears as if Unity will be the engine used in this "spiritual successor," which oddly enough comes shortly after Nintendo announced that it'll support Unity on its upcoming Wii U console. Whether or not this ties into the plans of the small development team is unknown, but it would be great to see some former Rare staff return to work on a platform-exclusive for the company that gave them their start. That being said, chances are it'll also arrive as a multi-platform title for Xbox 360, PS3, or PC; provided it gets the necessary funding.

"#unity will probably be perfect for our spiritual successor. I'm thinking keeping level of detail and googly eyes close to the original."

There's not much additional information on the spiritual follow-up to Banjo-Twooie, but word is that it may land on Kickstarter in the near future. In the meantime, fans should follow Mingy Jongo on Twitter to show their support, and stay tuned to Game Rant for more information on the currently unnamed game.

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Follow me on Twitter @TheRileyLittle for more news on the spiritual successor to Banjo-Kazooie, as well as all other gaming news.

Source: Mingy Jongo