Crash And Spyro Dev Wants To Partner With Team Xbox For A Crack At Banjo

At this point just give it to anybody! Ubisoft, Activision if you need to. What’s is worse than nothing, Microsoft or Nuts and Bolts?

Hell… give it to Project Dream, they have better ideas in a 1-minute video than Microsoft in 25 years.

http://youtu.be/xdXtmJVKpcg?si=JRwGcv98h4vv4zHN

Or give it to Playtonic!

We need a new Skylanders game from Toys for Bob first please, or a remaster of the older games without the requirement for the physical toys.

It's infuriating that Microsoft haven't even commissioned a Banjo remake at this stage. It seems like a low cost/effort idea to reignite the franchise and see how it sells.

@Yoshi3 well, there’s a lot that’s worse than nothing. When the name Banjo Kazooie fails to sell games because some developer made a crappy game… there’s even less chance we will ever get to see a good Banjo game.

Microsoft should just give the project to Playtonic and hand them a nice budget.

Please, not Toys for Bob. They clearly have an agenda when it comes to making games. Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie were created in a different time, when people had a different sense of humour. That humour is a huge part of what makes the series so memorable.

If Toys for Bob were to work on a new entry, they’d probably have to censor it to fit with modern sensibilities. Characters like Mumbo Jumbo, Humba Wumba, and Jolly Roger would almost certainly be changed. Just look at what they did with Tawna in Crash 4 — she had to be completely redesigned to match today’s standards.

Not only that, but the silly, juvenile jokes that defined the original games would likely be toned down or removed entirely, just in case someone somewhere might get offended. And let’s be honest, the last Crash game wasn’t great — terrible box placement, unfair difficulty, and it felt like it was trying too hard to fit into whatever meme was trending at the time.

No, I don’t want Banjo-Kazooie brought back by them — or really by anyone else right now. People have become too sensitive to enjoy this kind of game the way it was meant to be enjoyed.

This got me to thinking. When you think about it Donkey Kong Bananza is a sort of 'What if Nintendo tried to make a Rare game'. It's probably the inanimate objects with cartoony eyes.

Anyway, could you imagine if ActiBlizzion were the ones had acquired Rare instead of Microsoft (which apparently they almost did)? Man, they would have run that series into the ground where people would be sick of the franchise due to entries being of varying and samey quality

Toys for Bob made star control, another classic IP that activision sits on while they churn out endless call of duty drivel.

NOT these Devs!!!!! Spyro and Crash are ok, but they don’t reach the highs of Mario Odyssey for example. Nintendo would do better job at reviving Banjo!

Banjo is LONG due to come back. The first 2 were perfect, BUT i want playtonic to make it. Yooka laylee was good enough but i bet theyd make an incredible banjo threeie

How often has a dev said something like and it actually lead to anything?

I liked Crash 4, and I'm glad they toned back some of the questionable elements and obvious cultural appropriation. It didn't take away from the game and we all know better now. Plus the dumb humour was still in tact. It doesn't matter who were to bring it back, it's the 2020s they're not going to leave that questionable content in. You can debate censoring the old ones and remakes, I think there is reason for both sides of that argument, but brand new games have no excuse. We've moved on in design, tech, graphics and everything else, we should move on here.

Anyway I would love to see BK come back and Toys For Bob would be up there as my choice of devs to do it. They'll never do anything as bad as Nuts & Bolts and the original games are still there if you really cant play a game without casual racism from a bygone era.

@Ogbert
If the main goal nowadays is to avoid offending anyone, then the safest option would be to create nothing at all. With that approach, you’re guaranteed not to upset anyone. But in art, it doesn’t work like that — either everything is allowed, or nothing is. You can’t selectively choose what can and can’t be expressed. That’s not how art or creativity functions.

The Banjo-Kazooie ip has a long journey ahead of it. The appearence in Smash was a good start, but they need to keep going else they will be back to square one again. Anything faithful will do, I don't think it would be wise to reinvent the duo and leave folk wondering what has happened (especially after such a long wait.)

@RareFan Main goal or an easily avoidable mistake now that we know better?

Listen to yourself. You don't believe art can be made if not at the expense of perpetuating the belittlement of an oppressed minority?

What EXACTLY do you think Rare was trying to say with Humba Wumba? On an artistic level? Please do enlighten me? I have clearly missed the grand artistic statment that character brings.

Because, and maybe this is just me, but it seems to me that Humba Wumba was just one in a series of cheap throw away gags in a family game riddled with them? Just another little thing to make you giggle but in a time where the extent of the damage of that sort of humour and perpetuating that sort of stereotype wasn't fully realised.

But also let me ask you, why are we drawing the line here? In the late 90s? Why don't we just go back all the way and revert everything and all we've learned? Surely by the logic that we must preserve Humba Wumba for her artistic merit we should also preserve the act of the black and white minstrel? And bring back all the misogynistic humour of the 40s and 50s? After all if we don't we are censoring ourselves and there is no way possible art can be created! Certainly not one taking the form of a bear with a bird in his backpack trying to defeat a witch!

By your own very logic and words this is true and factual. In fact, by your own words and logic, because by the late 90s we HAD censored those things from earlier eras...Banjo Kazooie cannot be considered art or creatively valuable on any level. It has already succumbed to the dreaded censorship that makes art and creativity an impossibility. Which in turn means the adjustment and removal of such stereotypes is no big deal, and the only reason to keep them in would be because you like and enjoy racial stereotypes and misogyny?

Nintendo could buy the Banjo IP.

@Ogbert wow your post made me cringe. Its not as serious as you make it out to be. The devs didnt belittle anybody. Using tropes is not the same as belittleing them. And yes, banjo is ART

@RareFan I keep going back to crash 4 and I keep hating it everytime.

OMG. That would be amazing. I would love Toys for Bob to make a new 'Banjo Kazooie' game. The franchise deserves to have a comeback especially with all the far lesser popular older games getting remakes and sequels now after not having new entries for decades. It depends on whether Microsoft would allow them to do it though.

I have got more faith in us finally getting a Spyro the Dragon 4 and my Nieces loved the 'Reignited' trilogy and have been waiting for a new Spyro game too. 😀

@Rob3008 I remember reading a remake/remix type game was brought up, they had an example of having a giant queen ant or something like that in mumbos Mountain but they chose to do nuts and bolts instead.

@Ogbert
I wonder how many people were actually offended by Humba Wumba. It feels like another Speedy Gonzales or Apu situation — where just a small group made a lot of noise, and suddenly the character had to be retired because of the backlash. I’d bet most of the people who claim to be offended by the Banjo-Kazooie character weren’t even fans to begin with. I always question why we’re expected to censor ourselves to please people who never supported us in the first place.

@Lofoten It is a shame they didn't do that back in the 90s. I have no doubt if they did 'Banjo Kazooie' games would still be getting made now just like a lot of other long running series owned by Nintendo. Sadly the high ups at Microsoft seem to hate 'Banjo Kazooie' but won't sell it to other companies that want to make more games 'cause they know how much money they would make with it.

Toys For Bob with supervision from some of the original Rare team would be a dream come true scenario. Banjo is not a blockbuster series but it is a respected and established one in gaming culture. A new entry with the right talent and marketing would turn heads, especially if targeted a Switch 2 release alongside the expected Microsoft platforms.

never liked banjo tbh but I was obsessed w the og spyro trilogy as a kid. problem is I havent liked the look of the games since.

Based off what they’ve been teasing my theory is they are working on a new spyro with plans to work on a new banjo afterwards.

I don't care who gets it so long as Nintendo gets a version on their system... and it doesn't end up like Nuts 'n' Bolts...

The way microsoft is treating banjo kazooie, is for me like they Are sitting on Mario franchise and not using it.
Banjo kazooie is so popular and ton of fun, why arent they doing anything with it ? Or let Nintendo take over. So stupid and frustrating.

If I were Microsoft, I let them take a crack at it. Their Spyro and Crash remakes were fantastic and so was Crash 4.

@Rob3008 How do you know they haven't?

Phil Spencer said Banjo can only happen if he could find the right developer for it and that were like 3 years ago.

@RareFan Ah yes. "A minority's opinion does not matter because I am not that minority". "They aren't even fans anyway, so why does their opinion matter". "Oooh devil's advocate, maybe they aren't offended and we are just pushing that ourselves".

The character is racist and misogynistic. I'm not going to judge it for for when it was made, people on the whole did not know better and I'm sure nothing bad was intended. But intent and reality don't always align and in those cases we apologise, we learn and we move on, we make something new, something better. Maybe use some of that creativity you don't want restrained to work the character into something more interesting that a lazy stereotype where the joke is their race and gender.

Being socially aware is not a restriction on art, it's what art is for, to teach, to hold up a mirror, to allow us to see our own folly, to reveal it, to lampoon it and to help us learn from it. Art can be created even with restrictions, limitation can foster and grow creativity.

There is literally zero reason to keep these offensive stereotypes in games going forward. Keep the history of them in past games, I don't think retroactively censoring things is healthy and nobody is suggesting that. But going forward, fix those mistakes. Because that is what they are, mistakes. mistakes that may seem innocuous to those not affected by them, but can be deeply affecting to those who are.

@Cry_Zero As I've said in other posts, due to the time in which is was made I'm sure that's not the intention. But intent and reality don't always match up. But times have moved on and now we know these sorts of stereotypes are much more harmful that they seem, so going forward we don't need to use them. Keep the old ones there, history is important to preserve not edit. But don't perpetuate.

just because something doesn't affect you doesn't mean it doesn't affect anyone.

I’d absolutely love the games to come back! I was actually reminded of the games a bit when they showed off the first trailer for DK Bananza, especially the eyes on some of the objects, the fantasy worlds and the humor and expressiveness of the characters. Though it’s kinda shocking that they still haven’t gotten a studio on board for a new game, especially after they got into Smash and were well-received. Making and releasing remakes of the first two games shortly after that would have been a no-brainer.

@Toastmaster I mean it's been almost 20 years since Nuts & Bolts, they've had plenty of time.

I'm all for it. The Crash/Spyro trilogies were very decent looking remakes, and I'd like to see Banjo-Kazooie either treated to the same remake-love, or a proper sequel by people who seem to genuinely carry some love for that era of gaming.

Leaving Banjo-Kazooie on the table is the second weirdest choice Microsoft has made during their aquisition-spree IMO. The first one is not making a very urgent call to Obsidian the moment the Bethesda-purchase went through. I' would very much have liked a sequel to New Vegas.

I would love for them to bring these games back! Either as a remake Crash and Spyro style or as a new entry! It's never going to happen though.

As someone who enjoyed both crash and Spyro remake trilogies I’d be up for this.

Banjo-Kazooie, and Rayman first.
Then, all the others XD

@Davina_McCall ‼️YES‼️

it needs british humour. they won't be able to do it.

I have a great respect for the lads and lassies over at toys for bob, if they did get the chance to do banjo, I recon they’d probably do a pretty good job.

Though it’s criminal there hasn’t been a new Spyro title either… his remake trilogy sold really well, when do he get his modern sequel?

@Znake You can't really rightfully compare it to Mario Odyssey because these are remakes of Ps1 games from 1995-2000 not brand new games.

@Rob3008 You missed the memo that Rare refuse to touch anything they made in the past.
They only want to make new games, not sequels.

If you were a fan of Rare, you would already have known this as they said this several times the last 15 years.
I guess you are not a Rare fan since you missed it every time they said it.

And no Battletoads remake were not done by Rare, and neither are Perfect Dark 2026.

Rayman & Banjo

I dont know, i dont feel the need for a new banjo anymore. Would be cool to have him appear as a guest in a Donkey kong game, but asside from that no.