Rare Xbox Studio “Very pleased” with the arrival of Banjo-Kazooie with the key
It was a sweet and bitter moment yesterday when Banjo Kazooie You’ve accessed the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack Service.
How wonderful to see the iconic developers in the UK return to the Nintendo platform after so long. It’s now been nearly 20 years since Microsoft acquired Rare, and nearly 24 years since the original Banjo-Kazooie game was released on the N64, if you will.
Leigh Abbey, a writer and designer who joined Rare in the 1990s, used the game’s Switch Online version to reflect on the company’s Nintendo era — noting how “extremely pleased” Rare was to be able to connect with an old friend again to fetch him. The Bird and the Bear for a new generation of Nintendo:
“The issue of the resurgence of classic, rare games for the Switch audience is a question that people have been asking for a long time, so we are very pleased that we were able to work with Nintendo to bring Bear and Bird to this platform. “
And in case you were wondering, the Switch version is the “original” N64 as many will remember it:
“In the spirit of keeping the game just as it has along with the other available titles, this Banjo-Kazooie edition is the original Nintendo 64 edition as you remember it. And if you grew up with a generation of consoles later, well, we’re expecting a whole new wave of players to become a washer on Mumbo Jumbo, step away from the shark Snaker and encounter Gruntie’s Furnace Fun for the first time.”
In addition to the kind words shared on Rare’s blog, here are some other posts shared by Rare and some of the team members who have worked on Banjo-Kazooie:
Today, Rare is probably best known for serving Xbox and PC games sea of thieves. The team is currently working on evervilleA fictional title shrouded in mystery.
Will you try Banjo-Kazooie on Switch this weekend? What other rare N64 games would you like to return to the Nintendo hybrid platform? Tell us below.
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