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Nintendo confirmed an official release date for Banjo-Kazooie on Nintendo Switch Online. Owners of the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack will get access to the classic Rare title on January 20, 2022. It will be available in all regions. Nintendo also ed a new trailer showcasing some gameplay of the Nintendo Switch port.

Banjo-Kazooie is a 3D platforming title that originally released for the N64 in 1998. The series later received a sequel, Banjo-Tooie, as well as other spin-off titles. Both Banjo and Kazooie have are some of the most popular characters of the N64 generation. They have also appeared in other Nintendo titles such as Super Smash Bros Ultimate.

Back in December 2021, Nintendo confirmed that Banjo-Kazooie would be the next N64 title to Nintendo Switch Online's Expansion Pack offering. The title follows other popular N64 games including the original Paper Mario, as well as Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Starfox 64.

You can check out the official Banjo-Kazooie Switch Online release date announcement trailer below:

https://youtu.be/RWrWuXE6RHw

The N64 games come packaged with a library of Sega Genesis games, as part of the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack offering. The expansion pack will cost $49.99 for a single hip, and $79.99 for a family hip.

Banjo-Kazooie will  Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack on January 20, 2022. The game is also available on the Nintendo 64 and Xbox 360.

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The next Nintendo Switch Online N64 Expansion Pack game has a release window. We now know when Banjo-Kazooie will show up on the Switch. It will appear in every region in January 2022. So long as someone subscribes to the optional, more expensive version of the service, they’ll get access to it immediately at launch.

Banjo-Kazooie is a 3D action-adventure game from Rare. Banjo’s little sister Tooty ended up being kidnapped by Gruntilda the witch. They have to save her before Gruntilda steels here good looks. This means visiting different worlds, finding collectibles, and also setting additional captured characters called Jinjos free. The game ended up spawning two sequels, Banjo-Tooie on the N64 and Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts for the Xbox One. There were also two GBA games, Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty’s Revenge and Banjo-Pilot.

Banjo’s on a mission to rescue his sister from the envious wicked witch Gruntilda!

Foil her selfish plan to snatch the beauty from Tooty in Banjo-Kazooie, available to #NintendoSwitchOnline + Expansion Pack in January! #Nintendo64 pic.twitter.com/pvPD4aRvwr

— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) December 10, 2021

This will mark the second major Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack addition since its launch. In December 2021, the original Paper Mario appeared in the game library.

Banjo-Kazooie will the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack lineup in January 2022. The game is immediately available for the Nintendo 64 and Xbox 360.

The post Banjo-Kazooie Nintendo Switch Online Release Window Confirmed appeared first on Siliconera.

Once again, the former Rare team at Playtonic Games have shot down rumors about a new Banjo-Kazooie game being developed by the studio. It took to Twitter to say the project isn’t happening. This marks the second time in the last six months that the company has set the record straight.

Here’s Playtonic’s statement. There is no ambiguity there. No new Banjo-Kazooie game is in development there, even though the company’s said they still love the series.

They're rumours.

We aren't working on a new Banjo game.

We're clarifying this because we don't like the idea of fans getting their hopes up. Sorry. https://t.co/p7GSpF07jG

— Playtonic (@PlaytonicGames) April 9, 2020

The last time this sort of rumor came up was in November 2019. That happened because Mumbo Jumbo creator Ed Bryan ed Playtonic and said he was coming “out of retirement.” People misinterpreted that and wondered if it meant more Banjo and Kazooie adventures.

The last official “new” Banjo-Kazooie game made is Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts from Rare. It launched on the Xbox 360 in 2008 and, while it started as a remake, it became an entirely new sequel to Banjo-Tooie.

While the characters haven’t had a new adventure lately, they have been making cameos in others! For example, the Xbox 360’s Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing has Banjo and Kazooie as a playable character. The duo also ed Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as part of the first season .

People with an Xbox One can play Banjo-Kazooie, Banjo-Tooie, and Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts quickly and easily via Rare Replay.

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Playtonic Games has issued a statement to dispel internet rumors that the developer might be working on a new Banjo-Kazooie game. The thought was going around after Ed Bryan, a Rare team member who created Mumbo Jumbo in Banjo-Kazooie and Dr. Puzz for Yooka-Laylee, officially ed Playtonic. Before he did, he shared a tweet showing a Microsoft bag he owned and saying had “come out of retirement.” As a result, Playtonic has reasserted its independence and said it isn’t working on Banjo-Kazooie.

Here is Playtonic Games’ statement, which was shared on its Twitter .

Hey everyone!

 

We wanted to address the speculation currently swarming our mentions. We hate to be the bearers of news that isn’t what you want to hear, but we thought it best to come out and say—we aren’t working on a new Banjo-Kazooie game and we remain an independent studio.

 

While we would love to work with the bear and bird again, that ball isn’t in our court. With that said, we are keen to continue progressing as a studio, carrying the experience of games we worked on, old and new, to create new characters and adventures for you to (hopefully) love.

 

We’re sorry if this isn’t what you wanted to hear from us, at first, we found it amusing that Ed Bryan’s bag is being used as serious “evidence,” but we reckon it wouldn’t be fair if we didn’t set the record straight.

 

Playtonic Games X

Playtonic consists almost entirely of former of Rare and first was founded in 2014. Its first game was Yooka-Laylee, a spiritual successor to the sorts of Banjo-Kazooie 3D platformers Rare was known for. Most recently, it released Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair on the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.

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With the Xbox One’s Rare Replay collection, Rare was able to share making-of videos that offered new insights into the creation of classic games. When it comes to Banjo-Kazooie, the developer said there were additional facts about the creation of the game that didn’t make it into the release. To help educate fans and share these extra stories, Rare has released a video that goes over five things people probably didn’t know about Banjo-Kazooie.

The twelve minute video covers a number of topics, starting with a discussion as to how Banjo-Kazooie’s musical intro was created. It also talks things carried over from Dream, offers information about the character’s voices and audio, a lost adventure starring Tooty, and how in-jokes ended up influencing the game.

Rare Replay is immediately available for the Xbox One.

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For its 30th anniversary, Rare has teamed up with production company iam8bit and Xbox to produce limited edition vinyl sets for the soundtracks to Battletoads, Banjo-Kazooie, and Perfect Dark.

Pre-orders for them open up at 10am PDT on Tuesday August 4th over on iam8bit’s store and they’re expected to sell out fast so get prepared for a rush at that time if you want any of them.

The Battletoads soundtrack, composed by David Wise, comes on a 180 gram vinyl with a gatefold jacket upon which Nick Gazin’s art work is spread. It’s limited to 3000 copies.

If you’re after Grant Kirkhope’s Banjo-Kazooie soundtrack, it’s also limited to 3000 copies, and comes on two LP 180 gram vinyls, with art work by Jacub Gagnon.

Finally, the Perfect Dark soundtrack by Grant Kirkhope, Graeme Norgate, and David Clynick, is also spread across two LP 180 gram vinyls and limited to 3000 copies.

Oh, and you may know that the Rare Replay collection comes out on August 4th for Xbox One. To celebrate this game launch, iam8bit has ed up with print company DKNG to offer a special screen print that represents all 30 games in the Rare Replay collection.

It’s 18x24 inches, hand-signed and numbered, and is limited to 400 copies. The pre-orders for that also open at 10am PDT on Tuesday, August 4th on iam8bit’s store.

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Microsoft are selling a Banjo Games Bundle via Xbox Live for the Xbox 360. It costs $14.99 / €14.99 and includes Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie. You can find it here.

$14.99 is quite the deal, since Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie each cost that much individually on Xbox Live.

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Unlike previous Banjo-Kazooie games, Nuts and Bolts is not a platformer.  Or rather, it's not just a platformer.  Banjo Kazooie Nuts and Bolts is vehicle creation game.  The game presents itself through a series of short missions. Most of these missions can only be completed with the aid of vehicles.

Luckily for me and my lack of construction skills, the game lets you start from a basic blueprint of the most simple vehicles: boats, helicopters, and carts. The more talented vehicle constructors may want to start from scratch, but I found it helpful to start from something that at least resembles something to sit in. Adding fitting modifications to pre-fabricated machinery also sped up the game.

For one mission, I had to pick up a bunch of lost employees ala Crazy Taxi.  I started off with a main tray body, added some wheels, a driver's seat, and two enger seats.  The first time I built this, I forgot to attach the enger seats to the actual cart, so the seats just rolled around helplessly. Don't forget to make sure all your vehicle's parts are connected to each other!

For another mission, I had to defend a particular landmark from enemies.  I wanted both a ranged weapon as well as a melee weapon, so I built this cart which has an egg-gun and a fist in front to ram into bad guys.  I think the body was a bit too long because it was pretty hard to steer into tight spaces.

This huge guy is a pusher vehicle that I used for a pretty painful mission.  I had to push a giant ice sculpture to a designated area, which was not easy to do.  The pusher vehicle, as it probably looks, is clumsy, which means I pushed the ice sculpture off a couple of cliffs before finally succeeding.

What I like about Nuts and Bolts is that while its focus is on driving silly vehicles around, it still retains its platformer roots. Showdown Town, the hub town of the game, requires some basic platformer skills to get to more advanced areas.  I usually get bored with platformers, so the driving parts provides enough change for me to stay interested in the game.

Images courtesy of Microsoft. Photos Siliconera/Louise.

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Late last night Microsoft put a demo of Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts on the Xbox Live Marketplace. Before you the 1 GB file forget all the jumping you did in the Nintendo 64 Banjo-Kazooie games. Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts is about building vehicles and using them in challenges to earn jigsaw pieces. While the vehicle building feature is neat my favorite part of the demo, which I believe was the E3 demo too, is the writing. Rare did a fantastic job with the script.

Images courtesy of Rare.

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I’m sure this news is everywhere now, but if you haven’t heard you get Banjo-Kazooie for Xbox Live Arcade for free and a few weeks early if you pre-order Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. The press release didn’t say which retailers were participating in the promotion. We asked a Microsoft representative and found out Gamestop, Amazon, Best Buy, and Game Crazy will be part of the Banjo-Kazooie giveaway. Other retailers will be part of the promotion too, but we can confirm these four today.

“Stop N’ Swop” connects the two games. Completing tasks in Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts unlocks items in the original Banjo-Kazooie. Microsoft hasn’t announced what features these are yet, but I like the idea of linking the two games. Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts only costs $39.99 when it comes out on November 14. That makes Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts cheaper than the average Wii game.

Images courtesy of Rare.

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Brandon Sheffield from Insert Credit asked me why Banjo moved so slowly while I was playing the E3 demo. I didn’t have an answer for him at the time, but after completing a few puzzle piece challenges I figured it out. Rare designed Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts as a game where you drive you-construct-them vehicles and not for platform jumping.

Getting from where one person dropped the controller to a challenge felt like a chore until I found a basic missile shooting truck rolled over on its side. I pressed the Y button to hop into it which changed the controls to driving mode. The right trigger moves the car forward and the left trigger moves it backwards. I drove around the level snagging flashing music notes and crashing into glass cubes for fun. When the truck toppled over I pressed the right bumper to push it back on its side.

When I found someone with a puzzle piece over their head he challenged “Bear” to do stunts with a springy car. The first move was to drift and make skid marks. The next was to jump in the air by pressing the A button and touch floating green circles. The controls may differ depending on how you set up your vehicle. A Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time style visual menu on the top right hand corner of the screen indicates what button activates which gadget. The spring loaded car has a strange sense of inertia in mid-air. It didn’t feel like it had weight since the car floated to the ground. Maybe the atmosphere in Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts is more viscous than Earth’s. The final task was to do flips and barrel rolls with the awkwardly light vehicle.

I spoke with Richard Mitchell from Xbox 360 Fanboy about Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts as he seemed to enjoy the game. He didn’t play the Nintendo 64 games so maybe his expectations are different from mine, but I the Banjo-Kazooie series as a platformer, not Lego Driving Challenge. Supposedly, there are platforming elements in the Xbox 360 game, but they weren’t implemented in the demo.

Images courtesy of Microsoft.

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Banjo-Kazooie is Microsoft’s family oriented holiday title for the Xbox 360 this year. It’s scheduled to come out in November with generated content as a key feature. Instead of building stages, Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts gives the bird-meets-bear-in-a backpack mascot character a set of tools. Player place wheels, wings, springs, egg guns and engines to create usable vehicles out of a hundred parts. If you don’t want to spend time engineering a solution in Mumbo’s Motors you can use the pre-built vehicles designed by Rare.

[youtube]https://youtube.com/watch?v=3hJfTQ2dBZA[/youtube] 

As seen in the trailer, the emphasis on created vehicles is certainly a change from the platforming roots of the Banjo-Kazooie franchise. The Xbox 360 game looks more like virtual Legoland. I welcome the change.

Images courtesy of Microsoft.

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