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The Banjo Kazooie Spiritual Successor Project Is No Longer Happening

Banjo Kazooie series composer Grant Kirkhope has announced during a Ask Me Anything thread on Reddit that the Banjo Kazooie spiritual successor isn’t happening anymore. Back in September 2012 former Rare employees were going to get together and create a spiritual successor to Banjo Kazooie and possibly get it funded on Kickstarter. Kirkhope now says that the project fell to bits once the developers got other jobs. Here’s what he had to say.

“The other guys actually had a secret meeting in a pub near Rare and we even got as far as having a character drawn up and a demo level type thing but it all fell to bits,” he stated. “Everyone’s got other jobs etc.”

55 thoughts on “The Banjo Kazooie Spiritual Successor Project Is No Longer Happening”

    1. What…. Who…. Why the hell…. Is nintendo not throwing $$$$ at grant kirkhope and that team to form a new studio under nintendo with their own creative reign. WTF nintendo? I’m so tired of iwata and his thumb up the ass approach to the industry. Casuals have moved on iwata, cellphones/tablets rule them now. Get back to the core gamers you LIED about when the wii U was first announced. I really don’t understand why the shareholders have not fired iwata. Creating a “new rare” under nintendo a umbrella would be a minor step forward in erasing the massive blunder of not buying the remaining 51% of rare back in the day. Let’s be real though, it won’t happen. Atleast not until iwata is out with his COL leap frogging crap.

      1. Nintendo didn’t keep Rare because the quality of their games was going downhill fast. They were dying a slow death before the buy out.

        1. Huh? How do you figure? Their games were only getting better, atleast until Microsoft stepped in. THEN games went downhill. Still, viva pinta was an excellent game along with starfox for gc, which was a completely different game that just had starfox swapped for the main character. This was probably due to a nintendo request, similar to DK racing, to add a nintendo character to make it a higher selling game. Gameplay was still solid in both, just neither really followed the story arc bc they weren’t developed with those characters stories in mind.
          Nintendo was ultimately stingy, headstrong, and jealous of Rares teams work. Old habits die hard i guess.

      2. Maybe because these guys aren’t trying hard enough? Nintendo should fly some executives out to Europe to find these guys and get to work on this.

      1. Microsoft butchered it..in fact, butchered everything that Rare was and had years ago plus Rare sold their souls away to the devil instead of sticking with Nintendo which do them in ultimately.

        1. Nintendo abandoned them. They could’ve bought the additional 51% of rare but chose not to. You can’t blamed rare for not wanting to sell another 2-5% to nintendo which they had been doing to raise funds for games (poor money managers) and then rare only being minority shareholder in their company. They just wanted to full sale and approached nintendo multiple times after Microsoft made offers. Nintendo is mostly at fault here, for being stingy and arrogant.

  1. That’s unfortunate. Oh well, the old games are still as fun as ever, and unlike apparently every other fan of the series, I actually enjoyed Nuts & Bolts.

      1. They said that they really want to get it on Wii U. They said that nothing is solid yet, but that they’re working with Nintendo and that they’re “pleasant to work with”

        But yeah, that’s about it.

  2. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  3. As much I would have liked to see a new Banjo Kazooie game. I am confused as to why it’s only been tagged under Wii U, when Rare’s IPs are with MS not Nintendo…..

      1. After that royal shitstorm Bolts & Nuts was, I doubt Rare or any former key Rare devs are gonna work for them or Crapbox anymore afterwards. Rare died years ago when they sold their souls away to the monopolistic devil Microsoft.

        But thank god Nintendo got David Wise back.

      2. Are you stupid or something? If Microsoft own the rights to Banjo Kazooie and Rare aren’t doing anything with it, then of course X1 isn’t getting anything out of it.

        Cannot believe you said that.

  4. Sad day….. :( Microsoft is just gonna ruin Banjo Kazooie even more than they have if anything else is made. Nintendo really needs to buy back some old Rare IP’s such as Banjo Kazooie, Jet Force Gemini, Conker, and what not. So many childhood memories have been destroyed by Microsoft.

  5. congratulations Microsoft you took one of the best developers from the 3d era of gaming the 64 days and slaughter them to nothingness fuck you Microsoft you wannabe videogame company rot.

    its funny nobody wants to buy a Nintendo console but wants remakes of Nintendo 64 classics for a Microsoft turd box

    1. This is why Microsoft and Xbox deserve to die in the gaming market and go back to making shitty Windows Vista/8-like OS.

  6. also this is definitely not Nintendo news this is Microsoft Xbox news they own rare they have the power for everything that is rare that’s why rare is shit

    1. plus Rare isn’t Rare anymore as all of the old Rare employees that worked for Nintendo back in the day work in other companies now lol which I guess is a bit explained by this article. I hate the new Rare, I hate how Microsoft just completely ruined my childhood, and I hope to god that Nintendo buys back the IP’s they rightfully deserve. ever since the 360 I’ve never been a big Microsoft fan, but I’m sure 90% of my hate for Microsoft has to do with completely ruining my childhood.

  7. Well it sounds like they weren’t too serious about the project in the first place if they were being whisked away by other developers. You can’t half ass a Banjo Kazooie spiritual successor. You are committed to do it all or nothing.

    I think this just goes to show that the former Rare we once knew is no longer alive. The Rare working for Microsoft is not even the original employees and judging by this recent information it sounds like most “actual” Rare employees have really spread few and far between. Perhaps they have even lost their spirit and uniqueness as well.

  8. Nintendo Or Nothing!

    I’m kinda sad that I never played Banjo Kazooie (or Tooie). I own them both, but never played them. Those N64 graphics are so harsh on the eyes. I can’t even enjoy playing the games that I loved on N64 because of the dark, blurry, polygonal graphics.

      1. Nintendo Or Nothing!

        I hope you’re not talking to me. Because when it comes to graphics, it DOES make a difference. The N64 makes me feel motion sick when playing now. My eyes actually hurt. I don’t mind NES and SNES graphics, but that Nintendo 64 had horrible graphics.

  9. Well there goes our hopes of having a Banjo-like game for future Nintendo systems. :(

    Microsoft, ever since they stepped into the market, they corrupted and destoryed the very core of what gaming use to be and now everyone and every studio/company is as shallow and selfish all about graphics and shit.

    This is why I believe Microsoft must leave the gaming market and kill that cancer Xbox forever. I just hope the new CEO lives up to his word and get rid of Xbox and hopefully the next company like Amazon restruct that DRM POS into a DVD player or their new FireTV box replacement.

  10. Pingback: Banjo Kazooie Spiritual Successor is No More | Gaming After Hours

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