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Phil Spencer Played A New Game From Rare Today

J

Jobbs

Banned
Lovely Salsa said:
Battletoads!!

Believe!

Hope its Battletoads, man it brings back memories. Never made it past this stage even tho I played it 1000 times

Battletoads_gameplay.jpg
Click to expand...

I made it past this, and I did it with a weird, cheap third party NES joystick!

if it IS battletoads, I hope they embrace what made battletoads memorable in the first place - a strange, creative, genre bending platformer/beatemup game with ludicrous difficulty spikes.
 
Yoshi

Yoshi

Headmaster of Console Warrior Jugendstrafanstalt
REMEMBER CITADEL said:
I'd still prefer a new IP.
Click to expand...

MS has quite a few new IPs on offer, recently, Sunset Overdrive. It's not like Banjo would be a sequel to a series from a super-common genre that sees numerous releases every year. Considering the last good Collectathon was 2003, more than ten years ago, I'm definitely thinking a new Banjo beats new IP, even if I was to like the new IP.

@derFeef: Of course, they could do a new collectathon IP, but what would be the point, if they already have the greatest collectathon IP under their hood, mostly unused for more than ten years?
 
G

Gambit 1138

Banned
I hope its not another viva piñata or in a genre I have no interest in (like strategy). I'm down for just about anything else though old IP, new IP, shooter, fighting game, racing game, brawler, etc.

I just want the warm fuzzies RARE games used to give me. There snow levels were always off the chains in terms of graphics and music.
 
Yoshi

Yoshi

Headmaster of Console Warrior Jugendstrafanstalt
Considering he is touting the name Rareware all the time, this label was first used (as far as I know) in Donkey Kong Country and last used in Banjo-Kazooie Grunty's Revenge (here I'm certain). So if he deliberately chose it to say it's a sequel to one of the games in that era, let's have a look at the list from Wikipedia of all games released in that span:

Donkey Kong Country Platform Super Nintendo Entertainment System Nintendo 1994[71]
Killer Instinct Fighting Arcade Midway 1994[72]
Monster Max Platform Game Boy Titus Software 1995[73]
Donkey Kong Land Platform Game Boy Nintendo 1995[74]
Killer Instinct Fighting Super Nintendo Entertainment System Nintendo 1995[75]
Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest Platform Super Nintendo Entertainment System Nintendo 1995[76]
Killer Instinct Fighting Game Boy Nintendo 1995[77]
Killer Instinct 2 Fighting Arcade Midway 1995[78]
Ken Griffey, Jr.'s Winning Run Sports Super Nintendo Entertainment System Nintendo 1996[79]
Donkey Kong Land 2 Platform Game Boy Nintendo 1996[80]
Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! Platform Super Nintendo Entertainment System Nintendo 1996[81]
Killer Instinct Gold Fighting Nintendo 64 Nintendo 1996[82]
Blast Corps Action Nintendo 64 Nintendo 1997[83]
GoldenEye 007 First-person shooter Nintendo 64 Nintendo 1997[84]
Donkey Kong Land III Platform Game Boy Nintendo 1997[85]
Diddy Kong Racing Racing Nintendo 64 Nintendo 1997[86]
Banjo-Kazooie Platform Nintendo 64 Nintendo 1998[87]
Conker's Pocket Tales Adventure Game Boy Color Nintendo 1999[88]
Jet Force Gemini Third-person shooter Nintendo 64 Rare 1999[89]
Donkey Kong 64 Platform Nintendo 64 Nintendo 1999[90]
Mickey's Racing Adventure Racing Game Boy Color Nintendo 1999[91]
Donkey Kong GB: Dinky Kong & Dixie Kong Platform Game Boy Color Nintendo 2000[92]
Perfect Dark First-person shooter Nintendo 64 Nintendo 2000[93]
Perfect Dark Action Game Boy Color Nintendo 2000[94]
Donkey Kong Country Platform Game Boy Color Nintendo 2000[95]
Mickey's Speedway USA Racing Nintendo 64 Nintendo 2000[96]
Banjo-Tooie Platform Nintendo 64 Nintendo 2000[97]
Conker's Bad Fur Day Action Nintendo 64 Rare 2001[98]
Mickey's Speedway USA Racing Game Boy Color Nintendo 2001[99]
Star Fox Adventures Action-adventure Nintendo GameCube Nintendo 2002[100]
Donkey Kong Country Platform Game Boy Advance Nintendo 2003[101]
Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge Platform Game Boy Advance THQ 2003[102]

Bolded are the games where Rare should still have all rights and no licensing would be needed. So it would boil down to:
- Banjo
- Conker
- Perfect Dark
- Jet Force Gemini
- Blast Corps
- (Killer Instinct) Already knowingly in active development, I doubt they'd slot another Killer Instinct against their own Season 2.
- (Monster Max) did not use the Rareware label, although it was seemingly released after DKC.

Of this list, I'd obviously prefer a new Banjo, but Conker and Blast Corps I'd also gladly take :). Perfect Dark and Jet Force Gemini I would not want to play though. JFG played horribly on N64 (the controls are so horrible, I never want to play this again) and I don't like fps, so Perfect Dark is worthless to me anyway.

EDIT: Oh and I've underlined the games where Gregg Mayles was involved. The result is nice for me: The only bolded, underlined games are Banjo-Kazooie, Banjo-Tooie, Banjo: Grunty's Revenge and Conker's Bad Fur Day (though his involvment in Conker and Grunty's Revenge were rather small as far as I understand).
 
G

GRaider81

Member
I missed out on Banjo, can't remember why really as I had an N64 at the time. Must have been 17 or so.

Im curious to why the game is so loved? I'm also curious about those who played it back then, 16 years on are you still interested in a new one?

I understand certain games and IPs have timeless appeal but is banjo one of them?
 
R

REMEMBER CITADEL

Banned
Raider1874 said:
I missed out on Banjo, can't remember why really as I had an N64 at the time. Must have been 17 or so.

Im curious to why the game is so loved? I'm also curious about those who played it back then, 16 years on are you still interested in a new one?

I understand certain games and IPs have timeless appeal but is banjo one of them?
Click to expand...

I first played the original via the XBLA update several months ago. It's still a very fun game, although in some ways it's dated (I'm not talking about the technical aspects, of course those are dated). I'd say there's lot of nostalgia involved in people asking for another Banjo platformer, but the world and characters are all very charming, and the series could be updated into an enjoyable modern platforming game. Purists will probably scoff at the very mention of any sort of modernization, though.
 
M

Monty Mole

Member
Phil: Please let Rare make a proper Banjo game and don't force them to shoe-horn in stupid gameplay gimmicks and ruin it like with N&B.
 
A

abadguy

Banned
Monty Mole said:
Phil: Please let Rare make a proper Banjo game and don't force them to shoe-horn in stupid gameplay gimmicks and ruin it like with N&B.
Click to expand...

Why do people assume they were "forced" to make N&B as opposed to choosing to make that sort of game on their own?
 
Yoshi

Yoshi

Headmaster of Console Warrior Jugendstrafanstalt
Raider1874 said:
I missed out on Banjo, can't remember why really as I had an N64 at the time. Must have been 17 or so.

Im curious to why the game is so loved? I'm also curious about those who played it back then, 16 years on are you still interested in a new one?

I understand certain games and IPs have timeless appeal but is banjo one of them?
Click to expand...

I can at least tell you why I love Banjo. Let's get the superficial stuff said right away: It has a fantastic sense of humour, great music, and a unique atmosphere (strongly supported by the aforementioned points). Gameplay wise it's the perfection of the collectathon principle. Medium sized, but freely explorable worlds with a unique gameplay touch via transformations in almost every level. The game perfectly understands the collectathon design principle in that it uses its smaller collectibles (notes) as ways to structure the game, showing the paths to the main goals (puzzle pieces) and highlighting smaller points of interest. The puzzle pieces are well-planned through and none are placed in the world without thought. So Banjo is dense design-wise, yet rich in content and has a fantastic flow and a well executed structure to guide the player through the game without forcing him to just follow one linear, set out path or a compass on a mini-map.
 
Riky

Riky

$MSFT
abadguy said:
Why do people assume they were "forced" to make N&B as opposed to choosing to make that sort of game on their own?
Click to expand...

They have already said they were originally making a remake of Banjo in the style of Conker Reloaded, then they decided it was a stale formula, they even tease that at the beginning of Nuts and Bolts when you start collecting notes. From what I remember another Team was making Nuts and Bolts and that got greenlit with Banjo added in, it wasn't originally a Banjo game. If they would have had the Lego licence Nuts and Bolts could have been huge.

So yeah your right, they chose themselves to make Nuts and Bolts.
 
Yoshi

Yoshi

Headmaster of Console Warrior Jugendstrafanstalt
REMEMBER CITADEL said:
I first played the original via the XBLA update several months ago. It's still a very fun game, although in some ways it's dated (I'm not talking about the technical aspects, of course those are dated). I'd say there's lot of nostalgia involved in people asking for another Banjo platformer, but the world and characters are all very charming, and the series could be updated into an enjoyable modern platforming game. Purists will probably scoff at the very mention of any sort of modernization, though.
Click to expand...
Please explain why you think it's dated and what modernization should entail. I would say that Banjo-Kazooie even has a way more clever way of structuring the game than most modern games that either are completely linear anway (which is fine by me, but then the game should focus on mechanical aspects, like a 2D platformer for instance), guide you via a compass or speech through a huge, but mechanically mostly empty world (think Assassin's Creed) or just put you into a huge world without giving you any good pointers where to go.
 
Yoshi

Yoshi

Headmaster of Console Warrior Jugendstrafanstalt
big_z said:
could also be viva piñata. the turn around time on rare not having anything to phil playing is why id put money on viva over banjo.
Click to expand...

It's been a year since Kinect Sports Rivals was done, if they reuse the engine from KSR (or a 360 game, but that'd need some porting still), they should definitely have something playable right now, don't you think? And touting "Rareware" all the time for a new Viva Piñata would be rather strange, considering that one came way, way after Rare wasn't calling itself Rareware anymore and is also nothing like any game from the Rareware era (still, I think it's an incredible achievement that they managed to make a game from a genre I absolutely hate, simulation, so well that I even had fun with it).
 
D

Dabanton

Member
Banjo platformer?

Uhh great. A game everyone will say they want and will buy X1's for etc and then won't buy.

Nostalgia is good. But I'd like Rare to be making something new. Rare can create amazing lush worlds. Even if you hate it, Kinect Sports Rivals looks bloody beautiful in motion.

Can you imagine that kind of environmental artstyle on a huge adventure game.
 
B

big_z

Member
Yoshi said:
It's been a year since Kinect Sports Rivals was done, if they reuse the engine from KSR (or a 360 game, but that'd need some porting still), they should definitely have something playable right now, don't you think? And touting "Rareware" all the time for a new Viva Piñata would be rather strange, considering that one came way, way after Rare wasn't calling itself Rareware anymore and is also nothing like any game from the Rareware era (still, I think it's an incredible achievement that they managed to make a game from a genre I absolutely hate, simulation, so well that I even had fun with it).
Click to expand...

actually its been about 6 months since Kinect sports less than that since phil tweeted saying rare is still figuring out what they wanted to do next. not exactly a whole lot of time to get a banjo platformer in a playable state. maybe a banjo racing game but im still betting on viva.
 
R

rrc1594

Member
big_z said:
actually its been about 6 months since Kinect sports less than that since phil tweeted saying rare is still figuring out what they wanted to do next. not exactly a whole lot of time to get a banjo platformer in a playable state. maybe a banjo racing game but im still betting on viva.
Click to expand...

It's Banjo
 
Yoshi

Yoshi

Headmaster of Console Warrior Jugendstrafanstalt
Dabanton said:
Banjo platformer?

Uhh great. A game everyone will say they want and will buy X1's for etc and then won't buy.
Click to expand...
I can guarantee you, I will buy the game and had my fiancée not demanded an Xbox One because of Fantasia, I would have bought the console that very day, too. Moreover, if it really is a Banjo-platformer, I can also guarantee you that a good friend of mine will be buying an Xbone solely for that game, too. He did the same with a 360 for Sonic Unleashed (not Banjo Nuts & Bolts though, because he played it at my house and decided that vehicle building is utter shit. He still bought the game because it's Banjo but he wouldn't have bought a console for that).

big_z said:
actually its been about 6 months since Kinect sports less than that since phil tweeted saying rare is still figuring out what they wanted to do next. not exactly a whole lot of time to get a banjo platformer in a playable state. maybe a banjo racing game but im still betting on viva.
Click to expand...
Kinect Sports Rivals was done at the end of last year as far as I know. Also the tweet could also just mean that they had more than one project in preparation and then decided on one after the last Spencer tweet.
 
D

Durock

Member
Gregg was also the lead designer on Battletoads, so there is that possibility. And if you also recall, Battletoads was Phil's answer when asked one time his favorite game from Rare was. Couple all of that with what he said in a recent podcast about "hearing whispers of their project and Rare wanting it to be a surprise".... Battletoads is the more likely candidate. I'd much prefer Banjo, but I'm okay with Zitz and crew.
 
K

kejigoto

Banned
"As it should be"

I like how Phil states that like Microsoft hasn't been the one in charge and calling the shots over what projects they tackle and where the bulk of their focus goes. At this point I feel like it is too late to make Rare a studio that is something to write home about. Microsoft has done nothing but squander that potential and now those who make up Rare are none of the originals who made the studio so amazing back in the Super Nintendo and Nintendo 64 days.

Kind of feels like a day late and a dollar short at this point. Rare isn't what it used to be so announcing that Rare is making a uniquely Rare game doesn't amount to much more than squat. A uniquely Rare game is a Kinect Sports title these days and that's about it.
 
R

rrc1594

Member
kejigoto said:
"As it should be"

I like how Phil states that like Microsoft hasn't been the one in charge and calling the shots over what projects they tackle and where the bulk of their focus goes. At this point I feel like it is too late to make Rare a studio that is something to write home about. Microsoft has done nothing but squander that potential and now those who make up Rare are none of the originals who made the studio so amazing back in the Super Nintendo and Nintendo 64 days.

Kind of feels like a day late and a dollar short at this point. Rare isn't what it used to be so announcing that Rare is making a uniquely Rare game doesn't amount to much more than squat. A uniquely Rare game is a Kinect Sports title these days and that's about it.
Click to expand...

Is new talent unable to come to Rare?
 
J

JaggedSac

Member
kejigoto said:
"As it should be"

I like how Phil states that like Microsoft hasn't been the one in charge and calling the shots over what projects they tackle and where the bulk of their focus goes. At this point I feel like it is too late to make Rare a studio that is something to write home about. Microsoft has done nothing but squander that potential and now those who make up Rare are none of the originals who made the studio so amazing back in the Super Nintendo and Nintendo 64 days.

Kind of feels like a day late and a dollar short at this point. Rare isn't what it used to be so announcing that Rare is making a uniquely Rare game doesn't amount to much more than squat. A uniquely Rare game is a Kinect Sports title these days and that's about it.
Click to expand...

Yeah, its a shame new developers can, in no way, be as good as old developers.
 
Riky

Riky

$MSFT
kejigoto said:
"As it should be"

now those who make up Rare are none of the originals who made the studio so amazing back in the Super Nintendo and Nintendo 64 days.
Click to expand...

Apart from the fact that the thread is talking about Gregg Mayles presenting the game who is one of the "originals" but carry on.
 
Yoshi

Yoshi

Headmaster of Console Warrior Jugendstrafanstalt
kejigoto said:
"As it should be"

I like how Phil states that like Microsoft hasn't been the one in charge and calling the shots over what projects they tackle and where the bulk of their focus goes. At this point I feel like it is too late to make Rare a studio that is something to write home about. Microsoft has done nothing but squander that potential and now those who make up Rare are none of the originals who made the studio so amazing back in the Super Nintendo and Nintendo 64 days.

Kind of feels like a day late and a dollar short at this point. Rare isn't what it used to be so announcing that Rare is making a uniquely Rare game doesn't amount to much more than squat. A uniquely Rare game is a Kinect Sports title these days and that's about it.
Click to expand...
Have you seen my list above? Gregg Mayles was the team leader for DKC 1 & 2, as well as Banjo 1 & 2 and has worked on several other classic Rare games such as Conker. None of the originals who made the studio so amazing is just wrong.
 
Riky

Riky

$MSFT
big_z said:
could also be viva piñata. the turn around time on rare not having anything to phil playing is why id put money on viva over banjo.
Click to expand...

Rare has at least two teams as they have another studio in Digbeth (Birmingham UK) as well as the main HQ in Twycross. Twycross is pretty big so could hold two itself.
 
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