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[IbizaPocholo]

Playtonic: “We are never using the term spiritual successor again”

Playtonic wants to be clear: its new Yooka-Laylee game may look a little like Donkey Kong Country, it may sound a bit l…

www.gamesindustry.biz

Playtonic wants to be clear: its new Yooka-Laylee game may look a little like Donkey Kong Country, it may sound a bit like Donkey Kong Country, and it may feature a few similar ideas, but Yooka-Laylee and The Impossible Lair is not a spiritual successor to Donkey Kong Country.

You can understand the confusion. Some of the original creators of Donkey Kong Country are working on it. And Playtonic's last game, 2017's Yooka-Laylee, was unashamedly a spiritual successor to Banjo-Kazooie -- another Rare classic from the 1990s.

"We are never saying spiritual successor again," Playtonic studio head Gavin Price tells GamesIndustry.biz. "It worked fantastically as a marketing beat for the first game, although it had some negative things with it, as well. But we need to stand on our own two feet more. We are going to make lots of games in lots of different genres for hopefully many years to come. You'll always be able to point back to something in the past and go 'oh, it's a bit like that then'. That's always going to happen. We need to focus on what makes our games relevant and unique."

Check the link for more.

 

[meirl]

Good. I hate that term. Especially with Kickstarter. Just awful term. Never use it.

 

[Shaqazooloo]

Good on them, they need to form their own identity and not just simply be the studio that makes classic rare games.

 

[TLZ]

Good.

 

[angelic]

Yuka Laylee and the Impossible Lair will also ship with a 4 meg upgrade pak.

 

[Fox Mulder]

Good on them, they need to form their own identity and not just simply be the studio that makes classic rare games.

They founded the company with that identity, even their logo is supposed to make you think classic Rare.

Yooka Laylee was just bad. Some people call the genre dated but the game also missed the Banjo Kazooie mark in many design areas. I don't blame them for going in a different direction, but of course people are going to think Donkey Kong Country.

 

[BruceCM]

Yooka Laylee was just bad.

I liked it, although I never played Banjo Kazooie.... Less interested in this 2D one, though

 

[brap]

Good on them for lowering people's standards because they know it's not gonna be great.

 

[Nymphae]

Weird thing to say I think. I never understood that as a marketing term, it just is what it is, some games are successors to older stuff and if there are similarities, they were described as spiritual sequels in previews. It seems pretty self explanatory and I'm surprised anyone takes issue with the use of the term.

 

[Kenpachii]

Lol the only reason people cared about that soulless first game was simple for the fact that it was a spiritual successor towards banjo.

 

[MiyazakiHatesKojima]

I actually love that term "Spiritual Successor" but I can understand what they mean. I liked how Bioshock was considered a spiritual successor to System Shock 2.

 

[hariseldon]

Agree that Banjo Kazooie was bad, it was just fucking dull. Nothing wrong with the genre though, give me Croc or give me death.

Edit: not banjo kazooie, yooka laylee. Need sleep.

 

[Codes 208]

Lol the only reason people cared about that soulless first game was simple for the fact that it was a spiritual successor towards banjo.

And it didnt live up to that, so they got spanked for it. Im not surprised theyre going this route due to that. Trying to do the same thing again by saying how this new one is a spiritual successor of DKC would only start shit if this shits the bed again.

 

[JimmyJones]

Agree that Banjo Kazooie was bad, it was just fucking dull. Nothing wrong with the genre though, give me Croc or give me death.

How can you say Banjo was dull then praise Croc? I loved me some Croc on PS1 but Banjo was the absolute shit!

 

[Punished Miku]

Anything that decreases nostalgia is good in my book.

 

[hariseldon]

How can you say Banjo was dull then praise Croc? I loved me some Croc on PS1 but Banjo was the absolute shit!

Eugh brainfart, I meant yooka laylee. Blame lack of sleep.

 

[Chairman Tickles]

Anything that decreases nostalgia is good in my book.

Are you saying that Smash Bros Ultimate is bad?

 

[Woo-Fu]

You'll keep making them, just not be so bald-faced about it. OK, I guess? Maybe I'm missing something.

 

[IbizaPocholo]

Playtonic Games wants to develop more Yooka-Laylee titles, "we could work on any kind of game, a racing game like Mario Kart or a shooter like Splatoon"

Potential spiritual successor to Diddy Kong Racing?

gonintendo.com

 

[Animagic]

Playtonic: “We are never using the term spiritual successor again”

Playtonic wants to be clear: its new Yooka-Laylee game may look a little like Donkey Kong Country, it may sound a bit l…

www.gamesindustry.biz

Playtonic wants to be clear: its new Yooka-Laylee game may look a little like Donkey Kong Country, it may sound a bit like Donkey Kong Country, and it may feature a few similar ideas, but Yooka-Laylee and The Impossible Lair is not a spiritual successor to Donkey Kong Country.

You can understand the confusion. Some of the original creators of Donkey Kong Country are working on it. And Playtonic's last game, 2017's Yooka-Laylee, was unashamedly a spiritual successor to Banjo-Kazooie -- another Rare classic from the 1990s.

"We are never saying spiritual successor again," Playtonic studio head Gavin Price tells GamesIndustry.biz. "It worked fantastically as a marketing beat for the first game, although it had some negative things with it, as well. But we need to stand on our own two feet more. We are going to make lots of games in lots of different genres for hopefully many years to come. You'll always be able to point back to something in the past and go 'oh, it's a bit like that then'. That's always going to happen. We need to focus on what makes our games relevant and unique."

Check the link for more.

The new Yooka Laylee game is excellent. I’ll play whatever their next game is no matter what.

 

[FranXico]

"You got us! We won't try to sell on nostalgia again. Next time, we'll try to make a good game."

 

[Hugare]

I'm loving the impossible lair, but it is a reskined Tropical Freeze, all the way

The overworld is different, but everything else is just like TF

 

[Spukc]

Good on them
I liked the impossible lair.
But it has no right to stand next to dkc 1 2 and 3

The difficulty curve is amateurish.
But i def keep what they make on my radar

 

[SweetShark]

How the Hell they want to accomplish that after the literally "baptised" they own series a Banjo-Kazooie like game AND the characters and world are just similar to ignore it.
They is no problem at all if you like to make a good game base on that.
The Devs know they had failed with their first game and they try now to hide their big words.
Sorry for being negative.

 

[BlackTron]

The term spiritual successor makes a lot of sense and has a meaning. They just realize now that it's smarter to avoid comparisons to legendary games.

If they didn't have such big shoes to fill, people might look at their work less critically.

Even if they don't use the term, the first game was obviously a spiritual successor to Banjo and the new game is DKC...

If their next game is an FPS called Joanna Laylee 006, they can call it whatever they want but it's a spiritual successor lol...

If they want to forge a new identity, they need to do something new. The phrase doesn't matter.

 

[Birdo]

Great news.

Now let's kill "Metroidvania".

 

[-Arcadia-]

I'm loving the impossible lair, but it is a reskined Tropical Freeze, all the way

The overworld is different, but everything else is just like TF

So, it’s a Rare (in a sense) game. : P

Doing what Nintendo has done in a different way, has been their modus operandi since the beginning. Of course, Rare always put an enjoyable spin on things. Not sure if that’s the case with this one, having not played it yet.

 

[BlackTron]

Great news.

Now let's kill "Metroidvania".

Castlevania on GBA were some of my favorite games at the time, but I roll my eyes every time I hear "Metroidvania" now. It's become dime a dozen cheap garbage plugging the success of Metroid and Castlevania.

 

[Alexios]

Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair is a brand-new platform adventure from some of the key creative talent behind 'Donkey Kong Country'.

Just because the don't spell out "spiritual successor" to deflect criticism if people don't find them as good as the oldies (it's just different guyz, we don't simply copy!) doesn't mean they've at all changed their intent to capitalize on nostalgia. Which is fine, but embrace it honestly, not with such bs.

 

[BlackTron]

Doing what Nintendo has done in a different way, has been their modus operandi since the beginning.

 

[Deputy Moonman]

Let's be honest here. Trying to make another game similar to Banjo Kazooie wasn't the problem. They just didn't deliver the goods so to speak. That genre of games really could use a few more entries imo and I'd still love to see another Banjo Kazooie.

 

[HeresJohnny]

Agree that Banjo Kazooie was bad, it was just fucking dull. Nothing wrong with the genre though, give me Croc or give me death.

Edit: not banjo kazooie, yooka laylee. Need sleep.

LOL I was gonna say that Banjo’s last level was better than most platformers from that era in their entirety. Loved that game.

 

[phil_t98]

I liked it, although I never played Banjo Kazooie.... Less interested in this 2D one, though

I am more interested in the 2D one as we don’t have many games like that this gen

 

[trikster40]

Not a fan of the term “spiritual successor” anyway. It gets thrown onto everything these days. Let’s face it, at this point in gaming, EVERYTHING draws inspiration from something.

 

[Scotty W]

So they called their first two games 'spiritual successors' as part of a marketing plan to earn money to spend on new, original games?

 

[Dr.brain64]

Can I play without the expansion pack?

 

[Juke Joint Jezebel]

Spiritual Successor is a term that can make or break expectations of your games, so they're smart not to use that lingo again.

 

[Caffeine]

I dont think i've ever seen a spiritual successor surpass the original anyway.

 

[zenspider]

They can say whatever they want, the are making spiritual succcessors to beloved games - trying to anyway.

 

[lock2k]

What about spiritual boomers?