Banjo-Kazooie is now playable on PlayStation – at least, a fan-made version created in Dreams – and it’s even caught the eye of Rare.
Banjo-Kazooie: Mumbomania has been created by William Butkevicius, and is just a single level made in homage to the N64 platformer. Butkevicius, incidentally, is a level designer at Ori and the Blind Forest developer Moon Studios, who created this project in their spare time.
Butkevicius described it as a “labour of love”, but doesn’t have plans to add to it. “I’d like to move away from big Dreams projects now, so unless I get the opportunity to work on an official Banjo-Threeie (which I would be thrilled to), this is it for now,” Butkevicius wrote on social media. Rare, are you listening?
Well actually, it is. The studio shared Butkevicius’ post, stating: “Put our fanciest hat on just so we could tip it to this. Incredible work!”
Gregg Mayles, Banjo-Kazooie’s director (who recently left Rare), also shared the post calling it “splendid”, while composer Grant Kirkhope shared it with the googly eyes emoji.
Butkevicius’ video shows the iconic bear and bird exploring an island level reminiscent of Treasure Trove Cove – it even has that terrifying shark. There are musical notes and jiggies (30!) to collect, platforming challenges and puzzles, and new characters to meet.
Perhaps most notable are the new transformations, including a rock golem and a skeletal fish. It took Butkevicius around 14 months and over 800 hours of work to create, adding: “A lot of the concepts were born out of issues I had with the original game, like ‘the transformations don’t feel fun enough to use’, or ‘going to the hut to transform is tedious’ and then tons of iteration to find good solutions!”
There’s some great jaunty music too from composer Duckenomics and brass ensemble The Game Brass, while PieceofCraft assisted with sculpting, animation, and logic.
The original Banjo-Kazooie was released for the N64 27 years ago and the last new release was Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts in 2008 for Xbox 360. It’s clear the original game has left a lasting impression, but could we see a new game in the series in future?
It seems unlikely, considering Mayles’ recent departure from Rare. Kirkhope also told Eurogamer there’s “better than zero but not much” of a chance the bird and bear will return.
The project is also a reminder that Media Molecule’s Dreams is still up and running. A report last year claimed PC and PS5 versions of the game were in development, but were later canned.
