It was a sweet and bitter moment yesterday when Banjo Kazooie You’ve accessed the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack Service.
It’s great to see the popular UK developer duo making a comeback on the Nintendo platform following so long. It’s now been nearly 20 years since Microsoft acquired Rare, and nearly 24 years since the original Banjo-Kazooie game was released on the N64, if you count.
Leigh Loveday, a writer and designer who joined Rare in the 1990s, used the Switch Online version of the game to reflect on the company’s Nintendo era — noting how “rarely pleased” Rare was that he might team up with his old friend once once more to bring Bird and Bear to a new generation of Nintendo:
“The issue of classic rare games coming to the Switch audience is a question that people have been asking for for a long time, so we’re very pleased that we can work with Nintendo to bring Bear and Bird to this platform.”
And in case you were wondering, the Switch version is the “original” N64 as many will remember it:
Keeping the game exactly as it was along with the other available titles, this Banjo-Kazooie edition is the original Nintendo 64 edition as you remember it. And if you grew up in a later console generation, well, we’re looking forward to a whole new wave of gamers being turned into a washer by Mumbo Jumbo, stepping away from Snacker the Shark and confronting Grunty’s Furnace Fun for the first time. “
In addition to the kind words shared on Rare’s blog, here are some other messages shared by Rare and some of the team members who worked on Banjo-Kazooie:
Nowadays, Rare is arguably the most popular Xbox and PC live service sea of thieves. The team is also currently working on EverwildA fictional title shrouded in mystery.
Are you going to try Banjo-Kazooie on Switch this weekend? What other rare N64-generation games would you like to see return to the Nintendo hybrid platform? Tell us below.
