Friday, May 1

Banjo-Kazooie spiritual successor surpasses Kickstarter goal in 40 minutes

Apparently, no love has been lost for some of the original Rare Ltd. staffers who worked on the Banjo-Kazooie video games of the '90s. A team of B-K veterans, including that series' artistic and programming leads, took to Kickstarter on Friday to launch a very similar-looking game, and they only needed 40 minutes to surpass their funding goal of £175,000.

The new game resembles Banjo-Kazooie in everything but name, including a cartoony duo of one big hero and one little helper (in this case, a lizard-ish creature and a bat instead of a bear and a bird), a xylophone-laden score, and a 3D platforming quest with tons of collectibles. Even its new name, Yooka-Laylee, echoes the original's musical overtones—ukelele, get it?

The team at Playtonic Games is made up of six former Rare staffers in all, led by Chris Sutherland, the lead programmer of Donkey Kong Country and both N64 Banjo-Kazooie games, and Steve Mayles, the man who created B-K's original character designs. That team began a promotional blitz earlier this year to get fans excited about a B-K "spiritual successor," and they weren't shy about stoking nostalgic fires for fans who have become disappointed with Rare games in recent years. "Imagine there’s an alternative timeline where Rare became independent instead of being bought by Microsoft," Playtonic co-founder and Viva Piñata designer Gavin Price said to Edge Magazine. "What would that company be like? What would it have gone on to become?" (That interview made no mention of the eventual Microsoft-produced B-K sequel, Nuts & Bolts.)

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