While Xbox has been buying other studios to bring their titles exclusively to Xbox, they also have a large pile of franchises that haven’t seen the light in a long time.Bringing back these franchises would not only bring amazing games to the Xbox platform, it would also mean reaching out to plenty of new gamers.
In 1998, Rare developed a platform video game featuring the dynamic duo of a bear named Banjo and a bird called Kazooie for the Nintendo 64. Since then, there have only been two other mainline entries into the Banjo-Kazooie franchise: its sequel Banjo-Tooie in 2000 and Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts in 2008. All three were developed by Rare, which Microsoft now owns.Microsoft is in dire need of a fantastic platformer. Nintendo has Mario, Yoshi, and Kirby to fill that void while PlayStation has Astro from Astro Bot, yet Microsoft doesn’t have a franchise to rival the other platforms.This is where Banjo-Kazooie and Rare come into play. While Rare works on updates to Sea of Thieves and their upcoming game Everwild, we feel that they should start a smaller team to start development on a Banjo-Kazooie reboot.
Another game developed by Rare, Viva Piñatais a life simulation game that has the player tending to a neglected garden as they breed piñatas based on real-world animals. The original game, which was released in 2006 alongside a television show, received good reviews and has led to several sequels.In a world where Animal Crossing: New Horizons took over 2020 and is continuing to sell incredibly strong, this is the perfect time to bring back Viva Piñatabut expand it to compete with Animal Crossing. The key is to let Piñata Island be the entire playing field so the game can mimic Animal Crossing, but with Piñata. It can still have the heavy gardening aspect of the original game, but it would be one of several mini-games that a person can play to keep up with the status of their island.
Following the Rare theme established, let’s bring back Conker. Another of Rare’s platformer series, Conker put players in the shoes of the titular red squirrel who was consumed by greed and struggled with a drinking problem.Though first introduced in Diddy Kong Racing, Conker the Squirrel was properly established in his best known persona with Conker’s Bad Fur Day, a 2001 game for the Nintendo 64. Save for a remake of Bad Fur Day – 2005’s Conker: Live & Reloaded – no other Conker games have seen the light of day.This might have to do with Bad Fur Day failing to sell many copies, despite widespread critical acclaim. The low sales count was blamed on the marketing being towards an older audience and the game releasing towards the end of the Nintendo 64’s lifespan. As of now, it is considered one of the most rare Nintendo 64 games, widely coveted by collectors.
Released as an Xbox Live Arcade title in 2009, ‘Splosion Man is a 2.5D action platform game in a similar style to Rayman Origins and its sequel Legends. Solving puzzles while avoiding traps and enemies, the player guides ‘Splosion Man, a character made from explosive material, out of the facility in which he was created.The game received great reviews and was voted to be the Best Original Xbox Live Arcade Game of 2009.Likely not to take as much development time and financial backing as a brand new Banjo-Kazooie game, a follow-up to this game would be great for Game Pass. It would help quench the thirst for a quick platformer on Xbox’s services until one of greater scope is released on the console.
I feel confident that not many people will be familiar with Tinker. This puzzle game was released on Windows in 2008, tasking the player with leading a robot through levels by solving puzzles, flipping switches, and finding their way around obstacles.In the original game, the player had a limited amount of moves before they lost the level. If this game was to be brought back, I would want it to be work similar to Superliminal or The Turing Test. Let players have unlimited number of moves and time to initially solve the puzzle. To keep the soul of the original game, there can be a race mode that brings back the limited amount of moves to truly test the player and make them analyze their every decision with care.
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