MundoRare

I never thought I’d see the day that Banjo and Kazooie star alongside Sonic – he just looks out of place here. He really belongs with Nintendo’s staple of characters – particularly the Donkey Kong bunch.

It’s fine Rare lending their characters to third party developers for small cameos such as this, but now they’ve started, how long is it before Microsoft allow third parties to work on main installments of Rare’s properties? It’d be a good thing if a talented developer got to do a Banjo platformer, for instance, but what if a developer who didn’t care for the franchise was handed the reins and churned out something really subpar?

It’s a worry. Especially if they’re cancelling Rare’s projects to get them working on Wii Sports-like titles, and all resources are being spent on stuff similar to that. Not to say that they can’t work on both classic-style Rare games and sports/fitness stuff – they certainly have the manpower. But in light of recent staff departures from Rare, and a comment from a long-standing composer that Rare’s ‘business has changed,’ I’m a little concerned.

Hoping to be pleasantly surprised.

damn this game is to tempting..

@SummerSky: Donkey Kong belongs with Rare imo. Nintendo is ruining him big time. They made Cranky nice, turned K. Rool into a Bowser clone (have you seen his dialogue in King of Swing and Jungle Climber?), Donkey Kong no longer speaks english like he used to in the Rare games (dialouge wise), and we still haven’t seen another appearence from Kiddy Kong, Chunky Kong, or Swanky Kong. Appearently the series has come to an end since there hasn’t been another game since 2007. Last time we saw Donkey and his crew was in Mario Super Sluggers along with King K. Rool and a Kritter. Now you may be happy and excited about a little crossover like that, but if you ask me, that just screams the Donkey Kong series is over. It’s now merging with the Mario spin-offs. Nintendo doesn’t care about Donkey Kong anymore.

They’re just using him as a filler character for the Mario spin-offs. At least Masahiro Sakurai went back in the past and brought back some favorites like Diddy’s Rocketbarrel Boost & Peanut Popgun, the DKC map song, and Donkey Kong’s “traditional” red fur. Speaking of which, I bet if DKC was never made, Nintendo would have gotten rid of Donkey Kong for good. Rare basically saved DK’s hide from extinction, so they deserve him more than anyone. I’ll admit I enjoyed Jungle Beat for a while, but it got so repetitive and unoriginal as I continued. King of Swing was king of crap. Barrel Blast was a sorry excuse for a Donkey Kong Racing make up. Jungle CLimber was fine, but Cranky was still too nice and K. Rool still a Bowser clone. The Konga games I have not and never will play(ed).

Anyway, I love this idea and I’m sure plenty of other Rare fans do as well while others are bit concerned about the BK future. I just wish they amp it up more and add some B-K related challenges. Note collecting anyone? And a B-K stage wouldn’t either. Grunty Industuries seems suitable enough. Watch out for Weldar! (if they decide to re-build him) Looks pretty fun to me. I’ll play the demo soon.

I’m a big fan of the King of Swing/Jungle Climber games – they stayed true to the DKC series whilst doing something different with the franchise. But PAON get the credit for that.

Nintendo hasn’t really developed a Donkey Kong platformer aside from Jungle Beat, so I’m definately prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt yet. Jungle Beat definately had a shade or two of DKC in the gameplay – and especially the Wii version – it just lacked the character and sound of DKC. All they need to do is get a team on it with a couple of members that are fond of/know of the DKC characters and we’re all set.

To reiterate on what I said earlier, it just looks odd to see Banjo stuck in the middle of a bunch of characters they’ve never been linked to. At least if they appeared alongside Mario there’d be the Donkey Kong connection.

True true. Rare just could have put together something much mcuh better.

@Hamilton: Grunty Industries? I think Nutty Acres would be more suitable because of the Nuts & Bolts theme going on with them.

actually grunty industries would be a sick level, as it was my favorite in banjo pilot. plus as in mario kart wii, industrial levels have been prooven to work well a la toads factory. but i see what you mean about linking nuts and bolts because its the most recent game. kinda like smash bros replacing mewtwo for lucario

Ah yes, replacing Mewtwo for Lucario. Biggest mistake made in the game…

yeah