[COLUMN] Banjo’s 17-Year Absence Is a Crime | by Marty Sliva

The greatest crime in all of gaming is the fact that we haven’t had a new Banjo-Kazooie game in nearly 17 years.

Well, that’s not entirely true. Overpaid and out of touch leadership, the gross mistreatment of employees, lack of job security across the board, stagnant creativity in the AAA space, and bad-faith actors in every corner of the internet are probably worse. But coming in at a close sixth is the fact that we haven’t had a new Banjo-Kazooie game in nearly 17 years.

Maybe it’s because I have a deep nostalgic fondness for colorful 3D platformers, or maybe it’s because the genre is making a comeback in a major way across both the AAA and indie spaces, but it feels like Xbox is missing out on a huge opportunity by not leaning on the bear and bird duo.

As a whole, the three Banjo games are one of the oddest trilogies in all of gaming, if you can even call it that. The original 1998 game is a Nintendo 64 classic, arguably the greatest 3D platformer ever created, and depending on the day you asked me, might be my favorite game of all time. I replay it almost every year, and have streamed through it multiple times on my personal Twitch channel, mostly because it’s such a comfort food game to me.

Then there’s its 2000 direct sequel Banjo-Tooie, which I just don’t gel with whatsoever. It’s my go-to example of a game that includes too much stuff across every facet of design, and it simply can’t support the weight of all of those systems, mechanics, and collectables. There are some phenomenal ideas and fascinating design decisions to be found inside of it, but you have to wade through miles of fluff to get there.

And then odd handheld spinoffs not notwithstanding, the trilogy capped off with 2008’s Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, which leaned heavily into a robust vehicle creation system over traditional platforming. It wasn’t at all what fans of the previous games expected or wanted, so it was met with pretty divisive reactions at launch. However, it feels like it may have been a bit ahead of its time, as that kind of sandbox creativity has gotten incredibly popular in the decades since, with everything from Minecraft to The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. I’d be curious to see the reaction to the game if it had been released in today’s landscape.

That’s not to say that Banjo’s been completely out of the spotlight since then. 2015’s Rare Replay included all three of the mainline games as a part of its excellent celebration of Rare’s storied history. The two Nintendo 64 installments were added to Nintendo Switch Online a few years back. And of course, Banjo and Kazooie joined the fight in Smash Bros. Ultimate back in 2019. 

But in terms of a brand-new game, Xbox has kept the franchise dormant since 2008, which is a shame. And the thing is, now would be the perfect time to bring the bear and bird back, considering the resurgence in popularity we’ve seen from the genre. Nintendo never backed off of 3D platformers, which is clear from the impending release of Donkey Kong Bananza on Switch 2 in July. Astro Bot just won a bevy of Game of the Year awards, and has folks begging Sony to go back to making more games like that again instead of wasting years and years on live-service projects that never see the light of day. And the indie scene is brimming with 3D platformers, many of which we covered in our recent Steam Next Fest video like Demon Tides, Ruffy and the Riverside, Kero Quest 64, and more.

But when it comes to a possible new installment in the franchise, the question always seems to center around just who should be the ones to take the reins this time around. Rare would make sense, though they’ve been focused so heavily on Sea of Thieves over the past decade that it’s almost hard to see them pivoting to anything else. It’s been years since we had an official update on Everwild, so who knows the status of that one. But they certainly aren’t the only studio at Xbox that would make a good fit.

Double Fine created one of the best 3D platformers of the past decade in Psychonauts 2, and has the sense of humor needed to tap into the charm of Rare’s original vision. The studio just celebrated the 20th anniversary of the original Psychonauts, but though they haven’t revealed what their next project is, my gut says they want to stick to the creative freedom found in the sandboxes that they created themselves.

Xbox also owns Toys for Bob, the studio behind Skylanders, the Spyro Reignited Trilogy, and Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time. They clearly have a keen eye for 3D platformers, and I’d much rather see them take a stab at Banjo than continue toiling away as a Call of Duty support studio. 

And then there’s the possibility that Xbox turns Banjo into a collaborative project between multiple studios, or even brings in a third-party team to take the lead. Playtonic Games would make perfect sense, given that they were formed by creative leads from Rare who worked on the Banjo games, and are priming to release Yooka-Replaylee, which is the definitive edition of their 3D platformer that was very much their indie take on Banjo.

Regardless of who takes the wheel, it feels like Xbox is missing out by completely ignoring Banjo. Not only is the genre in the midst of a renaissance, but it would fill a gap in their portfolio that would sit nicely alongside the multitude of western RPGs, gritty shooters, cinematic adventures, driving sims, and strategy games. Plus, if Oblivion can come back after nearly 20 years, surely Banjo can do the same.