Nintendo Spotting: Banjo and Mario Edition
Tuesday, May 13th, 2008 at 11:07pm by Jake
This 2D Mario cameo can be found in the newest trailer for Rare’s Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts for the Xbox360. The trailer goes on to show the duo blow up Mario via their new flying machine’s missiles. I don’t know whether this is a tribute or slap to Nintendo’s plumber. I doubt we’ll see this in the final game though. Check out the trailer to view Mario’s death.
Note: I’ve never really had a desire to purchase a console outside the “Nintendo realm” until I saw Banjo Kazooie’s latest adventure. Looks like my Wii will have to make some shelf space come this fall.
May 13th, 2008 at 11:29 pm
will this be the first really good game since rare left nintendo?
May 13th, 2008 at 11:33 pm
“I doubt we’ll see this in the final game though”
Actually, we WILL see things like this, and MANY other funny things ( probably perverted as well, it IS X-box LIVE)
If you have listened to the folks at RARE, they are saying that much of the game consists of customizable vehicles, so someone could make that Mario now that it has been shown in the trailer…
Anyways, I hope the best of this game, while fearing the worst…
It is NOT the same old 3d platformer that it once was, and this concerns me a little.
May 13th, 2008 at 11:36 pm
NOTE: This game sends a message.
Dear Nintendo,
We NEVER liked you. We only USED YOU throughout the years when we made DKR and DK64 and the DKC series. Last but not least, as a goodbye gift, we have a messae for your little friend Mario. Banjo will explain. BYE!
Your Friends,
RARE
May 14th, 2008 at 12:01 am
I didnt see the mario statue get blown up… They just sorta… look at it. Also Rare stated that one of the reasons they didnt make Banjo 3 was because Super Mario Galaxy would be a tough game to beat. So SUCKS to you WII-LUIGI.
Also, Rare is still developing games for Nintendo’s beloved DS.
May 14th, 2008 at 12:04 am
I’ve never understood the Banjo bandwagon. The first one sucked, hard. Another game of collect the worthless crap from Rare. DK64, Starfox Adventures, the list goes on and on. They get way too much credit as a developer. A few gems (Goldeneye, Killer Instinct) amongst a catalog comprised mostly of mediocrity to outright garbage. Good riddance, we weren’t getting another Goldeneye anyway.
May 14th, 2008 at 12:05 am
Isn’t the inclusion of Mario copyright infringement? Even if it’s just in the trailer and not in the final game?
May 14th, 2008 at 12:10 am
@Richter
Totally agree. KI sucked too. I have no desire to memorize long combos. Goldeneye and DKC were their only great games IMO.
May 14th, 2008 at 2:57 am
umm yeah those games definitely did not suck. what the hell are you talking about
May 14th, 2008 at 4:31 am
This is the only game that makes me want to think about getting a 360…
PS3 has FF XIII coming, along with MGS4. I’d rather get a PS3 for the blu ray too so even Banjo ain’t gonna make me want that console..
As for the mario, yeah, copyright infringement. though, I think they’re ok, I doubt Microsoft would let them do something that would allow Nintendo to take digs at them.
May 14th, 2008 at 5:06 am
This has about as much chance of succeeding on the Halo Gun-Shooty Box as Viva Pinata, which bombed hard and only eked out a million sales through bundles and massive price drops withing months of release.
Considering they’ve de-emphasized platforming in Banjo to make some kind of kart-racing thing, the Mario comparison makes little if any sense. Perhaps they are trying to stoke Nintendo hate in order to bolster popularity, but Mario is hawt stuff right now and Banjo’s a fossil. It’s like Screech trying to talk smack about George Clooney. Who are you again, Mr. Diamond?
May 14th, 2008 at 6:36 am
@dubnobasswithmyheadman that’s what I was wondering. I don’t see how Rare could get away with having the Mario status likeness in the works. My guess is Rare and Nintendo have some kind of deal with this game. Maybe Rare/Microsoft/Nintendo reach an agreement that allows Banjo 1 and 2 on Nintendo’s VC and Xbox Live?
I’m a 360 owner, and this trailer disappoints me. The platforming elements seem to be gone, and it’s all about building a cool vehicle to perform tasks. Vehicle based combat was awesome when Halo first came around, but it shouldn’t need to make it into Banjo. I don’t want to build a car, I want to play a platformer.
May 14th, 2008 at 6:37 am
****ing Microsoft, buying out Rare like that…
Still looks good however. The busted fence shows that this has decent physics.
May 14th, 2008 at 7:45 am
I’d say if it gets blown up, it almost has to be a slap in the face, but a weak one. I don’t know why they sold to Microsoft. Maybe the hundreds of millions of dollars they paid for shares is part of it?
Regardless, Banjo-Kazooie and its sequel are two of my all-time favorite games. Great level design, wacky hilarious characters and dialog, all kinds of goodies to collect, great boss fights, AWESOME music, fun platforming with a unique move set, and puzzles at a good level of difficulty for someone who doesn’t want the randomness and frustration of some such as Zack and Wiki. (not that I’m comparing the two at all)
HOWEVER, I consider Banjo and Kazooie dead. I’m assuming most of the original staff that worked on the first two games has since then moved on, I believe quite a while ago, which would explain the lack of quality in Rare games since the N64 days. All three Donkey Kong Country games ROCKED, Goldeneye was THE party game back in the day (I might still play it if I could get over the frame rate…) Despite what other people say, I liked Donkey Kong 64 as well, Diddy Kong Racing is sweet. But as far as I’m concerned, they dropped the ball on the Gamecube, anyway, so maybe selling them was for the best. Star Fox Adventures is a horrible Zelda-wannabe that I have tried several times to make it through, and I just can’t bring myself to. It’s just that horrible. And looking at most of their Microsoft games, I don’t feel like we’ve missed too much. It’s extremely sad to see my favorite developer from back in the day go to crap, but… them’s the breaks.
May 14th, 2008 at 9:29 am
Everything I’ve seen so far of this game looks gorgeous… However the change in gameplay seems really out of place. What good is a bird in your backpack when you’re driving some tank? It’s all pretty worthless… In earlier Banjo games you’d use Kazooie to fly into something and smash it, now you build a Lego vehicle to fly into something and smash it. It will be odd to play this game and see that unused blue backpack glaring at me.
May 14th, 2008 at 10:54 am
As a rule in advertising, the industry leader never mentions competitors in their ads, while the competitors constantly compare themselves to the leader; ie “Pepsi is preferred 2 to 1 over Coke!” Coke is industry leader, and you will never see mention of Pepsi in a Coke ad.
While harmless fun, the destruction of a Mario icon in this trailer is very similar. Wii is the industry leader, and the competition is trying desperately to knock Nintendo from the top. Meanwhile, Rare altered the entire structure/mechanics/genre of Banjo-Kazooie because they knew they couldn’t compete with Mario Galaxy.
May 14th, 2008 at 11:57 am
It’s the reason I bought my 360
May 14th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
360 blows, like I will have the time to play some second rated BS like that.
Rare conference table scene 1:
Boss: So umm I guess flying with a bird in a backpack joke just doesn’t beat flying in a space gallery….what can we do now?
#1: …
#2: we still got the contract and Microsoft still think that we are the sh1t.
#3/intern: I made a driving flash game could be integrated with our game engine and making a new kart racing game, AND it could be finished under a year…publicly…
Boss: JUST GIVE ANYTHING, @#$%#@$%$#!$%
May 14th, 2008 at 1:28 pm
Dude, this game is so bad that I can see a big square, look at that ocean shot(screen shot), lol. Sure, we got a huge machine moving, but to the north: we got no more space!!! The world ends there, lol. Rare you lazy silly goose, PDZ hahaha, what a failure. Microsoft, wake up! Rare is finished, they can’t even delivery a proper platformer anymore, oh geez.
May 14th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
Richter I’m with you on this the golden eye game was the only thing I’ve really liked from them. Rare has always sucked unless they where making wait they have always sucked! I’m sorry but I tried every thing they made like every one else DKC was a sweet idea and so was KI but the game play stunk. I’m sure this frustrated them. I bet they played the new mario and where just like hey we are no longer copying them! If we use that idea people will grab pitch forks. I don’t know, conkers bad fur day was the only thing I wanted to play but never did because of the bad taste of chasing stuff down with almost no pay off at all!
May 14th, 2008 at 6:43 pm
@rdaneel72 there’s a difference from mentioning a competitor and depicting a company’s game character. If Universal Studios showed an old shot of Mickey Mouse at Disney as a joke I’m sure they’d be sued into oblivion. That’s why I’m thinking there’s still some kind of connection to Rare and Nintendo.
May 15th, 2008 at 12:43 am
I’m having mixed feelings about this. The Banjo Kazooie series are my favorite games of all time because of their mixture of puzzles, collecting and platforming. The trailer gives you the feeling that this will be more centered around customizing and racing cars, something that has not been done before in the series. Will Banjo’s ability to transform be left out? What about all of our favorite characters (I only saw a wacked up Gruntilda)? What about the frickin’ Jinjo’s???? I will no doubt buy it, but it looks like it will deviate too much from the originals. When I think of this game I don’t think of Banjo Kazooie at all.