You can trust VideoGamer. Our team of gaming experts spend hours testing and reviewing the latest games, to ensure you're reading the most comprehensive guide possible. Rest assured, all imagery and advice is unique and original. Check out how we test and review games here
Speaking in a live chat with some Rare fan sites, Rare’s head of design Gregg Mayles revealed that that Banjo-Kazooie 3 as we see it today is actually the third iteration, with the two previous concepts having been scrapped.
“This is actually the 3rd Banjo 3! We scrapped two other approaches, didn’t think they offered a big enough step forward,” said Mayles. “So I would say it started after Ghoulies. But then got scrapped a couple of times. Then I worked on Piñata. Then came back to Banjo again! Oh, and I think I did some puzzles for Mr. Pants too!”
So what exactly were the first two Banjo 3 concepts? Mayles said the first was a “remake with a difference”.
“The plan was to pretend it was a carbon copy remake, but then stuff changed,” explained Mayles. “In Mumbo’s Mountain a giant queen termite was going to break out the top of the termite hill and you had to get Conga to lob his oranges at her. That kind of stuff. Clever, but a bit ‘last-gen’. So we dumped that.”
The second concept saw Banjo and Grunty going head-to-head on each level.
“Grunty was always on the levels, trying to do what Banjo was doing. The AI for this was going to be a real pain and again, we didn’t think it offered the angle required to get Banjo noticed, so we scrapped that too,” said Mayles.
Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts is scheduled for release in Holiday 2008 exclusively for Xbox 360.
About the Author
