I loved the banjo games! I beaten the hell out of both of them! Every single jiggy, jinjo, musical note, bad guy, bad girl--ALL DEFEATED! Anyway, I loved these games but sadly I can't find my copy of Banjo-Kazooie but I luckely still have Banjo-Tooie and I'm not letting it out of my sight!

What were your taking on these games?

Then I take it that you'll be pleased that the XB360 will feature a new installment from the terrible twosome? Banjo-Threeie perhaps? X06 opened with Banjo and Kazooie I think.

I loved them both, especially Tooie. And the music is legendary.

Yeah, a new one is coimg ot the xbox360.

It will be interesting to see how the Xbox360 game turns out, since to be honest I havent been too impressed with Rare's efforts on the Xbox thus far, the only game I got was Kameo and while I enjoyed it, there isnt much to do once its over.

Yeah, so far they are not doing so well.

Loved the first one, but I can't seem to get ahold of the second anywhere!

As much as I perhaps should be skeptical about this new Banjo game (thanks to Rare's recent history), somehow I just can't have a skeptical thought. Anytime I think about the fact that there is a new Banjo game on the way, I smile. Then I smile some more.

I mean, come on. A new Banjo game. BANJO game. What can be wrong about that?

Fanboyism aside though, I suppose I will approach the new title with a little caution so that I don't get disappointed by hype or whatever but as I said above, what can be wrong about a new Banjo game? Plus apparently the team behind the original Banjo games will be doing this one, so that's a nod in the right direction. Not to mention that the Banjo series is the perfect one to balance humour for both children and adults. Plus it's Banjo. Enough said.

Yeah, okay. I'm a big fanboy of the franchise. So shoot me. Or something.

Banjo Kazooie and Tooie are among the best N64 games to be released. Excellent platformers that I enjoyed for many hours.

Hopefully the new 360 Banjo turns out good.

Rare has been doing bad :( There games on the 360 been bad.

I wouldnt say they have been bad, just not AAA titles, Kameo is a lot of fun, its just after all the waiting for that game it fails to deliver on the hype in my opinion, but its not "bad".

See what I'm trying to point out here? ;)

I ain't saying it's going to be bad, but Rare has yet to prove themselves in the next-gen side.

I am ashamed that I never played Banjo Tooie. Even more so because I loved the first one.
But my friend has it so I'm gonna borrow it once uni is over. If the thirsd installment is good I'll have to consider getting a X360.

In my opinion the two can't be compared.

We had (and have) different mindsets about the two franchises, the Banjo series was always one that we considered to have sequels, perhaps even somewhat expecting it too. Especially when those subtle (and not so subtle) hints were always in the game/s. Perfect Dark on the other hand, well we seem to have always thought of it as a stand alone game. Yes we knew that the prequel/sequel was coming but at the same time we didn't really want it either. Yeah sure, we'd try it or buy it if and when it came out but at the same time we just didn't care whether it did or not. We had already moved on to other things and we remembered Perfect Dark as a classic game, not as a franchise that should be continued on.

That said, Rare's effort with Perfect Dark was hopeless and unfortunately suggests what we should expect with their future titles. Thankfully however Kameo is pretty darn awesome and that game has a similar 'way' to that of the Banjo series. It features that Rare charm that we all know and love and the game was probably better because of it, so with that in mind the future for this new Banjo game is still an enticing one. The new game will be approached with caution but I really do think that Rare will nail what they have to to make it a brilliant addition to the franchise. They don't need it to be an AAA title, all they need it to do is nail what the previous games before it nailed and that alone I think will make it an awesome game.

Time will tell though, as always.

Rare have probably learnt from their mistakes. BJT should rock. I can hear the banjo already. Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo, doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo. Wooo! I can't wait.

Is there any info on the game yet, or is just that X06 snippet?

^ Just what we saw at X06, which as you know was very little.

Nismo; I cant say that I thought of Perfect Dark as a standalone game, I remember when discussion of the upcoming GCN was happening and at that time Rare was still with Nintendo, one of the major anticipated games amongst the fans was Perfect Dark Zero, I think it was actually known as PDZ all the way back then. Back then Perfect Dark was probably more anticipated than Metroid Prime, even though they really cant be compared, but anyway we knew what to expect with Perfect Dark, but had no idea how newbie developer Retro Studios would handle Metroid.

So I think originally there was an expectation for Perfect Dark to become some major franchise, specifcally a Nintendo FPS franchise. However once Rare became apart of MS, things changed, for starters we didnt see any games for a whole generation, except for a Conker port and Grabbed by the Ghoolies. Finally the GCN games that we were excited about all that time ago released for the launch of the Xbox 360, and by that time we had experienced a whole generation of new titles, therefore the "magic" of Perfect Dark if you will, was lost, because essentially PDZ is basically the N64 game with better graphics, but the FPS genre had improved and expanded since then. With PDZ, Perfect Dark simply lost its thunder, it took too long to come out and when it finally did, it didnt consider the improvements in the FPS genre over the entire generation it skipped.

As for how this impacts Banjo, well its a platform/adventure game, what advancements in the platform/adventure genre ocurred during the last generation which Banjo wasnt apart of? I can't think of much in terms of advancement of the genre compared to FPS's, so perhaps Banjo will not suffer the same sort of fate as Perfect Dark..? Knowing Rare, we'll find out in 2009 :P .

Rae jsut needs to pick up on there game!

Wow, you summed that up rather nicely Borg. Knew you were good for something. :P

On the status (if you will) of PDZ back then, well I guess it was different depending on the way your gaming career (for lack of a better term) was back then. What I mentioned above in my post was certainly the way it was for me back then, yet you say something completely different so yeah I guess it is situation dependant. I still think some of the points I mention stand though, even after reading your frame of mind back in those days. But yeah, I can understand the differences now too.

As for Perfect Dark Zero itself, well in some ways I think you are right and in others I don't. I mean, the game would actually be pretty darn sweet if Rare tweaked some small things. Pacing is a main problem as is the single player aspect of the game, the plot doesn't draw you in and is actually rather confusing plus it has bad level design. Aiming seems to be a little slower than it should be (even with settings changed) and movement seems a little off too, but otherwise the game at its core is actually reasonably good. Obviously it wouldn't and doesn't have the impact that the original did at the time, but I think if some things were tweaked and polished a little bit and if it wasn't compared to so many other games, Perfect Dark Zero would actually be pretty sweet. But oh well, that is what happens when a game is rushed for the launch of a console. (feels weird saying that it was rushed considering the 5 or so years that it was in development, but even so I still do think it was rushed in the end)

Yeah, anyway. Banjo owns. Hard.

Heh, it's what I do ;)

But back to Banjo, it would be nice if learn more about this game sooner rather than later, we dont have that much to go on at the moment.

You know, I don't think learning more about the game will be good enough really. I mean, reading about the game will probably just make us even more excited for it because we're Banjo fanboys (well fine, I am) and any news will be good news.

So I think the demo for the game should come sooner rather than later, that should give us a fair idea.

Speaking of demos, where the fark is my Forza 2 demo already? Sheesh.

Yeah a demo would be nice, but that's going to be a while off I would imagine.

Damned console gamers! You don't get a demo till it's close(read: bout a month) to release. :P

Sheesh...

In that case, how come we got a Lost Planet demo so early? :P

Yeah that was the E3 demo, special gift from E3 ... too bad we didnt get more of these.

I frankly don't care about Rare's part preformence on the "next gen" consoles considering this is Banjo we are talking about! The same plot line, same characters (with the addition of new ones) and SAME OLD BANJO AND KAZOOIE!! Mainly there are just better graphics and such. I can't wait for it.

To be honest, I was a little distraut by the new graphics because they could have made Banjo and Kazooie look just like they did on the cover of Banjo-Tooies Game guide, but they went for a more...playful look. It still is nice, but I would have liked it the other way. This way will do JUST fine though considering I love them no matter what!

I just wish I could find my copy of Banjo-Kazooie. I still have Tooie and I beat that game to hell. Everything found, my masterpiece.