Battletoads, Perfect Dark and the ever-popular Banjo-Kazooie are just some of the amazing games developed by Rare, back when they were big kingpins in the older days of Nintendo.
For a long while, it seemed like these games were destined to remain a fond memory as the studio appeared to be committed to championing Microsoftā€™s Kinect peripheral on Xbox. However, Microsoft seems determined to change that.
Ken Lobb, the creative director for Microsoft Studios, has said that the platform holder has plans to resurrect classic Rare franchises at some point, during an Inner Circle podcast.
“Will there ever be another Banjo, Viva, Blast Corps, Battletoads? Yeah, someday. We know thereā€™s value. We have a lot of passion internally for each of the games. And we have surprises in store in the near and long future.”
Lobb went on to say that Microsoft updates various trademark ownership of these franchises, and that they also come up in discussions fairly regularly - you just have to look back at the digital re-release of Banjo Kazooie and its sequel Banjo Tooie on the Xbox 360 back in 2008 and 2009.
“Understand that what itā€™s really about is we want to build this suite of IP that we can add to a list of: ‘letā€™s build some new things, letā€™s build some recent sequels, and letā€™s do some crazy stuff like dig back into our portfolio of IP and build some games that people love,'” he said.
“I think the best message to give to your listeners is that we love the old IP as much as you do. Please be patient because we can only build so much at a time.”
Personally speaking, I canā€™t wait for re-releases of these gaming gems; not so much because of nostalgia, although this certainly plays a big role, but also because it gives younger gamers the chance to try these awesome pieces of gaming history. Hell, if this means thereā€™s a possibility of getting a new Blast Corps game, that alone is worth celebrating. The original was an absolute blast (pun not intended) on N64.
What classic Rare franchises would you like to see revisited? Let us know in the comments.
