GameSpot: Rare Dev Teases "Huge" Plans for 2015

2015 will be a "huge" year for UK studio Rare, which is famous for creating beloved games Goldeneye 007and Banjo-Kazooie, but most recently known for its work on the Kinect Sports series for Xbox. That's according to veteran Rare composer Robin Beanland, who has worked at the company for 20+ years.

Beanland made the tease on Twitter, accompanying a tweet to a fan with some music notes, possibly for Rare's next game.

https://twitter.com/TheRealBeano/status/552399922428116993/photo/1

@Ritsu_Is_Cute This is a HUGE year for Rare...and these notes :-)

... The studio's next project is already playable, as Xbox boss Phil Spencer visited the studio in November and reported back that he was excited by what he saw.

"Got to play the new Rare game today," Spencer said on November 11. "Rare building a uniquely Rare game, as it should be. Great visit to the studio." ...

In a possibly related move, Microsoft recently renewed its trademark for Battletoads, which suggests--but does not confirm--that the company may be at work on a revival of the long-dormant series created by Rare and released for the NES in 1991.

Those notes very likely mean notes like Banjo does gold notes.. Hmmm. Battletoads is supposed to very likely be announced this year, cheaper download like $20, like how Killer Instinct was priced.

I'm really hoping for a full-fledged giant Banjo Threeie this year. A huge giant massive world where you could go everywhere and explore, ride beasts and things, and several giant mountaintops with quests and lots of things in between. Throw in some giants and dragons, and call it a day. And giant killer bees. :D

I've heard this rumor and I hope it's true.

Banjo Kazooie was my favorite childhood game. Nuts and Bolts was a decent video game but its very existence is so bizarre and it's not....a Banjo Kazooie game. So that game is whatever.

These rumors are so heavy so now it's just a matter of the game being good.

Definitely maybe huh...lol

Yeah I loved Banjo but just about everyone who used to be involved in all of those old games at that studio are pretty much all gone so ehh cool I guess?

I hope so! Might have to actually buy an Xbox One now...

That's right. Kinect Sports starring Banjo is coming out Fall 2015.

If they actually make a legit Banjo game I will be sad because then I need to buy a Xbox One.

Will it be a kinect game?

Nuts and Bolts 2 please.

If this is what they're doing, please, please keep some of the better ideas from Nuts and Bolts. I don't care if they want to make it a more traditional, marketable platformer thing, but at least let the players craft vehicles.

I would literally shit my pants in joy.

Somewhere Brad feels a disturbance in his nuts...and bolts.

WHAT.

I met some ex-rare developers a few years ago. From their story, almost everyone left after Kinect Sports 1 shipped (so post viva pinata and banjo).

Anyone working there (maybe a tiny few exceptions) has nothing to do with what you remember Rare for. I really hope they can make another great game, but it won't be because the great talent they've shown before is showing again. It's a shame this practically new studio won't be praised for the new game on their own merits.

How the fuck did Nuts & Bolts and Shadow Complex not get sequels? The two best 360 exclusives.

Breaking news: Banjo Kazooie definitely maybe a dead franchise.

Assuming Microsoft has basically put a bullet in Kinect development, this is probably not a Kinect game. So I expect that Rare is probably working on a nice-looking but utterly plain cartoony, family friendly platformer. Something like Knack, but hopefully slightly better. And of course people at the studio are excited, because you work on something for 1-3 years, you feel proud of it, even if it's never going to be a 95 on Metacritic, and that's fine.

I refuse to get my hopes up for anything more than that. The Rare of old is dead and gone.

I love Rare's games last gen, however Viva Pinata and Banjo were dressed up to look like kids games however they were kinda hard, so i could see them not selling too well.

As much as I love Nuts and Bolts i hope the next Banjo is a more traditional platformer. Then if it all goes well maybe they revisit Nuts and Bolts at a later date.

Moment of silence for the GameStop employees for when that new Battletoads is confirmed.

I don't want this to be Nuts & Bolts 2, but I do hope Rare or MS might use that concept again in the future. Vehicle creation was hella cool and very rewarding when you got the damn thing to work right.

A couple of years ago Rare pulled the same "Maybe we are working on an old series that people love again!" and nothing came of it. Post something when they actually do the announcement.

I think it would be pretty great if MS let Rare start to make real video games again. Though it's not like any of the people involved in making their good games are there anymore, so who knows what this could mean?

I really wonder if a new Banjo platformer will even work anymore. The 3-D platformer is almost a dead genre, basically stuck with bad licensed games and whatever the hell Sega is doing with Sonic. With the exception of Mario there isn't much out there of any quality. If they really do want to make a "classic" 3-D platformer I don't know that I want in. Nuts and Bolts is a criminally underrated game and I would much rather see them explore that style of game even more then just getting Banjo-Threeie.

Somebody help with Banjo Kazooie. Here's what I know: Banjo Kazooie is a well-made, much-liked platformer for the N64 that is slightly rare, BUT I've also heard it described as the beginning of the end for the 3D platformer (what with it being a ridiculous fetch quest). I've also heard that it doesn't really hold up like say, Mario 64.

I hear Banjo Tooie is a piece of crap.

I heard that Nuts and Bolts was an incredible surprise that manages to not really be like its predecessors at all. I've thought about getting a cheap 360 recently for the express purpose of playing the games I missed out on as a previous PS3 owner, with Nuts and Bolts being a driving force.

Everybody on the Bomb Squad seemed to love Nuts and Bolts to death.

@regularassmilk: Nuts and Bolts has great ideas and potential, in which is very enjoyable but it's not without issues. If you can't look past the issues and don't find the things that make it great fun enjoyable then there isn't much you can say to persuade people into appreciating it other than just saying that it's very much a game with ideas that haven't been put together like that before.

The issue I had with Nuts and Bolts is that it was a "much-liked platform" that turned into something else that had issues. I'm sure people loved it but if you were looking for that "3D platform" magic, you were going to end up disappointed.

It would be like Capcom saying "Here is the next Ghost 'n Globlins!" and release a game that was featured Sir Arthur piloting a steampunk mecha in an action game. I'm sure people would love a a steampunk action combat game but that isn't exactly what it felt was promised.

I think I'm the one person that would rather have a Nuts and Bolts sequel. Nothing else like it.

I think Microsoft desperately needs some feel-good word of mouth to better their reputation. Games like this are how you do that, so it would be a good start.

I don't really want another Banjo Game when most people from that team have long left Rare. No Kirkhope, no Stamper Bros. Males might still be there, though. I think he was lead designer on Nuts & Bolts. Some people really loved that game, which is awesome, but personally I was not a fan.

I await more news with curiosity.

As someone who was late to the game on that franchise, I hopefully can look at it without my glasses getting too rosy. Nuts and Bolts is the first game that I played any substantial amount of. I adore it and think it's one of the best games of the last generation. If you haven't seen the Giant Bomb TNT on it, you may want to check it out to get some idea of what it's like. What the TNT doesn't really show, however, is the fun of building. If I remember correctly, in the video they mainly stick to slightly modified versions of vehicles that the game provides, but you can build some really wild stuff. The game's physics are wonky in a way that is permissive of unbalanced, nonsensical vehicles. They don't slap you on the wrists for building something that is completely unwieldy, so I had a ton of fun building the most absurd vehicles that I could to complete challenges in single player.

Since I loved Nuts and Bolts, I picked up the 2 N64 games on ebay. The first game was quite good! It has a lot of charm, and it doesn't overextend itself. You don't have to do too much fetch-quest stuff if you aren't a completionist, but the game won't be fun for you if you don't like some degree of hunting around for things. Overextension was my big problem with Tooie. They tried to cram in too much, and it got to be a chore pretty often. The worlds felt big for the sake of being big, and they pushed the hardware too hard, making the framerate pretty crummy (which I hear isn't an issue in the XBLA re-release). There's still plenty of fun and personality in the game, but too much filler. I never finished it.

Whether or not Banjo Kazooie holds up to Mario 64 just depends on what you're looking for. Mario 64 has better platforming and has a faster pace. Banjo Kazooie isn't about pulling off skillful jumps, and is more about exploration. I definitely prefer Mario 64, but plenty of people prefer Banjo. I feel like it's one of those things where you prefer whichever one you played first.

To address the topic as a whole, I don't buy it. I don't think that a musician posting up some musical notes suggests that Banjo Kazooie is returning. It's probably just a piece of a song for whatever they're going to announce. Hopefully it's something cool, and hopefully modern Rare proves me wrong about its capabilities as a studio, but for the moment I'll temper my expectations.

I only played the first platformer for the 64, but I really enjoyed it. This would be a feather in the Xbox One's cap.

As a new Xbone owner I would like this. I wouldn't mind a sequel to the Nuts and Bolts style game.