Ex-Rare Staff Announce New Platformer

By Lex Firth 10.02.2015 8

Ex-Rare Staff Announce New Platformer on Nintendo gaming news, videos and discussion

A group of staff from developer Rare have confirmed their involvement in Project Ukulele.

Six ex-members of the company - including those who worked on Donkey Kong Country and Banjo-Kazooie have joined together to form Playtonic Games and are aiming to develop a new game, which will be a "worthy spiritual successor to those fondly remembered platforming adventures [Rare] built in the past".

The announcement comes following a series of cryptic tweets from the "@MingyJongo" account on Twitter - named so for a boss in the company's 2000 game Banjo-Tooie. That account is now @PlaytonicGames and aims to give updates on Project Ukulele's development.

Early information on the new issue of EDGE Magazine in which Playtonic are to give their first interview suggests that the game will be heading to Steam as soon as possible. No other consoles are confirmed specifically, although the team do indeed mention that they would like to bring the project to Wii U.

Project Ukulele is still shrouded in mystery - there aren't even details of the gameplay yet, beyond the fact that it will be a platformer - so stay tuned to Cubed3 for all the information on the game as it breaks.

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Flynnie is offline. Flynnie 11.02.2015#1

Unfortunately nostalgia plays tricks on the mind. It sounds good in principle but unfortunately I can't forsee this living up to expectation!

 
Azuardo is offline. Azuardo 11.02.2015#2

Flynnie said:
Unfortunately nostalgia plays tricks on the mind. It sounds good in principle but unfortunately I can't forsee this living up to expectation!
Indeed. For people that may have not played Banjo for years, they might end up enjoying this a lot, but I played Tooie in the last couple, and the collectathon nature of it and constant backtracking wasn't as fun as I remembered. It could be that I enjoyed BK1 more than Tooie, but I think you need to be in the mood for a collectathon platformer to enjoy them. So if you've gone years without playing one, it might be nice, but otherwise, you really need some caution, just in case.

I hope this turns out really good, though. If I can avoid any collectathon platformers until this comes out (which is highly likely), I could really enjoy this, since I do still love BK.

 
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RudyC3 is offline. RudyC3 11.02.2015#3

I've seen people saying the big eyed one in the bottom of the revealed art looks like a crocodile or something. Me, I thought I saw a Platypus XD (because of what appears to me as a very large beak). I've seen the colour balance of the image also modified to make some details more apparent, and the one above does seem to have a tiny beak, definitely a bird. The fact that it'll likely be a duo of characters seems to definitely hint at the gameplay being made to be close to Banjo-Kazooie, although it's all speculation at this point.

Cubed3 Limited Staff :: Review and Feature Writer
 
curtiscdragon is offline. curtiscdragon 11.02.2015#4

I was Bond, My friend was Sean Bean or "Trevor 006 " . ( he used to beat me so much I despised the charactor 006 ) In time though I had bought and beat the game. Now I was able to give him a run for his money. Its amazing Sean Bean still speaks of this game and has his own fond memories of that time...... I really hope as well @PlaytonicGames with all thoughs ex rare stafers will be able to bring back the spirit of RARE like it was in its golden years. I heard RETRO the creators of Metroid Prime and Donkey Kong Country Returns were ex RARE staffers too is that true ???

 
JunkSnail is offline. JunkSnail 11.02.2015#5

I'm cautiously optimistic for this. I only played BK and BT for the first time last year, and I thought BK was absolutely incredible; BT, on the other hand, was one of the most disappointing games I've ever played. Hopefully they'll stick with quality over quantity.

 
Flynnie is offline. Flynnie 12.02.2015#6

@RudyC3 - maybe they have picked up the rights to do a Duck Hunt Duo game in the style of Banjo Kazoozie Smilie 

 
Marzeee is offline. Marzeee 12.02.2015#7

Hmm, I can't have a proper opinion on it, because I've never played Banjo Tooie fully, but whenever I did try, I just wasn't feeling it. I absolutely love Banjo Kazooie though. I guess maybe they tried to expand on the idea, but it just turned out being not as fun to play as the original. I really hope it's not like DK64, that had waaaaaay to much collecting and again, it just wasn't as fun as Banjo Kazooie.

This new game definitely needs to be quality of quantity, as JunkSnail said.

 
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RudyC3 is offline. RudyC3 14.02.2015#8

curtiscdragon said:
I heard RETRO the creators of Metroid Prime and Donkey Kong Country Returns were ex RARE staffers too is that true ???

Nope, the studio was founded by the same guy behind the Turok series, and that would be Iguana Entertainment, not Rare, but still a relatively high profile studio during the N64 years, especially on the Nintendo side of things as they were very much into the N64, but not out of ownership like Rare. Their output might not have been as consistent as Rare's during those years but their imprint on the system's library with Turok is undeniable.

Cubed3 Limited Staff :: Review and Feature Writer
 

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