The Reason why Banjo-Kazooie flopped

Banjo-Kazooie was one of the greatest platformers on the N64 after the all mighty Mario. The game was also one of the best selling titles on the system as well. However, unlike its predecessor, Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts fails to live up to expectations.

The original Banjo-Kazooie game was a broad enough title that it could appeal to gamers of all ages. The game is considered to take many cues from Super Mario 64, from the style of the puzzles to the platforming elements. Even though Mario beat Banjo-Kazooie, the game did have an upper hand with the story. The story was actually a bit more interesting than ’saving the princess at the next castle.’

When Rare announced that they would be crafting a sequel to the acclaimed title I was as giddy as a schoolgirl. The guys at Rare did an excellent job of crafting a “great game.” Unfortunately, I felt that it wasn’t a great Banjo-Kazooie game. Let me explain what I mean by that previous statement.

Most people have come to love Banjo-Kazooie for its great platforming gameplay. However, for some odd reason Rare decided to take away that gameplay mechanic and turn the game into something else. The developers managed to turn the game into some sort of vehicle simulator.

I think the guys at Rare did a great job in crafting an awesome engine as well as the concept behind building the vehicles. The menu layout and physics were smack on. I actually enjoyed creating a unique vehicle just to watch how it would react to the world as I “vehicle platformed.”

Unfortunately, the game did ultimately suffer from poor sales. According to NPD, the game managed to sell only 140,000 in 2008, despite being released around the same time frame as Fable 2. The reason why this game flopped sales-wise was because even though the game looks like Banjo-Kazooie, it plays like Carmagedon (this is an exaggeration).

It almost seems like Rare wanted to make a brand new IP (which would have been brilliant), but caved under Microsoft’s demand that their next game be a Banjo-Kazooie title. If Rare would have stuck to the original platforming equation, I guarantee that it would have sold as well as Ratchet & Clank: Future Tools of Destruction. However, all is not lost as we can always hope for the next sequel. Also, don’t forget to check out the original Banjo Kazooie on Xbox Live and Banjo-Tooie in April.

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