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Rare Teases at a “Huge Year”

• Egon Kilin
• January 9th, 2015

Rare, the developer behind titles such as Banjo-Kazooie and Conker’s Bad Fur Day, has been developing motion-based games under Microsoft for awhile now. Recently, the sound designer for Rare announced that the company is expecting a big 2015.

On Twitter, Robin Beanland, composer and sound designer for Rare, was asked if 2015 would be a great year for the company. He responded with “This is a HUGE year for Rare…and these notes,” after which he added a picture of some music notes. One thing to note is that Banjo-Kazooie had players collect music notes. In last June, Beanland had posted an image of a broken banjo, and then an image of a fixed banjo a few days later. In October, a message on NeoGaf from a Rare developer was posted, comprised of Morse Code. The message was deciphered as “B-K E3 15.” There is the possibility that we will be seeing a new Banjo-Kazooie game at this year’s upcoming E3. Perhaps the big year for Rare means we will see the continuation of the hit series.

Originally introduced in 1998, Banjo-Kazooie stars a bear named Banjo and his friend, a large red bird named Kazooie. In the games, they thwart the plans of an evil witch by the name of Gruntilda. The first title released on the Nintendo 64, and was rereleased on the Xbox 360 in 2008, and sees Banjo and Kazooie trying to save Banjo’s sister from Gruntilda. The second game, Banjo-Tooie, released on the Nintendo 64 in 2000, and saw the game’s heroes once again going against Gruntilda. The next two titles, Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty”s Revenge and Banjo-Pilot, released on the Gameboy Advance in 2003 and 2005 respectively. The final Banjo-Kazooie title to release was Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts. The title released on the Xbox 360 in 2008. The game released on the series’ tenth anniversary. In this game, Gruntilda is still the main antagonist, but the Lord of Games has swept has swept most of the cast into a new world.