XBLA GoldenEye, we hardly knew thee

There is still a lot of love out there for the N64 classic GoldenEye; a title which finally made it cool to shoot at people using a gamepad. Sadly, however, it seems that this title, one that is held so high in our memories, will remain just that – a memory. In an interview with VideoGamer.com, Rare senior software engineer Nick Burton was able to shed some light onto the game’s fate.

When last we heard the title had been put on indefinite hold thanks to a disagreement between Nintendo and Microsoft over how the revenue would be divvied up. Kotaku later reported that it was Nintendo’s President, Satoru Iwata, who was to blame for this state of affairs – stating that, since GoldenEye was originally a Nintendo title, it shouldn’t see a release on someone else’s console. Skip ahead six months and now we’re getting Rare’s Banjo-Kazooie instead – wait, what's going on here?

Concerning Bond, Nick Burton explains: "That was a tricky one. To be fair, I kind of wished that the differences got sorted out, but obviously there's the licensing issue for Bond, even if it's something that's already come out. It's incredibly hard to solve because there's so many license holders involved. You've got the guys that own the license to the gaming rights now, the guys that have the license to Bond as an IP, and there are umpteen licensees."

He goes on to explain that the title is no longer in Rare’s hands, stating that it’s “locked in this no man's land.” Ah well, perhaps it’s better that we all remember GoldenEye as it was instead of testing how well this 11-year-old title holds up today.

[via Destructoid]

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Rare goes "nuts" with Banjo-Kazooie

What do you do with a franchise that has been dormant for nearly ten years? Microsoft-owned studio Rare Ltd. has decided to resurrect the Banjo-Kazooie franchise after its unforgettable success on the N64 in 2000 with Banjo-Tooie. Ever since Microsoft purchased the promising development team back in the early days of the original Xbox, Rare has failed to deliver a title that lives up to the quality that Rare was once known for. While games like Kameo and Perfect Dark Zero were by no means bad, they did not deliver the quality that one comes to expect from the team behind Goldeneye. Will the 360's new Banjo game do justice to its N64 predecessors or once again miss the mark?

Based on what was revealed of the game last week, the hope for something superb was shattered. Rare decided to take the franchise in another direction and do something new, which don't get me wrong is a good thing, but not when you turn a platformer into a digital erector set. That's right kids, vehicle construction is the name of the game in Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. Before I go any further let me make myself clear, this is by no means an attack on the creativity or quality of the game; the only question that plagues my mind is why Banjo? In all honesty, Rare should have poured all of that creative genius into creating a building game separate from the Banjo universe, or at least created an authentic platforming sequel and then released this as a spinoff sometime down the road. Banjo needs to be what Mario Galaxy has been for the Wii, and right now I'm afraid this idea has forced the series to take a turn for the worst. Please Rare, prove me wrong.

[via GameSpot]

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