Topic: Banjo Kazooie why is it not on Virtual Console / Wii U eshop etc. ????

I understand Goldeneye64 has licencing issues so has never made it to Virtual Console.... Rares Donkey Kong 64 is on there so why not Banjo Kazooie - an absolute classic!

@Petriebird Because Microsoft (the maker of the... y'know, XBOX) owns Banjo Kazooie ever since they bought Rare in the early 2000s, and they rereleased Banjo Kazooie on their own console instead? And even though Rare made DK64, Nintendo owns full rights to that and the Donkey Kong Country games.

Thanks.... I prob should have done some research before posting!!!

if your into physical games you could get Rare Replay for Xbox One, which comes with Banjo-Kazooie and Conker. (other loads of stuff too.) otherwise best bet on getting BK digitally is by buying it for Xbox 360 / Xbox One.

Rare is a first-party Microsoft studio since 2002.

You can get an Xbox One S or Xbox One X and Rare Replay (physical or digital, I have both). It includes the 360 remasters of Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie among other gems. The only games that it doesn't include are:

Goldeneye 007. IP owned by MGM, we'll see what they do with it, because James Bond franchise is featured in Forza Horizon 4 for Xbox One. This game is only available on N64 and it's the best FPS ever in my opinion. Rare Replay includes Perfect Dark and Perfect Dark Zero which are also great. Perfect Dark is remastered so looks and run fantastic.

Diddy Kong Racing. Diddy belongs to Nintendo while Banjo and Conker belong to Rare (this answers your question). Diddy Kong Racing is only available on N64 but a questionable remake was released for Nintendo DS. Best kart racing game ever in my opinion. l would love a remaster...

Killer Instinct 1 and 2. Arcade versions included with Killer Instinct 3 (Xbox One) and Killer Instinct Gold included in Rare Replay.

Conker Live & Reloaded. Available separately for Xbox One, but the original game, Conker's Bad Fur Day, is in Rare Replay.

Donkey Kong Country trilogy. These are the best DK games in my opinion. All the Kongs and the Kremlings belong to Nintendo even though all of them were created by Rare except the original design of Donkey Kong and Junior that were created by Nintendo. Everything that appears in Donkey Kong games is owned by Nintendo except Jetpac in Donkey Kong 64. Interestingly, Diddy wears a Nintendo cap and Dixie wears a Rare hat.

Donkey Kong 64. Owned by Nintendo except included Jetpac game that belongs to Rare. DK64 is my least favourite Rare game.

Star Fox Adventures. Owned by Nintendo. Wonderful adventure only available on GameCube.

Now that Nintendo and Microsoft seem to get along (Minecraft) and seeing how Microsoft allowed Nintendo to re-release Donkey Kong 64 with Jetpac on Wii U I wonder if both could re-release Diddy Kong Racing (the DS port is awful) for both Switch and Xbox One.

It's mysterious that Disney has never tried to re-release those classics such as Aladdin (SNES/Mega Drive) or Mickey's Speedway USA (N64) except a few like Castle of Illusion that even had a sequel for 3DS.

I forgot to mention Star Fox Adventures, a wonderful Rare game that belongs to Nintendo for obvious reasons.

In short:

Nintendo: Donkey Kong Country trilogy, Donkey Kong 64 (except Jetpac) and Star Fox Adventures.

Rare: Killer Instinct, Conker and Banjo games.

Nintendo and Rare: Diddy Kong Racing.

Disney released SNES Aladdin on GBA (along with Capcom's SNES Mickey trilogy), while Genesis Aladdin I recall was ported to a few consoles (including the NES in PAL regions, Game Boy, and I think there were others)

@KingMike Didn't they release the Genesis Aladdin on Steam a few years ago??

I can't remember for sure but it sounds familiar.

@BlueOcean I also suspect that not only is it the Bond license that keeps it from getting released but also the actor's likeness. They released a remake of GoldenEye about 10 years ago on the Wii and had all new actor's including Daniel Craig as Bond instead of Pierce Brosnan. IIRC I read somewhere that Pierce didn't want his likeness in the remake so that's why they went with Craig.

@Tasuki Even if Pierce Brosnan is not James Bond now his appearance in Goldeneye 007 still belongs to MGM because of the film copyright. I suspect that Daniel Craig appears in the Wii game because he was the new James Bond then regardless of Pierce's willingness to not be portrayed.

@KingMike @Tasuki I was not thinking of old ports, I even mentioned that Aladdin appeared on both SNES and Mega Drive, with different games by the way. I mean that I don't remember these SNES/MD classics being ported recently, like The Disney Afternoon Collection (NES collection). I didn't know that Aladdin was ported to Steam recently. These 16-bit classics should be ported to the new consoles, it would be so easy, Disney, Capcom and Sega still are very active in the business. They could also do like they did with DuckTales and ask a new studio to remake the game.

What are your favourite Rare games, in between?

EDIT:

Nintendo is the publisher of Goldeneye 007 (N64), but it seems that their publishing rights expired in December 2017:

https://www.resetera.com/threads/goldeneye-007’s-ip-just-be...

This means that Rare can handle the game as long as they can make a deal with the IP owner (MGM). This also explains another chapter in history. Last generation (long before 2017) Nintendo wanted to release the original Goldeneye 007 for Wii (Virtual Console) and Rare was working on a remaster for Xbox 360. A few months before the launch of the remaster it was cancelled and the Virtual Console release never happened, apparently because Nintendo stepped back according to some sources.

Microsoft owning Rare and the Banjo-Kazooie IP is also the reason Yooka-Laylee exists. Microsoft's pretty much been sitting on the IP (except for re-releases of the originals) so the original developers got together and formed Playtonic so they could make a spiritual successor using original characters. The entire game is Totally Not Banjo-Threeie (and probably the closest we'll get to an actual Banjo-Threeie anytime soon).

However Banjo-Kazooie designer, Gregg Mayles, still works at Rare and Yooka-Laylee while not a bad game is not nearly as good as the Banjo-Kazooie games.

@BlueOcean Even so actor's nowadays have a say on their likeness in other media's such as games, toys, books etc. Regardless of who owns the movie trademark.

No argument there, but without the original designers and with Microsoft being Microsoft, any future Banjo-Kazooie games probably won't be as good as the originals either, and maybe even worse than Yooka-Laylee.

I don't think so, if you have the original designer and great artists why not? They'd probably need to hire a good writer though, Leigh Loveday ideally.

Nobody has answered my question though. What's your favourite Rare game?

@BlueOcean Most people seem to hate Star Fox Adventures/Dinosaur Planet. IMO that was the best game on the GC.

Jesus Mary and Joseph...

@Trajan I love Star Fox Adventures too. It's captivating. Funny that Nintendo wanted Dinosaur Planet to become a Star Fox game and that is why Star Fox fans don't like the game.

@BlueOcean To be honest, I don't think Nintendo would be keen on Diddy Kong Racing being released on the Xbox One, since that's one of their rival platforms and it features one of their characters (Diddy Kong in this case). Oh and I think Nintendo is pretty strict with their own properties.

Anyway, my favorite Rare game would have to be Donkey Kong Country 2