RareFan

It's strangely unsettling not hearing their iconic voices.

I just can’t get over how ridiculously buff and muscular Lara Croft is now. At this point, they might as well rename her Larry Craft.

People read way too much into things like this. I don’t see how this form is meant to be a queer representation.

Personally, I see a small advantage in this: a mobile game can draw more people's attention to the IP, and who knows – maybe Ratchet & Clank will even gain some popularity as a result.

I was hoping to see more SEGA characters, but sadly, it seems the only franchise people in the West care about is Sonic. So you kinda need to squeeze in every DeviantArt furry character they have. I really miss the other SEGA All-Stars like Ulala, Billy Hatcher, Beat, and Amigo.

Unfortunately, they’re several years too late. The ideal time for a Crash Bandicoot cartoon would’ve been back in the 1990s, alongside shows like Tiny Toons, Taz-Mania, or Animaniacs—all of which perfectly captured that zany, energetic style in their characters, settings, and animation. Crash has become pretty irrelevant again, and honestly, a simple, fun cartoon just doesn’t fit the current landscape, where everything is taken way too seriously.

The game already has enough Sonic characters and content, in my opinion. The only ones I'd like to see are the remaining members of the Deadly Six. Otherwise, I'd prefer more unusual guest characters like SpongeBob or Hatsune Miku.

Sonic was unfortunately never very popular in Japan. When it comes to brand-based games, no one can truly compete with Mario. Regardless of how good or even superior other games might be, Mario will always be the preferred choice—simply because its Mario.

Say what you will about Bubsy, but this series never gave up. I think all the negative videos about the classic Bubsy games ultimately managed to turn the character into a major internet meme and bring new attention to the series. In his own way, Bubsy is actually a great inspiration for game developers: Even if the entire internet is trolling you for past mistakes, don't give up, get better. And yes, what's shown doesn't look bad at all. I wish the studios behind Rayman or Banjo-Kazooie had as much ambition as Bubsy today.

In that case, let’s hope King K. Rool will be the main villain in this film. And hopefully he will be voiced by Benedict Campbell.

I heard about 7,000 layoffs earlier this week. Are there an additional 9,000 new ones coming in now — making a total of 16,000? Or is it only 9,000 in total? I'm a little confused right now and losing track.

These days, most AAA games — like The Last of Us, Until Dawn, Uncharted, and even Horizon to some extent — feel more like blueprints for future film franchises than standalone games. Personally, I find more enjoyment in smaller titles like Spyro or Ratchet & Clank, which are, at best, considered AA games.

It’s strange, not hearing a single word from SpongeBob. Squidward would probably enjoy the silence.

Is it really such a bad thing if we get something different for once? The last console generation from Nintendo was almost entirely dominated by Mario games. Nearly half of Nintendo’s lineup always seems to revolve around Mario. I’m honestly glad that Donkey Kong is finally getting his own game again. Not everything needs to follow the Mario formula—especially since Mario is actually quite limited when it comes to world design and presentation.

She’s absolutely adorable! I guess this will be her new backstory. But if she’s a kid now and this is her first official canonical appearance, then who was the woman Cranky kidnapped in the old arcade games?

Here are my hopes:

• Provide deeper insight into expanded gameplay mechanics.
• Show gameplay footage of that bizarre long-legged mine cart Nintendo previously revealed in a render.
• Reveal gameplay of Rambi—and hopefully confirm the return of other Animal Buddies like Expresso or Squitter.
• Give us more story details: Who exactly is Void Co., and what are their motives?
• Clarify Pauline’s role in the narrative.
• Confirm which other Kongs will appear—Diddy seems like a given, but fans would love to see the return of characters like Chunky, Lanky, Tiny, or Kiddy.
• Introduce more NPCs. What other animal species are featured? It’d be great to see some new ones like hyenas or jerboas.
• Bring back the Brother Bears from Donkey Kong Country 3 as NPCs—they’d fit perfectly.
• Show King K. Rool and the Kremlings. Even if they aren’t part of the main story, a cameo would be enough to show fans they haven’t been forgotten—like Big’s role in Sonic Frontiers.
• Reveal at least one new world theme—ideally something fresh and unexpected rather than the standard jungle, underwater, volcano, or spooky forest environments.
• Highlight at least one 2D level and explain its purpose within the game.
• Explain the collectible system: What can you gather, and how are those items used?
• Show costume customization—can DK wear more than just overalls? Where do you get these outfits?
• Preview at least one boss fight.
• Showcase a broader variety of enemies—right now, the enemy types feel a bit limited.

The trailer barely showed us anything about this game. It’s possible that what we saw in the trailer is all the game has to offer — every boss, enemy, NPC (except maybe a few animals like rats and giraffes, which I suspect might appear based on the environments we’ve seen), all the worlds, and nearly all the gameplay mechanics — except for the mine cart and Rambi segments.

This just goes to show me how bad SEGA's marketing can be sometimes. Apparently, this is the main reason people buy the game in the first place and why it's called Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds – because Sonic and his friends meet various characters from other universes. However, we only find out about this through leaks. Many Sonic fans, including people like me, initially thought that CrossWorlds would focus more on the Sonic universe and that you might also be able to play as characters from other Sonic media, such as Scratch & Grounder, Sally Acorn, Tom the Cop, and so on. SEGA should have shown this in the first big trailer; then the game would have been a lot more talked about online.

@N00BiSH
I never saw this character before.

The only character I don’t recognize is the big dog. It must be a brand-new character introduced in other Garfield media, or maybe just invented specifically for this game. I hope they bring back the characters from U.S. Acres.

They never canceled a Sonic game just because it wasn’t good enough, so why treat Virtua Fighter differently? Probably because Sonic is a system seller — the quality doesn’t matter as much any more, like with most big brands these days. Meanwhile, Virtua Fighter is a more niche franchise that still has to prove it’s worth your money.

Just bring the Kremlings back already — it's been far too long. I never understood why Nintendo removed them in the first place.

Really, no one is safe now.

This could be Ubisoft’s last real chance to create something meaningful and genuinely good. Rayman is pretty much the only major franchise they have left that could still win people back — though calling it “major” is a bit of a stretch these days.

They’ve run many of their other franchises into the ground by churning out yearly releases — Assassin’s Creed, Just Dance, and Far Cry being prime examples. Others, like Prince of Persia, receive critical praise but fail to sell well. Then there are games like the recent Star Wars title, which launched as a buggy mess, or Beyond Good and Evil 2, which has been stuck in development limbo for what feels like forever.

A proper AAA Rayman game sounds like a dream come true. Let’s just hope Ubisoft can handle it with the care it deserves and not mess it up. Rayman is, after all, one of their most beloved and well-received franchises.

Say whatever you want about Bubsy, but he really is a video game character who keeps trying — no matter what.

He’s like the worst of what the world has to offer—cynical, nihilistic, and ultimately just someone who doesn’t want big things to happen unless they feed his ego.

That said, I sadly don’t think it’s worth bringing Banjo-Kazooie back. When an IP is left dormant for too long, people simply lose interest. To keep a franchise alive, you have to keep it fresh and relevant.

Take Kid Icarus, for example. They brought it back, but it still flopped—or at least the sales didn’t meet expectations. When something is dead, sometimes it’s best to leave it that way. Only a small group of nostalgia-driven fans would even consider buying it at that point.

@Ogbert
I wonder how many people were actually offended by Humba Wumba. It feels like another Speedy Gonzales or Apu situation — where just a small group made a lot of noise, and suddenly the character had to be retired because of the backlash. I’d bet most of the people who claim to be offended by the Banjo-Kazooie character weren’t even fans to begin with. I always question why we’re expected to censor ourselves to please people who never supported us in the first place.

@Ogbert
If the main goal nowadays is to avoid offending anyone, then the safest option would be to create nothing at all. With that approach, you’re guaranteed not to upset anyone. But in art, it doesn’t work like that — either everything is allowed, or nothing is. You can’t selectively choose what can and can’t be expressed. That’s not how art or creativity functions.

Please, not Toys for Bob. They clearly have an agenda when it comes to making games. Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie were created in a different time, when people had a different sense of humour. That humour is a huge part of what makes the series so memorable.

If Toys for Bob were to work on a new entry, they’d probably have to censor it to fit with modern sensibilities. Characters like Mumbo Jumbo, Humba Wumba, and Jolly Roger would almost certainly be changed. Just look at what they did with Tawna in Crash 4 — she had to be completely redesigned to match today’s standards.

Not only that, but the silly, juvenile jokes that defined the original games would likely be toned down or removed entirely, just in case someone somewhere might get offended. And let’s be honest, the last Crash game wasn’t great — terrible box placement, unfair difficulty, and it felt like it was trying too hard to fit into whatever meme was trending at the time.

No, I don’t want Banjo-Kazooie brought back by them — or really by anyone else right now. People have become too sensitive to enjoy this kind of game the way it was meant to be enjoyed.

They’re probably making top dollar and still have loads of free time—unlike me.

None, I’m way too broke for fancy luxuries like a video game console.

Most of these “characters” are just the same ones in different costumes — a weird choice, to be honest. Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled didn’t make every skin its own character. Also, a lot of these characters are just generic enemies or even background objects, like the snowman.

To be honest, this is not what I would call an engaging roster, because most of them are just skins or throwaway characters. I would have been more impressed if Nintendo had chosen actual characters from other spin-off series, such as Diddy, Dixie, Cranky, Funky, or K. Rool from the Donkey Kong series; Captain Syrup from Wario Land; Ashley and Mona from WarioWare; Professor E. Gadd or Helen Gravely from the Luigi’s Mansion series; or Fawful from Mario & Luigi.

Other franchises have delivered better fan service, like the upcoming Sonic Racing Crossworld.

Donkey Kong's new look and animation is probably the best part of the game so far. He's never had so much personality before — in fact, no Nintendo character has ever had as much character as he does here. That's one of the biggest criticisms I have of Nintendo: While their games are compelling in terms of gameplay, everything that's not directly related to the gameplay is often neglected — personality, story, charm, atmosphere, etc.

Many of their characters — Mario, Link, Samus, Olimar, as well as numerous characters from Pokémon and Fire Emblem — have virtually no personality. They display no emotions, no hint of depth, nothing that suggests they could be complex characters. Other mascots from major companies have done a much better job: Rayman, Banjo-Kazooie, Conker, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, Earthworm Jim, Ratchet & Clank, Sly Cooper — they all exude personality, just through their animations.

I really hope that other Nintendo characters will also get more personality in the future. It doesn't have to be a lot, but at least more than nothing.

Meh - in my words, that means “average”.

No King K. Rool or the Kremlings again? And none of the other Kongs or Animal Buddies either? Oh well… I suppose this is better than nothing.

I know that graphics aren’t everything, but this doesn’t look much different than the previous Mario Kart title.

Well, they team is gone, so… who cares.

I personally would have chosen Zazz.

Besides superhero comics and action flicks, what do Westerners (and by that, I mean Americans) genuinely enjoy? Their tastes seem much more limited compared to those in Japan and Europe.

Well, if they don’t want to give us a new Banjo-Kazooie game, they might as well release overpriced figures for all the other important characters. The only ones missing are Bottles, Klungo, Jamjars, and Humba Wumba. Unless, of course, they also make a separate figure for every transformation from Banjo-Tooie.

Wow, they really put a lot of effort into this remaster, or remake, or what ever you want to call it.

@SintasSays
I am. He and Zavok bring some much-needed variety to the roster. Not only are they among the few villains, but they’re also among the rare characters who aren’t just DeviantArt furry bait.

Probably just three to five characters from non-Sonic franchises. Sadly, Sonic is the only SEGA series that is well-known and successful in the West.

Sounds more like a mobile game.

You can tell, that the key art was done with AI.

Nintendo really seems to believe that the entire Donkey Kong franchise revolves solely around DK and Diddy. There’s no K. Rool, Dixie, Rambi, Lanky — not even the Tiki Tak Tribe, despite being the new arch-enemies — getting their own merchandise.

Let's hope that at least one of them is a new Rayman game or a sequel to Child of Light.

The idea they had in mind for Big is way too dark.