We knew it was inevitable, especially since a pre-UGO-infested 1UP confirmed it
back in July. Still, for such happy news, I will happily climb the highest mountain to proclaim to the world that
Banjo-Tooie is headed to XBLA in April. While
Banjo-Kazooie still holds a special place in my heart,
Banjo-Tooie was always my favorite of the two original games, due to its polished worlds and more varied gameplay.
Kotaku reports (in a typo-ridden post) that
Banjo-Tooie will be ported by 4J Studios, the same developer responsible for the earlier XBLA port of
Banjo-Kazooie. The main differences, besides HD visuals that remove the notorious N64 blur and achievements, will be the full implementation of the mysterious Stop 'n' Swop feature removed before release. For those not familiar, the original plan was for the gamer to acquire an ice key and six eggs in Banjo-Kazooie, then swap the game cart out for Banjo-Tooie to transfer them over via the N64's memory, which held data for about 10 seconds. This was scrapped due to differing N64 models and the fact that such an idea was extremely dangerous if you performed it wrong, possibly corrupting your N64 and its games. However, I'm not sure that this new implementation of Stop 'n' Swop will be all it's cracked up to be.
Without anyone ever knowing the true facts on the situation, Stop 'n' Swop was definitely scrapped before
Banjo-Kazooie was released. From looking at investigations from
The Rare Witch Project, it seems that at one point
BK was
meant to link up with Donkey Kong 64, a link that is
still being explored on the
DK64 side. When that was discarded, they obviously planned to shift development over to
Banjo-Tooie, hence the secret video at the end of
BK if you got all 100 jiggies and beat Gruntilda. Their mistake was allowing this video to still reference
the ice key and 6 eggs after Stop 'n' Swop had been scrapped, instead of just promising a sequel. The ice key in BT, along with three of the ? eggs (two hidden in Spiral Mountain, one smaller and in plain view in the egg-hatching chicken's house), must have no relation from a coding perspective to the original ice key and eggs.
Long story short: any "restored" implementation of Stop 'n' Swop present in the XBLA ports of
BK and
BT will be markedly different from whatever the unknown original intention was. It was just one idea that was eventually changed, just as
Banjo-Kazooie originally had an overworld of the "
Giant's Lair" (changed to Grunty's Lair), a level called "
Fungus Forest" (moved to
DK64 as Fungi Forest), a level called "
Mt. Fire Eyes" (reimagined as the fire side of Hellfire Peaks in
BT and replaced with Mad Monster Mansion), and a level called "
Hammerhead Beach" (simply renamed Treasure Trove Cove). That, and the fact that it was originally about a boy, with Banjo being one of many sidekicks, who opposed pirates led by Captain Blackbeard (seen in
BT), back when it was announced as
Project Dream for SNES/N64.
So what could Stop 'n' Swop reveal? Unless they want to just add in some random extras that won't live up to the name, I would bet that 4J Studios will simply implement the near-finished
Bottle's Revenge "co-op" mode that was found in
BT via ROM-hacking. Regardless of whether or not Stop 'n' Swop ends up being awesome, I'm still very excited to see Banjo's second adventure get the non-blurry release that it deserves. Out of the many early 3D graphics that aged very poorly,
Banjo-Kazooie and
Banjo-Tooie has graphics that still hold up very well in my eyes. That, and it had a soundtrack that sounds just too good for the MIDI it was working with. Ah, nostalgia is a wonderful thing.
Like I said, I lost my copy in a move and shortly thereafter died inside. This is music to my Tooieless ears.
I still need to purchase the XBLA Banjo game.
D:
If it's 400 points I get it, I won't pay more than that.
I may be biased, but the Banjo games are easily worth the asking price of $15 each. Granted, they would be more appropriate at $10 each, going by VC pricing, but with the massively cleaned-up visuals, I really don't mind the price. (Even though I got BK with Nuts and Bolts, making it more like I got Nuts and Bolts for $25.)
I'm a bit confused. So do I need to play BK for XBLA to enjoy the stop'n'swap stuff for BT on the XBLA?
Because I'm nearly done replaying the original BK on N64.
I'm excited about playing Banjo-Tooie, as I beat the crap out of Banjo-Kazooie on XBLA already and I'm getting lazy with Nuts & Bolts.
SO EXCITED
I never played Tooie, but I loved Kazooie to death. I will happily pick this up and enjoy myself with it.
@ Dimly
Yes, you'll need to play the XBLA version of BK for the XBLA version of BT. The transfer is not codes, but data. The ice key and 6 eggs are implemented fully in BK in preparation for this, unlike with the N64 version.
Thanks for the insight! You are oh so informative.
Seriously, fuck that canary. The other day Ryu and I had a very long discussion about Stop 'n' Swop and the B-K series in general which was extremely nerdy yet equally awesome.
It's so great to know people who have such similar likes, dislikes, and viewpoints as many of you do. Thank Raptor Jesus for the Internet.
Can't wait, found Tooie to be a lot better (imo) than Kazooie.
Yeah Canary Mary really needs to just go ahead and die already. Hopefully this version of Stop N Swop will create some kind of canary poison that you can give her before the race.
You haven't even beaten Banjo Kazooie, have you?
it's going to be a disappointment, whatever it's going to be. I'm so sick of hearing about this goddamn Stop 'n Swop bullshit... give it up already!
I never could beat the second Canary Mary race on Cloud Cuckooland, meaning that the only item I didn't collect in Banjo-Tooie was the last Cheato page. It still depresses me.
I'm sure whatever it was isn't much, but it'll be nice to put this whole rumor thing to rest.
@ParaParaKing
Yeah Banjo-Tooie is probably one of the best sequels to a game ever. It's just so fun.
And omfg CANARY MARY GOD I HATE YOU!!! ONLY JIGGY IN BANJO-TOOIE THAT I COULD NEVER GET!!!! >< *rage*
"Unless they want to just add in some random extras that won't live up to the name..."
Um, wouldn't just a bunch of random extras precisely live up to the "Stop 'n' Swop" name? That's all it is in Nuts & Bolts, and that's the only game we have to reference it.