Rare, as we all know, is a very secretive company. Banjo-Kazooie 3, as we also know, is one of their most secretive titles so far. They've given information, but slowly and sparsely. For this reason, I decided to create a listing of every piece of information that has been revealed. It is split into sections, each relating to a major part of the game…Characters, Story, Gameplay, Levels, Music & Sound, and Miscellaneous. With the introduction out of the way, I'm pleased to bring all of you...Banjo-Kazooie 3: What We Know.
CHARACTERS:
Rare has confirmed a number of characters to appear in the game so far. Other than the duo themselves, these include the following…
Hailing from the first game: The evil witch Gruntilda, Bottles the move-tutoring mole, shaman Mumbo Jumbo, disturbing living toilet Loggo, and Clanker the mechincal shark-looking trash compactor.
Hailing from the sequel: Female shaman Humba Wumba, camp bar tender Jolly Roger, and Mr. Patch, everyone' favorite strange wobbly inflatable thing. Bottles' military-focused brother Jamjars is not returning, as confirmed by Scribes. The only new confirmed character is an unknown character assisting Gruntilda. As seen in the X06 Trailer with Banjo and Kazooie, and Rare's 2007 Christmas Card with Gruntilda, each returning character is being redesigned for the new game, these redesigns will make sense once we, "see the game and what it's about." Mumbo Jumbo and Humba Wumba will also have unknown new roles and apparently in the time between Tooie and this game have learned new skills. Gruntilda will return to her rhyming speech after a fairly long break from it in Banjo-Tooie.
STORY:
Following tradition, B-K3 will continue where Tooie left off, and in real-time. Quoth Gregg Mayles, ". . . a lot has changed since 2000. What have Banjo and Grunty been doing for all these years?"
GAMEPLAY:
The gameplay has been one of the most secretive parts of the games thus far. It will indeed be a platformer, although a "different take on the genre." The game will be familiar to fans of the original games, but will also have a new core gameplay mechanic. What this is is unknown so far, but it apparently approaches Jiggy "tasks" differently. The difficulty of each challenge will be determined by how you as a player go about it. According to Scribes, "The same task could be really simple and take just a few seconds for some players, but others may find it very hard and take hours." This gameplay mechanic may be something as of yet unseen in any other game. The 'not 100' Jiggies are still used to progress but are obtained differently. The game will also have more freedom than either of the previous games. A somewhat disappointing note to report is that Banjo and Kazooie will not have many of their abilities from the first two Banjo games. Jinjos and Notes will be changed up as well. Multiplayer is planned, but no first-person-shooting Squawkmatches seen in Banjo-Tooie.
LEVELS:
To start, Spiral Mountain is returning and it has been implied that it will be back to its "happy" status, rather than the gloomy, destroyed mess from Banjo-Tooie, and will be used in a different manner from previous titles. Oddly, of the returning Spiral Mountain, Rare also said, " "As we couldn't think up a clever new way to start the game we're going to be using Spiral Mountain yet again. We also thought we could get away with using the old N64 background but unfortunately someone noticed. We have however managed to come up with some clever ways of reusing this background. So if you liked Spiral Mountain it's all good. But if you didn't you may be a little unhappy. Actually, if you disliked Spiral Mountain and don't like cacti you could even be angry." The Isle O' Hags, however, will not be able to be revisited. A new hub world has been confirmed and hints at an additional level were given with the words, "Conflagration Violent," and that one of the game's levels will be "one that features a volcano with double entendres." Rare also confirmed a trippy Cloud Cuckooland-esque level featuring "inflatable sheep and polystyrene buildings." There will be classic levels remade, but, according to Gregg, "not how [we] expect." Possibly hinting further at this, the large snowman stage element from Freezeezy Peak and the Mad Monster Mansion itself are returning. The game's levels will not be much larger as compared to Tooie, but will still be interesting to explore while not being overly complex.
MUSIC & SOUND:
Grant Kirkhope, who composed the music for the first two Banjo titles, is once again composing. In addition, Robin Beanland (Killer Instinct, Conker's Bad Fur Day) is helping Mr. Kirkhope with the music. The music may be orchestrated, as was the case for Rare's Viva Pi�ata. The characters will retain their classic mumbly chatter noises, rather than having full voice-acting.
MISCELLANEOUS:
As of December 30, 2007, the game is more than halfway done and as of February 12, 2008, is on-track for a holiday 2008 release, although this, as ever, is subject to change. It will remain rated E for Everyone, but will also retain its subtle risqu� humor. There are no plans for a PC release at the moment, and there likely may not be one. While new elements will be introduced, Gregg stresses, "this remains a Banjo game."
And there you are. Hopefully as time goes on I will be able to update this with new and exciting information. Until then, ciao fellow Banjo fans!
SOURCES:
http://www.rareware.com/extras/scrib…t06/index.html
http://www.rare.co.uk/extras/scribes/8dec06/index.html
http://au.gamespot.com/news/6174823.html
http://www.rare.co.uk/extras/scribes/30aug07/index.html
http://www.rare.co.uk/extras/scribes/20dec07/index.html
http://www.rarewitchproject.com/foru…&postcount=108
http://www.rarewitchproject.com/foru…&postcount=183
http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2008/…celed-and-more
http://www.gamesradar.com/xbox360/ba…27172414578031