Fine, I'll Do It Myself: Xbox Has Neglected Banjo-Kazooie, So a PlayStation Gamer Has Taken Matters Into Their Own Hands

A talented PlayStation gamer has taken matters into their own hands after being frustrated at Xbox’s treatment of the Banjo-Kazooie franchise. In the absence of a new game, they’ve gone ahead and created their own Banjo-Kazooie fan game within Dreams, which is only available to PlayStation gamers.

It’s no secret that Xbox has long neglected the Banjo-Kazooie franchise. Since Microsoft bought Rare back in 2002, it has only released one mainline game in the series: Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. It was a solid Xbox 360 exclusive, leading many to wonder why Microsoft hasn’t used the IP since. The three main titles in the series were also featured in 2015’s Rare Replay, but as far as actual new content, fans have been left waiting for a whopping 17 years. During this time, Rare has developed other new titles such as Kinect Sports and Sea of Thieves, the latter of which has proved immensely popular.

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New Banjo-Kazooie Fan Game Was Made Entirely in Dreams

A trailer on X was posted by Banjo-Kazooie: Mumbomania creator Eupholace, who also worked alongside Piece_of_Craft and duckenomics for different areas of the project, which was created in the PlayStation 4 game, Dreams. The game appears to capture the charm of the original classic 3D platformer, and looks very similar to how most would expect a modern Banjo-Kazooie game to look. Banjo-Kazooie: Mumblemania appears to be a remake of the Treasure Trove Cove from the first game in the series. It’s unclear whether the developer plans to recreate even more levels from the game, but they joked in a follow-up post that “there’s a very good chance Dreams would be shut down before I could finish that.”

According to Eupholace, the project took around 14 months to complete, as well as “800+ hours of work.” In total, they say it takes 1-2 hours to complete 100%, showing how long it takes to put together even such a short project. They claimed they decided to create Banjo-Kazooie: Mumblemania because of problems they wanted to solve from the original game, leading them down a process of “tons of iteration to find good solutions.” Gamers in the X thread were thoroughly blown away by Banjo-Kazooie: Mumblemania, and some couldn’t believe it was made in Dreams. There’s certainly an irony that only PlayStation gamers can play this fan project, given that it’s a franchise currently owned by Microsoft.

Ever since Dreams was released back in 2020, gamers have been using it to create interesting projects, many of which involve bringing other IPs into the game in unique ways. For example, a gamer a while ago used Dreams to pay homage to Ratchet and Clank, and it’s been fascinating to see what passionate fans have been able to create with this toolkit. Five years on, and gamers are still seeing some really cool stuff with Dreams.

As it stands, it doesn’t appear that Banjo-Kazooie will be making an official return any time soon. There was a rumor that, as of January, new Banjo-Kazooie pitches were being heard at Xbox, but nothing has come of that yet. Still, the demand for a return of this classic franchise is clearly there among gamers, and it’s relatively surprising that it has been on hiatus for so long, even if the 3D platformer isn’t in its strongest moment right now. That said, Rare’s success with Sea of Thieves means the developer is tied up for the foreseeable future, so it would be interesting to see if Microsoft would be willing to let another studio try its hand at reviving this classic franchise.