Game:

Conker's Bad Fur Day (2001)

Duration: 2:17

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Playtonic is a new independent game development studio formed entirely of staff who once worked for Rare Ltd., the creators of Donkey Kong Country and Banjo Kazooie and Perfect Dark and Jet Force Gemini and Goldeneye 64 and Conker’s Bad Fur Day and even more of the best videogames you’ve ever played in your entire life. Or maybe that’s just me. I am so, so freaking passionate about Banjo Tooie specifically.



The website currently only features an image of 2 sets of eyes behind leaves with the caption “who's hiding in here?” and an adorably quirky news post outlining the company’s future plans. It says:

“Currently we’re a sextet of artists, programmers and designers – sort of like The Pussycat Dolls with computer science degrees – with one thing in common; we were all once core member of famous UK studio Rare, where we helmed franchises such as Banjo-Kazooie, Donkey Kong Country and Viva Piñata.

We’ve got the bloke who programmed Donkey Kong Country, the character designer behind Banjo and Kazooie, and the artist who made your console fit to burst with lavish environments across a decade’s worth of adventure games.”

This is the game development studio that has been missing for the past 2 decades of my life, seriously. The post also announced the studio’s debut game, ‘Project Ukulele’. It is set to be a spiritual successor to “fondly remembered” platforming adventures such as Banjo Kazooie and Banjo Tooie, oh my god yes.

Really, I haven’t been this happy about anything in the games industry since the first time I tried an Oculus Rift. Ubisoft were my favourite studio for a while, until they turned Assassin’s Creed into a horribly over-milked cash cow. That poor, poor cow. And then I considered Bethesda, but I don’t actually like that many Bethesda games, I just have this weird respect for them.

Now, Rockstar are pretty freaking fantastic, too, but there’s some kind of creative flare missing from their games that I tend to crave – probably because I was over-exposed to the creative awesomeness that was Rare, back in the Nintendo 64 days. So, my favourite development studio, still, to this day, is pre-Microsoft Rare. When Microsoft bought them outright in 2003, the only particularly likeable game they produced was Viva Pinata. They absolutely butchered Perfect Dark.

But, that’s probably because all the Rare veterans left. I am so, so excited by the idea of Playtonic maybe potentially becoming my new favourite developers, and the fact that they’re ‘indie’ means no cash cows or butchering of well-loved franchises, right? Hopefully. I’m really excited, you guys.

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