Dear Scribes,
I'm a longterm fan. Well. Longterm enough. You had me at Banjo-Kazooie's release, so there.
I'm not here to be critical or pose questions that have been asked to you lot till the words begin to haunt your dreams, but to ask this. My gaming future may rest upon the answer. Basically you lot ruined platformers for me. I could hardly play anything last gen without your logo, or that of a certain company you were 2nd party for a while on the box. Why? Your games are too good (as are theirs).
I'm writing to ask you all what you consider the future of the platform game to be? Recent efforts of other companies have ended up falling into a schematic that involves no exploration, no collecting and a short, linear experience with virtually no reward, with single-button combat being the bulk of the game(s). Please Rare, assure me that this same folly will not befall the new Banjo-Kazooie game. I need notes, Jinjos, secret honeycombs and sickeningly hard Jiggy challenges!
Also, I'm sure you guys aren't the sorts to turn down a good idea, but how about reviving an ancient cartoon called Pirates of Dark Water? You guys could turn a story like that into the kind of game that makes a Zelda title look undeveloped.
Anyways. Me ruv you rong time. Forever an' that. Honest.
Alan Herron


I would go into a lengthy discussion of the future of 3D platforming at this point, but it'd have to be tongue-in-cheek because I don't actually have any deep thoughts on the subject, and I'm pragmatic enough to know that you couldn't give a toss what I think anyway. So then: Banjo team?
"I think it would be brash and very un-British to claim that the new Banjo is the future of platforming games. So we will modestly claim that we are trying to offer something that takes platforming games in a new direction. Whether this direction is a one-off or does create a future remains to be seen. But I totally agree with you that this genre has lost its way in current years. Despite pulling out hair on a daily basis while wrestling with issues that Banjo has never seen before, I love the fact that we are committed to making something different rather than more of the same.
"Dream (the game that eventually became Banjo-Kazooie) was a story about pirates. We had Captain Blackeye, Grim Jim and Flintlock Jock. As it was never finished we can loftily claim that it would have been the best pirate game ever. And there would not have been a pesky ninja in sight."