Evercade Details How It Modernized Banjo-Kazooie and Tooie

Earlier this year, Evercade released the Super Pocket Rare Edition handheld. Along with traditional Evercade cartridges, players can also play 14 classic Rare-developed games, including the original Banjo-Kazooie.

Evercade has now released a new video that dives deep into the upcoming double-pack cartridge, which includes both Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie.

Evercade Banjo Games Get New Quality-of-Life Features

In the deep dive, Ryan Dekker, a producer and developer at Blaze Entertainment, the makers of the re-released Banjo games, spoke about the work that went into building the games from the ground up for Evercade.

“We didn’t want to tamper with the core nature of these games too much. But developing brand-new ports rather than emulating the original 64-bit versions has allowed us to introduce quality-of-life features that make playing them much more comfortable and enjoyable from a modern gamer’s perspective. As well as improving the look and feel with improved resolution on the 3D graphics, high-resolution fonts, smoother frame rates, and full widescreen support for both games,” he said.

The team also discussed quality-of-life improvements, such as a new tiptoe button and the ability to fast travel to Gruntilda’s lair, a cut feature from the original release that the new developers restored. They’ve also added new bonus features and secrets that were originally in accessible in the original game.

While these games offer a refreshed take on the original Banjo games, the question remains whether a new Banjo title will ever be released. To offer some hope, Toys for Bob recently stated that it would be interested in making a new Banjo title.

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For more on Insider Gaming, check out the details of Evercade’s DOOM Collection. Also, don’t forget to sign up for our weekly newsletter.