Top 5 YouTube Rare Remixes
Ordinarily, remixes are confined to sweaty provincial nightclubs or motivational dance compilations beloved by people who exercise. Fortunately, YouTube is also a goldmine of fan-made rejigs of classic console tuneage. So, inspired by the Electro Fizz, Wobble Dub and Big Beat Bonanza remixes included on the Kinect Sports Eyes on the Prize 12″ single, not to mention talented medley-making, tune-reworking YouTube folk like this fellow, we invite you to get your groove on with a sick selection of Rare-inspired sounds. Brap! Brap! Etc.
TOP 5 YOUTUBE RARE REMIXES
According to… Neal Clark
1. B-K: Rusty Bucket Bay (Dubstep Remix)
Ah, dubstep… how far your signature brand of electro gloom-wobble has spread. So much so, that even the likes of Britney and, er… Jinjos are now getting in on the act? As they (apparently) say in dubstep circles, ‘wait for the drop’.
Oct 2011
Top 5 Characters Who Never Made It
- This content was made available in advance to Rare newsletter subscribers. Sign up here!
Most games start off juggling far more content than they can reasonably contain, so they end up shedding ideas, characters and levels along the way as pesky issues like practicality and release dates are taken into consideration. Rare design veteran Mr. Mayles has seen a lot of this sort of thing over the many projects he’s worked on – here are just a handful of examples.
TOP 5 CHARACTERS WHO NEVER MADE IT
According to… Gregg Mayles
1. Devil Bottles (Banjo-Tooie)
Star of a pioneering counter-op mode cut at the last minute due to lack of time for proper testing. Better no mode at all than a potentially game-breaking mode. I still have happy memories of being able to control Old King Coal though…
2. Dr. Krackpot (Grabbed by the Ghoulies)
He did technically make it, but not in the capacity we wanted. We had a big boss-style confrontation planned – then ran out of time, so he was reduced to a bit part in the storybook cut-scenes.
3. Dung Beetle (Viva Piñata)
It plopped on the floor, you picked it up and put it on your plants for super growth. It would have made us childishly happy to get something like that into the game. At least we got a Sweetle in the sequel.
4. Big Belly and Captain Cockeye (Dream)
When the whole project was shelved, Blackeye managed to escape into the world of Banjo but Big Belly and Cockeye (a good guy relation of evil Blackeye, as I recall) weren’t so lucky.
5. Mrs. Pie (It’s Mr. Pants)
One badly-drawn character was clearly enough.
You made it! To the end. Suggestions for future Top 5 lists welcome! Send them our way.
Feb 2011
Banjo’s Original Tinkers
When Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts arrived back in November 2008, the hope was that it would inspire a new generation of fans to get creative. And although many were content to use the building tools to topple Thomas’ challenges and send Grunty packing, others weren’t going to stop there.
Over the past three years, the community over at Banjo-Kazooie.com (and beyond) have come up with some truly staggering innovations. We’ve picked out some of our favourites that have become milestones in the history of Mumbo’s Motors and left many people wondering, “How did they do that?” It’s amazing what you can achieve with a few nuts, bolts and a sprinkling of voodoo magic.
1. Plasma Engine
Eekumbokum! Even Da Vinci himself would have been proud of the plasma engine – a spring-driven device for powering helicopter blades.
This brainchild of SpaghettiYeti27 did away with the need to carry tons of fuel and offered the kind of mobility not seen in other vehicles. It took the community several weeks to figure out exactly how he’d done it, with many struggling to create a replica that wouldn’t self-destruct mid-flight. Another problem that took some time to fix was that the vehicle couldn’t land once it had taken off. This was eventually solved by using a magnetic tow-bar to disengage the propeller.
2. Walkers
When The Hell Raider came up with the idea of creating a fully functioning walker, it ignited one of the biggest races in Banjo-Kazooie history. BroPrincess’ ‘The Stepper’ was among the first to hit the forums, using jets facing downward to lift each leg, propellers to make them step down and tow-bars to give the legs flexibility. The result was extremely impressive and set the formula for numerous other mech-type vehicles, many of which were armed to the teeth. Here’s how to make your own.
Feb 2011
Banjo-Kazooie Done Sharpish
If time is such a great teacher, why is it that we’re still getting nipped by Snippets and splatted by Slappas after all these years? We obviously haven’t practised at Banjo-Kazooie as much as Chris van Halbeek, a Dutch gamer who just completed a ‘speed run’ through the entire game in under three hours, all in the name of charity.
Speed running is the art of finishing a game as quickly as possible in a single session, and while Chris couldn’t quite top the record of 2:40:05 (set on the N64 version by Daniel ‘Gibbatizer’ Gibb in 2009) it was still a terrific effort for an excellent cause. We caught up with the man to discuss the perils of speed running and what inspired him to take up this frantic challenge.
Rare: First up, please could you tell us a little about the Awesome Games Done Quick event and its drive to help charity?
Chris van Halbeek: Awesome Games Done Quick was a project created by the speed run site speeddemosarchive.com. We have an annual marathon to raise money for charity and the Prevent Cancer Foundation was our choice this year. We ended up raising over $50,000 for them which is amazing. It’s a real good charity because everybody knows someone who has had cancer or is struggling with it.
Rare: How did you get involved with doing speed runs?
Chris van Halbeek: I got involved with speed running after SDA’s previous marathon. After watching that, I just knew this was what I had to do. I don’t have any actual runs up on SDA but I hope that will soon change.
Jan 2011
Top 5 Lines Lost From Nuts & Bolts
- This content was made available in advance to Rare newsletter subscribers. Sign up here!
The process of wrangling the in-game dialogue for Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts involved more revisions and rewrites than you could shake a Minjo at. As an insight into some of the factors faced, here are a handful of the lines that were confronted with the axe – or at least a serious rethink.
TOP 5 LINES LOST FROM BANJO-KAZOOIE: NUTS & BOLTS
According to… Leigh Loveday
1. “Gasp, pant… I was beginning to think nobody would ever find me. I’ve been stranded for days without water. My natural cerise skin tone is fading to an ugly shade of salmon!” – Pink Jinjo, Nutty Acres
Changed because… the locations of challenges were changing right up to the last minute, so text had to be updated on the fly. This Jinjo (who originally wanted to go to the water tower) would end up being found somewhere else entirely, so his/her lines were rewritten to account for the new location and target destination. I think he/she ended up loitering in a swamp instead. Sucks to be him/her.
2. “If you’re going to whack me with that Wrench, I’ll return the favor with a bench!” – Grunty, Showdown Town
Changed because… someone realised that Grunty would speak these lines whether you hit her with the Wrench or a vehicle, which meant changing her reaction to avoid specifying whether you’re trying to bash her skull in or run her over.
3. “I’ll never get to visit Mad Monster Mansion! I’ll have to settle for playing Ghoulies instead, and that’s hardly a substitute.” – Yellow Jinjo, Banjoland
Changed because… it became another casualty of the eleventh hour challenge location shift. Eventually this fella didn’t need a lift to the Mad Monster Mansion exhibit at all, so we missed out on a prime opportunity to make fun of Grabbed by the Ghoulies again.
4. “The brightness control units are set way too high. I’m getting a migraine! They’re like chip shop lights!” – Bottles, LOGBox 720
Changed because… the Localisation sweep caught a number of references that would probably be lost on anyone outside the UK. A chip shop (aka chippy) is where we purchase that great British delicacy, fish and chips. These fine institutions often feature harsh fluorescent lighting intended to disorientate drunk people.
5. “Hello there. Come to play a game? That’s fine, as long as you don’t expect any remarks about tossing.” – Yellow Jinjo, Banjoland
Changed because… the Jinjo Hurl challenge was originally known as Jinjo Toss. As this can be construed as a little bit rude in the UK, we unsuccessfully tried to work in as many childish jokes as possible. This version of the line is actually from a later stage after we’d been through and cut out all the direct tossing references, but it was still, sadly, too much.
Job done. Suggestions for future Top 5 lists welcome! Send them our way.
Dec 2010
Top 5 Hardest Levels to Design
- This content was made available in advance to Rare newsletter subscribers. Sign up here!
You’ve got to have a Top 5 or Top 10 list somewhere or it’s not a proper blog. We’ll do our best to make our contributions interesting; actual team members will be recruited and asked to stick to a Rare theme, not list their favourite biscuits or anything. Cue opening instalment!
TOP 5 HARDEST LEVELS TO DESIGN
According to… Gregg Mayles
1. Click Clock Wood (Banjo-Kazooie)
Four levels in one that could be played in any order and had to make sense chronologically = major brain straining.
2. Terrarium of Terror (Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts)
Working out how to connect all the areas together and being able to navigate any vehicle through them.
3. Barrel Cannon Canyon (Donkey Kong Country)
Making sure the player could fire themselves out of each barrel on their first rotation/movement to allow them to whizz through the level looking super-skilful.
4. Grunty Industries (Banjo-Tooie)
I think designing a real factory would have been easier – too many floors and doors.
5. The whole house (Grabbed by the Ghoulies)
The story weaves here, there and everywhere through it…
So now you know. Suggestions for future Top 5 lists welcome! Send them our way.
Oct 2010
