Banjo-Kazooie

Banjo-Kazooie debuted in 1998 on the Nintendo 64 and belonged to the games that, following Super Mario 64's lead, defined the 3D platformer genre built around collecting – the bear Banjo and the bird Kazooie riding in his backpack explored colorful open worlds full of musical notes, jigsaw pieces, feathers, and hidden rooms, with the duo gradually gaining new movement abilities whose combined use enabled inventive puzzle solutions. The game emphasized thoroughly exploring every corner of a level just as much as jumping and precise platforming itself, and its distinctive humor and character banter earned it a reputation as one of the funniest platformers of its generation.

The direct sequel Banjo-Tooie from 2000 expanded the worlds, linked them together, and gave the duo further movement abilities and cooperative tricks, while the handheld spin-off Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge on Game Boy Advance and the racing spin-off Banjo-Pilot took the series beyond home consoles and simplified it for a smaller screen. After Microsoft acquired studio Rare, the series went quiet for several years, taking with it any hope of a continuation in the original spirit.

The comeback came with Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts in 2008 on Xbox 360, which built the game primarily around constructing your own vehicles to complete tasks instead of collecting notes and jumping – a radical change of direction that some fans praised as witty and inventive, while others faulted it for straying from what had made the series famous. Several former Rare team members later founded Playtonic Games and created Yooka-Laylee, a game openly carrying forward the legacy of the original Banjo-Kazooie.