Playtonic Games consists of all former Rare developers from the golden age of Rare. And their first game, Yooka-Laylee, looks promising, hearkening back to the early days of the 3D platformer. Will Playtonic Games be a second coming of the era of classic Rare?
When Yooka-Laylee was first announced and met its Kickstarter goals, there was some skepticism. It looks like a Banjo-Kazooie game, but with a chameleon and a bat instead of a bear and a bird.
The Banjo-Kazooie influence is very apparent, especially in the art direction and sound design – but Banjo-Kazooie is not the only platformer Playtonic Games is drawing from with Yooka-Laylee. You can see influences from Conker’s Bad Fur Day, Donkey Kong Country, Jak & Daxter, and Sly Cooper among others.
Much like the 2D platformer ten years ago, the 3D platformer is all but dead. Playtonic Games wants to change that and resurrect the genre, and Yooka-Laylee is not subtle about where it’s drawing its influences from.
During the mid/late ‘90s, there was arguably no developer more on their game than Rare. From 1994-2001, they were unstoppable, and responsible for some of the most memorable games of that time period:
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- Donkey Kong Country
- Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest
- Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong’s Double Trouble
- Battletoads
- Goldeneye 007
- Blast Corps
- Killer Instinct
- Killer Instinct Gold
- Diddy Kong Racing
- Banjo-Kazooie
- Banjo-Tooie
- Jet Force Gemini
- Donkey Kong 64
- Perfect Dark
- Conker’s Bad Fur Day
- and more…
That is an incredible eight-year run. And all on Nintendo consoles.
Rare was so prolific and successful during this time period that the Nintendo 64 probably would’ve failed as a platform if not for them. At times, they were single-handedly keeping the system afloat during the long droughts the Nintendo 64 had, and as millions of gamers and third-party developers flocked to Sony’s PlayStation.
And then it just stopped. Rare released only one game for Nintendo’s GameCube console, and then were bought by Microsoft in 2002.
If you were a Nintendo fan back then, it felt like the end of an era. Many wondered how Nintendo could let Rare go after all they had contributed to the Super Nintendo and Nintendo 64 platforms – but like someone who’s found a new romance, Nintendo seemed utterly unconcerned with Rare’s departure.
They seemed much more interested in a new developer: Retro Studios – a new, unproven team working on a Nintendo series that hadn’t seen an entry in seven years at that point: Metroid.
Nintendo went so far as to buy Retro Studios out completely, which was something they never did with Rare, even though they owned a lot of stock in them.
All told, Rare leaving Nintendo game development was a sad thing for Nintendo fans. For better or worse, despite their massive success over the last twelve years, Nintendo and their fans have missed them. And Rare definitely hasn’t been the same since Microsoft bought them.
However, if you’ve played the old Banjo-Kazooie games, you know Yooka-Laylee has potential. The last Banjo platformer – Banjo-Tooie – came out in 2000 on the Nintendo 64. Bill Clinton was still president of the United States. That’s how long it’s been.
Rare’s output with Microsoft has been a fraction of what it was with Nintendo, but Playtonic Games has plans beyond Yooka-Laylee to expand and recapture the creative magic (and hopefully output) they had during their time at Rare when they were the envy of the entire industry.
Playtonic Games may be a new a developer, but their pedigree goes back decades. Could this be the beginning of a premiere development studio? Too early to say, but the potential is there. They have a combined experience of over 100 years of game development from their time at Rare. I know every fan of the classic Rare days of the ’90s is hoping and praying they succeed.
Look for Yooka-Laylee in 2017 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Wii U, PC, and probably Nintendo Switch (although it hasn’t been officially announced yet).
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