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Rare speaks to The RWP about upcoming games

We recently had the opportunity to ask Rare a few questions about the games they have in development and future possibilities. It's not a wealth of information, but as Tesco are constantly spouting; every little helps.

In a recent interview, Justin Cook said your latest Banjo game was still in the designing stage. Can you expand more on that?

Rare: We have a good solid idea of what we want this next Banjo game to be, and it's shaping up very well, but our designers are always going to be pushing to make the game that little bit better, right up until we ship.

Has the art style we saw in the teaser trailer remained into the development of the game, or can we expect some significant changes considering how far off release is?

Rare: I understand that the teaser trailer is the only thing which anyone has to go on for this next Banjo game and if you look, you can see it's a rendered sequence that has a number of different art styles running through it. Did some of those elements make it into the final game? Well, I would love to tell you but a big bear and a bossy bird have coerced me into silence, at least for the time being.

In Viva Piñata DS, what features have you come up with that make use of the Nintendo Wifi?

Rare: We'll be releasing full details of Viva Piñata on the DS in due course, until then I'm afraid you'll just have to watch this space!

Do you have any plans to revisit the Kameo franchise?

Rare: Kameo is a terrific IP and I'm sure there are plenty more stories we could set in that enchanted world. Many of the gamers I've spoken to who have played Kameo said that they developed a strong attachment to its gameplay, characters and setting and would like to see us revisit it - but we have similar requests for all our old games (and we're not short of new ideas, either)! I guess at the moment we really just want to concentrate on the third instalment of Banjo-Kazooie and Viva Piñata for the DS.

Seeing as you've already developed games for Nintendo's handhelds since you've been with Microsoft, do you have any plans to take advantage of their Virtual Console? Have they approached you?

Rare: Well, Donkey Kong Country and Donkey Kong Country 2 are already up on Virtual Console. I think it's fair to say we currently have our hands full working on how to make the best use of Xbox Live Arcade without focusing on Virtual Console as well at the moment. I suppose if the perfect opportunity arose and everybody got behind it then it wouldn't be ruled out just because it's on Nintendo, but we're not planning to release anything there for the time being.

Staying with Nintendo, is developing games for Nintendo DS something we can expect to see more of? Obviously you're currently working on Piñata DS. Are there any other upcoming titles out there?

Rare: At the moment, the DS team that's working on that version of Viva Piñata would rather concentrate on making their current game as excellent as possible than cast their minds to the future. It would all depend on finding the right project and being able to bring something new and fresh to that platform, but we've no plans just at the moment.
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