3D platformers are having a bit of a moment in the gaming world. Along with the emergence of new games in the genre like A Hat In Time, HD remakes of classic 3D platformers have been proven to be a big hit among both old and new gamers. Series like Spyro The Dragon or Crash Bandicoot are having their games remade from the ground up with incredibly beautiful and well-animated cartoon graphics. These games have retained their sense of joyousness, and with a fresh coat of paint slapped on, players of a new generation are able to experience these games on their fancy modern consoles.

So, if we're in the business of remastering 3D platforming franchises, which series should be the next to get this visual upgrade? If you ask us, it's time for everyone's favorite Jiggy-collecting bear and bird combo to get a major makeover.

The Banjo Bandwagon

People love Banjo, he's one of the original heroes of the N64 era of platformers. Whenever people discuss the best games of Rare, Banjo-Kazooie is always a part of the conversation. He's just a lovable old bear, and he and Kazooie are one of the best tag teams in gaming history. After Banjo-Tooie, fans were salivating for Banjo-Threeie to come out, and its absence just made everyone anxious with anticipation.

Of course, around the time of Banjo-Threeie's supposed development, Rare was purchased by Microsoft, and either as a result of their demands or a result of what may have been trending at the time, we got Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts in place of another enjoyable platforming romp. While that game does have its fans, most longtime Banjo players didn't really want to build cars and race Gruntilda. This is especially true since she already had a flying broomstick, so a grounded vehicle kind of seemed like a downgrade for her.

After Nuts & Bolts, Rare put Banjo and Kazooie on a long hiatus. There hasn't been a new Banjo project in nearly 11 years, and aside from re-releases on the Xbox 360, and in the Rare Replay collection, the series has been collecting dust in Microsoft's attic ever since.

Pretenders To The Throne

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There's been such an outcry from fans for a new Banjo game that, eventually, someone stepped up and decided to make a game that could be considered a spiritual successor. Playtonic Games was made up of ex-Rare employees who obviously longed for the old days of Rare platformers, and after a successful Kickstarter campaign, Yooka-Laylee was born.

With its title reminiscent of Banjo-Kazooie's reference to instruments, and with characters who speak in grunts and other hilarious noises in place of words, it was obvious that Playtonic was essentially doing their best to make the closest thing possible to Banjo-Threeie. Yet, fans were so desperate to rescue Banjo from obscurity that they were willing to shrug their shoulders at Yooka-Laylee and say "eh, close enough."

Unfortunately, while it wasn't awful, Yooka-Laylee definitely wasn't Banjo-Kazooie. It was an adequate 3D platformer, but it couldn't replicate the charm of Banjo no matter how hard Playtonic tried. After Yooka-Laylee, it became clear that you couldn't just step up to the plate and try to replicate Banjo's success. The only series that could be Banjo-Kazooie was Banjo-Kazooie, but unfortunately, it didn't seem like that franchise would ever again see the light of day.

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Banjo's Back Baby!

That was until recently, when Banjo fans received quite possibly the brightest ray of hope they've gotten in over a decade. Due to popular demand, Banjo and his backpack bird pal were announced to return in Smash form.

Their inclusion in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is something that people have been crying out for since Melee, and somehow it had finally been wished into existence. This is no doubt a result of the increased friendliness between Nintendo and Microsoft, two former rivals who have quickly become the best of friends, or at least as good of friends as corporations can be.

As a result, this guest appearance likely means an increased profile for the series, which means there's a tiny chance that it could receive an unlikely revival. Now, a new game might be pushing it. However, their Smash inclusion could cause several newer gamers to ask, "Who's this bear guy?" Thus, in order to answer that question, it might make sense to finally remaster the Banjo games so the old series can gain some new fans.

Building A Better Banjo

Now that Smash has shown us what a modern design of Banjo can be, we can now easily work backward to construct a modern remake. Microsoft has probably noticed how well the Spyro and Crash trilogy re-releases have been received, and they probably wouldn't mind a little cut of that sweet remaster revenue. It's actually a pretty easy way to capitalize on a series' popularity. All you really need to do is take the original games, make them look pretty, and throw them on the shelves.

However, that extra coat of paint does need to be pretty substantial. When you look at the Spyro and Crash packages, they look pretty amazing for games that came out on the original Playstation. That era of games didn't hold up very well in terms of visuals, and they are kind of hard to look at by today's standards without the rose-colored glasses of nostalgia.

If a Banjo-Kazooie re-release is going to happen, we're going to need a pretty significant graphical upgrade. This can't be just a slapdash port job, this needs to be a complete and total remaster. We need to see the fur on Banjo's back bristling in the wind. We need to see Kazooie's feathers as she flaps her wings. We need to see each individual detailed pore on Gruntilda's face.

On top of that, the animations need to be completely redone. The remastered Spyro games practically look like something from Pixar or Dreamworks, and the Banjo games deserve the same attention. The facial expressions on each character need to be detailed,  and in-depth. We need to truly understand the emotion on Mumbo's skull as he jams out on the saxophone.

The classic gameplay of Spyro and Crash have proven to work well with a graphical upgrade, so Banjo-Kazooie combined with some high-def rendered fur and feathers would be absolutely amazing.

Just Do It Already Rare! Jeez!

There hasn’t been a better time to bring the Banjo-Kazooie series back out onto modern systems. Even with his extremely long absence, Banjo fans still went wild when his Smash appearance was revealed at E3. With that and the current friendly relationship between Microsoft and Nintendo, it just makes perfect sense to remaster both Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie, and then release them on Microsoft’s platforms and the Nintendo Switch. Heck, if you wanna be a completionist, you could even throw in a Nuts & Bolts port or remaster just to make it a trilogy.

If the Banjo-Kazooie collection sells well enough, maybe Microsoft could even see the logic in finally green-lighting Banjo-Threeie. Then, we could finally get a third game in the series that doesn’t involve bears and witches driving cars.

NEXT: Smash Ultimate’s Banjo-Kazooie Designed By One Of Their Diddy Kong Racing Artists