Xbox Series S/X: Thread 05

[Neon Ignition]

My streak is back Definitely sucks about neutering the monthly points though, they're either reducing the amount you can earn or spreading the tasks wider

[wheelaa]

The monthly punch card doesn't have the 100 point quiz, so is down to 50 from 150.

Given the coming GPU increase, I wonder if upping the point costs of certain rewards is on the way.

Edit Glad your streak is back. 672 days here. I need to get out more.

[nonny]

I've re-read the cashback email I got and it says it's activated and deals/stores will be added in 14 days.

It also says cashback is paid via paypal...

https://www.bing.com/rebates/faq?ocid=

[Neon Ignition]

https://www.thegamer.com/new-banjo-kazooie-threeie-no-audience-former-rare-dev-says/

Possible idea, make a proper one and find out

[Tobal]

https://www.thegamer.com/new-banjo-k...rare-dev-says/
Possible idea, make a proper one and find out

so silly, they could so easily take ideas from TotK and work it back into a New Nuts and Bolts with a more platform focus (but also keep the races/time attacks)

[Neon Ignition]

If anything MS needs to get something like Banjo in development asap, a quality family friendly platformer is exactly the kind of thing Xbox is missing from its line up to draw in the family audience more

[Lebowski]

I know people love The Banjo kazooe games but Ive always thought the character design was very mediocre, id put them alongside Gex, Croc or Bubsy for mediocre character design, the games never appealed to me because the characters just seemed naff to me.

Their was a market for Bajoo Kazoo a few years back the Yooka-Laylee kickstarter from Ex devs showed that.They tried making a game in the style of Bajaoo Kazoo but it was stomped on by the gaming press when it was released for trading on nostalgia and emulating its predecessors far to closely.

When these style of games have moved on considerably over the years it feels like it would be hard to create a new game in the series while keeping its style, your kind of going toe to toe with Mario, Kirby, yoshi ect and its hard to mussel in on Nintendo as they seem to have this type of game locked down.

[wakka]

I feel out of touch with what a 'decent' 3D platformer even constitutes these days.

Mario is just so obviously the best one that every time I play something else like Crash Bandicoot it always just feels like a chore. Even when the game is quite well made generally, like Crash 4.

[Lebowski]

A Hat in Time, Astro Bot Rescue Mission, and Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time. are a few non Nintendo platformers ive enjoyed recently, theirs a Fair few decent 3d platformers on gamepass too the Gunk is short but pretty good fun, and Psychonauts 2 is pretty decent too.

[Neon Ignition]

See for me, the continuation of franchises like Ratchet. Crash etc shows that the market still exists but the key with those is that they have continuously cultivated their audiences. I'm amazed stuff like Psychonauts got a belated sequel given it's not an amazing platformer and has a horrid visual style, something I feel Banjo was always vastly superior in both. With Banjo MS made two massive failings, the first was having Rare make a sequel that deviated so heavily from the originals, it's modular vehicle aspect so off putting that 20 years later I still haven't started Tears of the Kingdom because the concept remains so tedious a thought. Ratchet survived by regularly putting out polished, quality entries that have simply refined things. The second big mistake was MS completely blindeyeing the call and then exposure that Smash brought to the characters. It's one of those things that Rare and MS should have outsourced like they did with Killer Instinct, itself a successful revival that should have been followed up by now but then that's been MS all over. IP and little development.

[wakka]

A Hat in Time, Astro Bot Rescue Mission, and Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time. are a few non Nintendo platformers ive enjoyed recently, theirs a Fair few decent 3d platformers on gamepass too the Gunk is short but pretty good fun, and Psychonauts 2 is pretty decent too.

A Hat in Time looks interesting, thanks - I will give that a look.

Unfortunately I don't have a PSVR so I can't play Astro Bot, but know its great rep and would love to.

Unpopular opinion but I hated Ratchet and Clank on PS5 - a glumly repetitive third person shooter to me, not a platformer.

I have been meaning forever to play the two Psychonauts games though - good reminder!

[Cassius_Smoke]

Banjo would offer that bright colourful and cheery game MS is lacking. I mean as good as some of the trailers looked for their upcoming games, they all have a very similar muted colour palette and dark visuals.
Banjo would probably benefit from a minor update to his design, but seeing as it's been so long and tech has advanced so much, they could easily tweak the design to modernise it a bit. And it'd be a direct competition to Ratchet, which MS doesn't really have for any of Sonys games, except Forza vs GT.

[nonny]

Psychonauts 2 would be the closest thing in recent memory and is a fantastic game in its own right.

Agree MS doesn't have anything first party outside of that in the genre but I was also never a fan of Banjo Kazooie so wouldn't care if it wasn't brought back. You can at least play all of that series through backward compatibility, so that's something.

The only other thing I can think of they have made a few years back was Super Lucky's Tale which my daughter absolutely loved.

[fishbowlhead]

Unpopular opinion but I hated Ratchet and Clank on PS5 - a glumly repetitive third person shooter to me, not a platformer.

Ban request.

[Cassius_Smoke]

I didn't hate Ratchet and clank. It's a really good looking game and it plays well, but I think I'm a different person now. I couldn't get into it like I would if I was in my teens