Editorial: Nostalgia Banked

Nostalgia Banked

          Q2 2017 has only just begun, but the games have already started rolling in. For example, tomorrow we’ll see the release of the hotly anticipated Yooka-Laylee. Developed by Playtonic Games, an indie team comprised of former Rare employees, Yooka-Laylee was designed to be a true spiritual successor to the Banjo-Kazooie games of the 90’s, an homage to what was while also building on the old platformer tropes.

          Critics have already had their hands on the game for a while now, and reviews have been…mixed. While some are praising the game for being an excellent homage to the N64 era of gaming, while others have dismissed it for being too stuck in the past to really succeed as its own thing.

          The only real consensus the critics seem to have overall is that fans of classic Rare titles like Donkey Kong 64 and the previously mentioned Banjo-Kazooie will get some enjoyment out of the game, even if it ends up being not as fun for others as a result. But that got me thinking. Is it a good idea to create a game entirely for a subset of fans of a game genre that seemed to be long gone?

          The idea of the indie spiritual successor is a fairly recent one in gaming culture. As the industry grows and evolves, many of the classic franchises of the past are bound to be lost as they can’t keep up with the times. But with the advent of indie development’s rise to fame as well as the launch of crowdfunding websites like Kickstarter, a new door has opened allowing the return of these old genres. If the big name publishers won’t make a new Banjo game, what’s stopping the old developers from forming their own studio and make one themselves, albeit under a different name?

          This trend started in 2013 with the announcement of everyone’s favourite disaster, Mighty No. 9. Disregarding how that game turned out in the end, it’s kind of hard to remember that there was a time that people were heralding Mighty as leading the charge to a new era of game development. People were so excited that Keiji Inafune was working on a Mega Man style game that they gave it over four million dollars in Kickstarter money.

          This is the same reason as to why Yooka-Laylee was funded so much. Fans of Rare’s days as Nintendo’s number one partner during the N64 era missed the colourful cartoony platformers that all but disappeared after the Microsoft buyout, and without a true Banjo-Threeie on the horizon (no, Nuts and Bolts doesn’t count), they were more than happy to fund the old developers in creating a spiritual successor to the adventures of their favourite bear and bird.

          Now zero hour has arrived, and the biggest issue with the game critics seem to have is that it seems to be primarily built to cater to lifelong Banjo fans instead of providing something new to say in the 3D platformer genre. Meanwhile, said Banjo fans are praising the game for being exactly what they hoped it would be and are disavowing the game’s harsher critics for just not seeing the classic games the way they did.

          So the biggest question for me is whether or not you can sell a game entirely to a small subset of fans without caring about alienating the rest of your customers. Is it worth taking a bit of critical backlash to give the fans what they truly want?

          For me I’d say that it’s something you can do, but it’s not without a hefty risk. For one, bad reviews are a quick and easy way to ensure your game doesn’t sell. Yes, an indie game can sell on word-of-mouth alone (good examples of this are Undertale and Stardew Valley), but more people get their information on what they should and shouldn’t buy from review sites and Metacritic. A game that completely tanks in the reviews but is successful with audiences doesn’t exactly build confidence in someone who doesn’t buy more than a few games per year. Remember, casual customers don’t usually research games before buying, usually just buying something from a familiar series or a new IP with some good trailers. This is why No Man’s Sky was such a huge success: the trailers promised the moon while the game itself gave us a small asteroid.

          At the end of the day I’m sure Yooka will get plenty of goodwill from fans nostalgic for Rare’s glory days, but it’ll probably end up a niche title at best. I’m glad that Banjo fans are enjoying it, but I’ll admit that I wanted this game to be a little more successful critically. I’m a fan of 3D platformers of the good old days, and I’ve been wanting to see them make a comeback outside of whatever Mario’s doing next. As I haven’t played the game myself yet I’m not sure how to feel about Yooka-Laylee yet, but I at least hope it doesn’t completely bomb.

Song of the Week

          Grunty Challenge – Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts