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Videogamer: Rare explains Banjo's blocky look - The designers made a conscious effort to retain an angular look

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Videogamer writes: "In a post over on the Xbox.com forums, Rare community manager George Kelion (under his XBL gamertag Monkeythumbz) has offered an insight into the "blocky" visual style seen in the developer's upcoming Xbox 360 video game Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts.

"Banjo's new look is meant to be self-referential," explained Kelion. "Videogames have developed their own visual language - from the pixels of 8-bit gaming, through the parallax backgrounds of 16-bit to the blocky, low-poly designs of 32 and 64 bit gaming. We reckon it's fun (and a little bit cool) to purposefully incorporate and celebrate these themes as an artistic endeavour."

Kelion also shared the thoughts of Steve Mayles, Banjo team's lead creative artist and brother of Gregg Mayles."
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videogamer.com

[via forums.xbox.com]
Cyrus365 - contributor
Published: 580 days 5 hours ago | News | Xbox 360
 
 

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FCOLitsjustagame - 580 days 3 hours ago
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1 -
When I saw the graphics I assumed that was a "design choice" due to how obvious the blockiness was. However knowing the gamers of today I am not sure this was a good design choice. I think they can still deal with cell shaded like Crackdown, and Anime but I am not sure if they can deal with "old school" computer graphics style. But then its Banjo so maybe they dont really care about the hard core gamer as long as the kiddies like it.
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Adriana Lima - 579 days 19 hours ago
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1.1 - make the environment old school
on the '64 it was blocky because of the limits, now at least make it look like a cartoony bear. those legs look like cubes.
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badz149 - 579 days 18 hours ago
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1.2 - blocky...idea...
if they really want to make it blocky, make lego games intead! in this gen of gaming, only lego games are still allowed to be blocky as lego is blocky by default!(joking)(^0^) no offence, but what's the point of having blocky "nostalgicly" designed character placed in non-blocky "modern" design world? I don't think characters will lost their characteristics even with major design updates like less-blocky! just look at mario and link and how they have evolved through time! guess what, people still love them as mario and link! but games are all about ideas and I respect theirs!
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Rock Bottom - 579 days 14 hours ago
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1.3 -
The game hasn't came out yet, still they had to defend it from all the negative feedback. I don't like where this is heading, rare used to be so awesome. :<
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Andronix - 579 days 11 hours ago
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1.4 - Self-referential graphics? Like Halo 3's halo 2.5 graphics ?
Maybe the man is right when he says that Banjos blocky graphics are self-referential(!) ie suggesting lineage to the N64 games. However this should actually be a cartoony style of art, NOT blockiness.

This reminds me of Halo 3 being criticised for it's Halo 2.5 graphics. Before you throw your arms up in anger remember that they are nice but worst then Gears of War which came out a year earlier. Bungie's excuse? They blamed it on the artistic direction!!!
With this generation there is no excuse for blocky.
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KILLERAPP - 579 days 19 hours ago
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Well enlist they didn’t chance banjo and put in a dog or something come on is rare they were good once maybe 12 years ago maybe there is still some blood leaf in them better hope so for MS sake.
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DJ - 579 days 19 hours ago
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3 - They should've just made it look next-gen.
Simple as that. I still can't get over Banjo's rectangular legs.
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mmajunkie123 - 579 days 13 hours ago
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3.1 -
and i still cant get over how a person over 20 years old (YOU)
can post on the internet 24/7 i mean how much free time do you have
for god sakes go outside for your own well being
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myabsolution - 579 days 18 hours ago
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I kinda like the blocky look myself.

But..

when it all comes down to it, I'd rather play a true platformer classic Banjo, than an 80% racing game. /shrug
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mandyissafe - 579 days 16 hours ago
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4.1 -
It's 80% platforming IN vehicles, not 80% racing.

I understand the nod back to the oldschool, but I think I would have really liked to see this Banjo in full high-poly glory.
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AclayPS3 - 579 days 18 hours ago
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.....O.k... I didn't even know until know that Banjoe 3 had a blocky look to it. I'm not too sure about the blocky look though.

I think that it would have been a little bit more interesting if Banjoe 3 took the route that Jak 2 and Jak 3 took though because it definantly would have kept the interest of more hardcore gamers. And for those that don't know what I'm talking about. The first Jak and Daxter had a more lighter tone to the game with no weapons and was a little more kid friendly and was rated E, but Jak 2 introduced the use of weapons and they were upgradable weapons as well and Jak 2 was a more mature game that was rated T and had a more darker tone, and Jak 3 was the same.

But I definantly think that a Banjoe 3 game more similar to something like Jak 2 would be more of a hit with core 360 gamers.
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TheDesperado - 579 days 17 hours ago
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6 - And? Conscious choice or not, it doesn't make it any less terrible
The 'game' looks godawful. Ratchet TOD from last year destroys it, and I can't even begin to imagine how much better Sony's other actual platformer and not vehicle f*ckfest will be. Go Littlebig!
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SL1M DADDY - 579 days 14 hours ago
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6.1 - I partly agree...
My thought was that after playing Kameo, all platform games before it were not as exciting due to how I loved Kameo's presentation and game mechanics. Then I played R&C: TOD and Kameo was completely shot out the door. Ratchet was and is to date the best platform game I have ever played. Now looking at what they have done with Banjo... No way, it looks like crap IMHO. And the 80% vehicle crap? WTH?

Sorry, but I am going to be way to busy playing LBP and re-running through Ratchet to care about some silly reiteration of Banjo. It's a shame if you ask me.
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leper641 - 579 days 17 hours ago
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7 -
Surely this goes without saying.
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sinncross - 579 days 17 hours ago
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I think it was more than just a design chocie..

it looks terrible... i mean, it has this niche look going for it, but that doesnt mean its good.
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Strife Lives - 579 days 14 hours ago
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9 - I knew it was artstyle. .bt
Its the slight drop in framerate in some of the vids that spoil it for me.
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beavis4play - 579 days 14 hours ago
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so, rare intended banjo to look like that? yikes! talk about good intentions going horribly wrong.
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11 thenickel | 579 days 14 hours ago - User only got 1 bubble - Show
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Superfragilistic - 579 days 11 hours ago
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11.1 - I agree
I'm actually really keen on Banjo and love the design. All the previews have mentioned how beautiful it looks and the vast potential of its user-created platforming. I do think a lot of people are just not getting this title at the moment (to me it's Spore meets Mario Galaxy), which means an extensive demo closer to release will be vital.

I sure I'll cop disagrees but why PS3 players are concerned about this games appearance I have no idea? Go play MGS4 cause it looks much prettier!

Personally I'm keepin the faith with a developer who's brought us some of the most important console games of all time. Come the end of 08 I'll have the best of all worlds with LBP on PS3, Banjo on 360 and Galaxy on Wii (I'm still collecting stars! lol).
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callahan09 - 579 days 13 hours ago
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This game just isn't exciting to me at all. If it turns out to have a really revolutionary and fun vehicle construction/customization gameplay then I'll check it out, but the direction they're taking the franchise, the art style, the gameplay videos I've seen, none of it looks interesting to me. They basically took all the stuff I wanted in a new Banjo game and did the opposite. I hope it doesn't turn out to be a grave mistake on their part.
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