Banjo-Kazooie is one of the best platformers ever made, arguably even better than Super Mario 64.
While it’s playable on original Nintendo 64 hardware, Nintendo Switch via Nintendo Switch Online and Xbox, it’s never been available on PC until now.
This isn’t an official port mind you, as while a third Banjo-Kazooie game is rumoured to be in development there’s no official word on that, so the franchise remains dead and buried until either Rare or Xbox decides to unearth it again.
Banjo: Recompiled is a fan-made project that brings the beloved bear and bird to your PC rig, and it’s much more than a simple port as it brings a variety of quality-of-life improvements too.
The big one is mod support. I don’t know what kind of changes you’d want to make to this near-perfect game but just having the option will be nice and I’d imagine it won’t be long before someone makes a multiplayer mod or swaps Banjo’s character model for CJ from Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
You can also run the game at 60fps which is a nice improvement, and there’s even a dual-analog camera now as opposed to the original control scheme.
There’s only one slight catch with all of this, you’ll still need a ROM of the game. Now this is fine if you own an original copy of the game but if you don’t you can’t just go and download one from somewhere, as that’s piracy and not something we condone.
Another caveat is the ROM you’ll need is specifically the North American version so European copies won’t be compatible.
That’s a few hoops to jump through in order to play Banjo-Kazooie on PC but the end more than justifies the means, like I said this is one of the best platformers of all-time and it’s criminal we haven’t seen more sequels.
Despite the faff to get it running though I just love it when a game like this gets a recompiled port.
Banjo: Recompiled joins a wide variety of other classic titles that are yet to be officially released on PC, and not only does it give us a new way of playing said game, it also ensures these retro games will stand the test of time. Not that Banjo-Kazooie was ever at risk of being forgotten of course.
You can try Banjo: Recompiled for free on PC right now provided you have a legally owned ROM of the game, I can’t wait to see the first wave of mods.
