Scribes - October 24, 2006

It's the stupid Rare letters page! Send us your mail! You wanna be a gunslinger, don't be a rock singer!   Hello Scribes!      Finally, we BK lovers can rejoice! Thank you, Rare, very much for giving us a 360 Banjo-Kazooie! With that said, I have some questions! (You didn't think you'd be getting off with just a compliment, now, did you?      1: How long have you been working on this?      2. Are you sticking to the roots, or going in a different direction with this one?      3. Will it be called Banjo-Threeie?      4. Will Loggo the toilet be in the game?      5. Is Grant doing the music for this one?      6. What year can we expect it?      Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you again! X06 will be hailed as the Second Coming of Rare! I can't wait!      Crazy Hands This one needs to go straight over to the team, I think. Although we're not saying much about it at the moment, so you know what to expect...      "Advance Warning: Answers are likely to be extremely vague and misleading, even more so than usual.      "1) A while, we started somewhere between finishing Tooie and yesterday.      "2) Yes we are.      "3) No idea yet. Viva Piñata wasn't called Viva Piñata until the final phase of development, so who knows how long it will take us to come up with a suitably odd name that everyone will poke fun at.      "4) Although not guaranteed, almost certainly.      "5) No matter what we try to do we can't get rid of him, so almost certainly (again).      "6) Using our new highly accurate scheduling software, we predict it will be released when it is finished."   Dear artist formerly known as Rare,      I just watched the first episode of Viva Piñata on 4Kids TV just because you guys are making the video game for it. I have a few questions for you from when I watched it.      1) Did you guys have anything to do with the animation for the show? It looked surprisingly similar to the graphics on the game, especially the eyes.      2) Are the piñatas going to talk in-game? Although some of the lines on the show are surprisingly funny, I wouldn't want my piñatas talking back about how poorly I'm treating them.      3) One of the questions I've been wanting to ask for a long time. Is the show based on the game, or is the game based on the show? I just haven't been able to figure that out.      Long-time Rare fan from the [not as] good [as it used to be] ol' USA,      Bryan Skinner Why are we only formerly known as Rare? Did someone change the company name without telling me again? That's going to play merry hell with the new site navigation.      Anyway, let's hand this over to VP designer and part-time instruction manual cock-up spotter Justin.      "1) 4Kids took all the models we use in the game to create their versions for the show. This seemed the best way to keep our piñata look but give them enough flexibility to make the show. (Their piñatas get to do some really crazy stuff.)      "2) The piñatas in the game don't talk to you. I expect they think you should concentrate on making the garden nice for them rather than wasting your time gossiping. You can always talk to Leafos (she's the character you meet when you first take over the garden), she's always got something to say.      "3) We started the game over four years ago, it was the product of our over-stimulated imaginations. We only dragged other people onto Piñata Island when we had fleshed out our game designs."   Dear Scribes,      I know that you are overflowed at Rare but I want to ask you some very important questions!      1) What's happened with "Once Upon a Time" for Kameo's soundtracks?      2) The small dragon which accompanied Kameo in the first version of the game (Gamecube and Xbox1) will be return another day?      3) Isn't the music "Mystic Theme (Expanded)" a preview of Kameo 2? :-)      4) How is Mr. Dave Wise? Is he working on Stampede Racing (or maybe Diddy Kong Racing DS? I'm waiting for this game for buy an Nintendo DS Lite)?      5) Is it "Loveday" your own Xbox Live Gamertag? I uncovered you! Do you play occasionally against David Doak or other Free Radical Design's members in Perfect Dark Zero?      Thank you for reading! Rest well now!      (Now I will seek two Piña Coladas for playing It's Mr Pants)      Yann Berthelot I can see we're in for a good old numbered list fest today. Marvellous.      1) Mr. Burke says: "If you’re referring to that old MP3 that used to be on the Rare website, I don’t think I used that tune in the final game, so I didn’t bother putting it on the soundtrack. It was only a short little thing, and I recorded the vocals for it in the same recording session as the 'Enchanted Kingdom' track on the CD. Aisling’s voice sounded nice on it though."      2) Maybe. He went out with some of the original monster-catching mechanics, but it's possible that bits of those will return one day. Mind, KI3 and JFG2 are officially slated as 'possible' too, so don't hold your breath.      3) Mr. Burke says: "Nope. The “Expanded” bit was actually used in an earlier version of Kameo as one of the mini-games (which didn’t make it to the final game). Oh yeah, the crazy cackling laughter is me, doing a wicked witch impression. Badly."      4) Mr. Wise says: "I'm fine, finishing off DKR DS..."      5) Not me, squire. I'm sure there's more than one Loveday in the world. And I haven't even got a GamerTag, before you start asking/begin stalking... Hi Rare,      I have some questions about Perfect Dark Zero:      1. Will the second mappack be available soon?      2. Is there other content to be released for that game?      I heard, that there was a function called "Kill-TV" and Counter-Ops and some Challenges, which where thrown back, before the game was released. Will these functions be available in some time?      Please release some new Content and the second mappack, because there are some Fans who want that! I also heard, that you don't released the mappack#2 because of less people who downloaded mappack #1...? I'm sure, that if there is great content, more people will download it!      Thank you for reading my Questions! I hope to hearing from you soon.      J. Clemenz Welcome, Mr. Clemenz. Thanks for making your email only partly numbered list-based. Captain Botwood from the PDZ team would love to take you by the hand and lead you through his lovely garden of explanation.      "1. Yes.      "2. We've addressed (we hope) the mightily annoying cover move into wall bug which was spoiling the multiplayer experience for a lot of people, as well as fixing other more minor niggles.      "Sadly the rumoured features you mention are not going to be added to the game. Originally dropped because we didn't have enough people to do them in time, we now aren't doing them because we don’t have enough people to do them ever.      "Wait and see what happens for the second map pack."   Hey you!      Kameo has quite the soundtrack. However, the very soothing song that plays while you are in the Warrior Trainer's Hut is nowhere to be found. Please change that. :)      And when is Banjo Three-Sixtie coming out? Yes, Banjo Three-Sixtie is what you should name it. :D      Scrappy I do not currently have a fixed release date for your imaginarily titled game. However, I do have both the means and the inclination to harass Steve B. (not Ballmer) about Kameo tuneage, and so it is that you'll find the Warrior's Hut MP3 added to the rapidly expanding Kameo Downloads collection. P-p-p-puppy power!   You know I couldn't resist.      In your last edition of Scribes, you mentioned a Chewits competition, just like the good old days. The exact quote said "Packet of Chewits, paid for out of my own pocket and possibly never to be received due to international food mailing restrictions, to whoever sends in the funniest photographic evidence of stupidly-named confectionery from any part of the world in time for the next Scribes (so you've probably got a couple of months at least)".      Now, it's rather unspecific in the fact that you don't really mention what you mean by photographic evidence. If that means a photo on the internet, then by Pants, I've found something.      I know my chances of winning this are slim to none, but hey, I know you love your BORDERLINE STALKERS.      May the Pants continue to bless Rareware.      darkmark8 As not that many people actually bothered to enter (the Chewits PR department may want to look into their product's declining popularity) and you rightly guessed that I'd be drawn to anything resembling my favourite word, I think you're going to have to take the prize. One place in the international Chewits postal lottery for you, my boy! 'Congratulations'. Now I just have to find somewhere they still sell the damn things.   Dear RARE,      I was wondering if you guys have any plans for Xbox LIVE Arcade for the Xbox 360? I'm sure you guys and gals thought about it. I was just thinking the other day of how awesome It's Mr. Pants would be on Live Arcade. It would be perfect for Live Arcade. It matches the requirements: it's a puzzle game, easy to pick up and play, and it's small (how many megabytes is it? the requirement to be on Live Arcade is about 100MB right?) Anyways, just add online multiplayer mode for It's Mr. Pants and viola! Another great RARE game! Live Arcade is pretty dry when it comes to puzzle games (and overall). Or maybe a 'Banjo Kart' game like Mario Kart games. Banjo Kart would be extremely popular and a lot of people would buy it. It would most likely be 2D right? Or maybe a Conker game like Metal Slug or something. That would be cool.      But yeah that's about it I guess. take care and keep up the good job RARE!      Christopher Escobar Careful with your wording, Tesco Bar! You've INFLAMED THE MILD WRATH of the game's programmer.      "What do you mean 'how awesome it would be'? It IS AWESOME already. I suppose bringing it out in any new format would make it full of even more awesomeness which I suppose would make it awesomer. BTW, if It's Mr Pants is not awesomely portable enough for you then maybe you should check it out on the smaller format that are mobile phones! Yes, Pants action is available to download and play on some mobile phone handsets. Fan-tab-an-awesomer."   Dear Scribe Master,      You have to help me, my parents named me Fulgore... they loved Killer Instinct so much they thought that it would be good to name me after a video game character... well anyway, nobody at my school knows what my name means, maybe if you guys could think about making another one of these games so I don't have to explain to everyone where my name comes from? :(      Thanks,      Fulgore Wilson Nice try. But at least when you're explaining to people where your name comes from, you have the opportunity to make something up that may be slightly more credible than being named after a mentalist killer cyborg (with a ponytail) in a 2D fighting game. Not that I'm knocking Killer Instinct, but you know, count your blessings.   Dear Scribes,      Right, Looks like I'll be sure to not send my first draft of Scribes. Blimey. I wonder how many others here actually revise their letters? Probably not too many. I really hope RE4's Merchant survived the explosive ending. I mean, what other shop keeper is cool enough to have a blazing blue barbecue AND give away powerful handguns for shooting a few medallions? Either way...      A) Nice Viva Piñata* coverage at E3, by the way. Looks like a candy-coated blast. Speaking of which, care for a piece of peppermint "Cat Butt Gum"? No? Ok then, but riddle me this; Are there Sour versions of all Piñata species? I'm certain a Sour Elephanilla or Crocodile could do some serious damage, but God forbid an evil Mousemallow or vile, lamb chop spewing (also evil) Sheep comes my way. I'll ready the beatin' stick just in case...      B) What of the mention of the "Zentek" corporation from the 1st PDZ novel? Is Zentek a weapons supplier? Electronics manufacturer? Pizza chain? With a name like Zentek, it HAS to be good. By the way, any idea when novel #2 is going to hit the shelves?      C) Good ol' Squitter. Obviously the rational sequence for animal buddies for a duo of simians is rhino, ostrich, then a huge hairy, googly-eyed, buck-toothed spider wearing tennis shoes. Wait, no it's not... Where did the idea for Squitter come from, anyhoo? He sure changed the way the game was played, but in a good, refreshing way that can only be achieved by shooting a Zinger in the face with a high-speed web shot.      D) Remember the Kremling-dragon hybrid hanging out in the fire levels of Banjo Pilot? Can we name him K. Rispy?      Thanks, STRANGER. You know "Cat Butt Gum" takes the win. It doesn't get more crap than that. You can send my Chewits to...      Zenek      (* I'd buy it at a high price!) Great steaming dog eggs, boy, why must you torment me so with your sprawling letters and your individual team demands? Well, at least the Chewits have already gone. Cat Butt Gum is far too self-consciously wacky to qualify anyway.      Here we go then, a rep from each team in turn:      A) "I thought all 'Cat Butt Gum' was 'sticky toffee' flavour? There are a limited number of Sour Piñatas in the game. They show up as your player level increases. They are real trouble and they each have a way of messing up your garden. If that fails, they can spit up bad sweets that make your resident Piñatas ill."      B) "Second novel should be out shortly. Zentek are major suppliers of Enlightenment™."      C) "Hey, a fellow Squitter fan! I'm not quite sure where Squitter came from; all I can remember is having an idea of an animal that could create its own platforms and then needing to come up with a plausible creature that could do it. I actually remember DKC's lead character artist (the guy that had to model and animate Squitter) telling me at the time that the spider would be 'crap'. I think Squitter turned out pretty well, better than some of the other suggestions would have done anyway (we nearly had a giraffe)."      D) "No."   Dear Scribes,      I've noticed that Kameo: EoP gets way more attention than Perfect Dark Zero when it comes to extra content.      My question is "how come"?! I mean, I'd love to see more cool GamerPictures from Perfect Dark Zero (I'd love to see Carrington). The new Maps are really cool and all, but why not update the amount of custom character models? It would make Perfect Dark Zero just that little bit better cause of the variatity. Even so, I really love both games! It was worth the wait!      Oh, and one more thing! I love the PDZ soundtrack that plays during the Bridge Assault Mission right when you have cross the Bridge. It wasn't on the Perfect Dark Zero OST CD I purcaced so... em... if... eh... maybe the almighty David Clynick isn't too busy... could he make it available as a free download on the Perfect Dark Zero page?! Thanks allot!      Greetz,      Perfect Dark 0 Lo and behold, Uncle Dave has furnished you (and everyone else who asked) with the Bridge Assault theme free of charge. Check out the PDZ Downloads page. That's two fully satisfied MP3 reader requests in one Scribes! Don't go getting any ideas, the rest of you scabs.      As for the DLC question, well, with its 11 playable characters and malleable fantasy setting Kameo was always going to be more suited to themed skin packs and the like, though we think we've done a pretty solid job of supporting both titles (especially with more PDZ stuff on the way - that should give its variatity a good shot in the arm).   Hi Scribe master:      I was wondering if you could clear this little mystery for me. After looking at Gamefaqs and Gamespot recently, I discovered that their list of Rare developed games differs greatly for the one on Rareware.com.      Notice titles like Virtual Kasparov, Turnabout, Street Racquetball and many others.      Is it just an honest mistake on their part or did Rare have any involvement with the games?      Thanks in advance... Now about that Xbox360 Killer Instinct ;P      Bede I'm sure we were informed of GameSpot's bizarro Rare catalogue a few years back, but it seems to have expanded even further into the realms of freakish unlikeliness over time. They do quite well up to the late '90s, then it all goes a bit pear-shaped. Having said that, I'm glad we did X-Bladez: Inline Skater for the PlayStation to fill out the patchy release schedule in 2002, and to this day we still get rabid fans demanding a sequel to Curse! Red Baron.   Dear dude I don't know,      WHAT THE HELL! I've been wasting my life for the past 15 hours playing Kameo and waddya know, I can't go back to the Battlefield! I fell in love with that place. The sweet smoke. The blurry backgrounds, oh and the well-furnished housing. But I can't believe it! No more fights? There should at least be some DLC Battlefield or sumthin' cuz this is grunty sh*t. (And as I imagine that stuff's pretty bad.)      Austin Griffith      PS I loved PDZ, IGN's a buncha b*st*rds. "Given that successfully completing the game nullifies Thorn and restores peace to the land, it’d be a bit of a plothole to keep the Badlands crammed full of Trolls forevermore," correctly point out the Kameo team. "Still, looking back on sections of a game that you particularly enjoyed acts as an incentive to replay it at a later point - you can always start another save file and blast through with your newfound skills to revisit the battles you’re after."      See that turnaround? Slick stuff. On another note, I hope your comment about 'grunty sh*t' doesn't give the Banjo team any unhygienic boss battle ideas. Bonjourno El Capitan!      First of all, PDZ map pack 1: fantastic. Puts all the other fpsessess on the three hundred and sixties to shame. Will there be a number 2? And more to the point, why did that just make me snigger! The shame.      Question number 2 (ha!): Thank goodness for the return of Banjo-Kazooie. Very very pleased, I am. Just a few subquestions. What was with the whole Banjo Kazui thingy on Marketplace? Was it ignorant Microsoft employee muck-ups or have they revealed something they shouldn't have? Also will it be possible to ram the cartridges of BK and BT into the memory slots of the three hundred and wotsit for some intense chop and flop action? Please? AND has work started on the game? Is it one of the two games that Rare's been working on for two years that Mr Peter Moore was harping on about earlier in the year?      Question number three: Viva Piñata looks astonishing and I'm really looking forward to it. But the theme tune from the TV series is a little bit tedious and annoying. Will it remain for the game as it has on all trailers thus far or is Mr Kirkhope creating a new one? I certainly (kirk)hope so! HAHAHAH!!! KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!      The Reverend Chuck Norris 1) Yes, number two is in the pipeline. Are you laughing again?      2) The official team rumour smackdown: "Banjo Kazui was a simple error. The culprit has been duly punished by being made to carry a box (containing all the printed-out crazy emails we get) for a mile. They managed about five feet before collapsing. You can also ram the BK and BT cartridges wherever you choose, but don’t blame us if they get stuck. Work has begun on ‘the game’ and we are using the same progress monitoring system as the new Wembley stadium - so expect the game in 2015 or so."      3) There's a fair old mix of musical styles in the game. If the shouty American animals don't float your boat, there's plenty of traditional English garden tuneage to keep you happy. Now stop shouting, Reverend, you'll scare off the congregation.   Dear Scribes,      Has Rare ever considered making an MMORPG, not a Dungeons & Dragons style game as that would be madness. But perhaps a 'Victorian Gent' MMO.      Another game idea I had is 'BIPOLAR Fighter', the idea being you take control of a man with BIPOLAR, you must club people to death while trying to contain your suicidal tendencies.      Faryadi Zardad If the Victorian Gent MMO involves standing around in a study, drinking port, planning a pheasant shoot and discussing Stephenson's Rocket and the comparative size of women's brains, you've probably got a winner on your hands. Wesley Snaps from Sabre Wulf could be in it. He looks the part, and he's got bags of leading man charisma. Although we may never know how good he is at roundhouse kicks.   [Insert fancy greeting], Scribes,      Joy! Attached is your Dutch-Scot hybrid anthropomorphic coin-collecting ferret... or something, though I have to admit it turned out more sickeningly cute than blatantly maniacal. But hey! When she collects a coin, she skips and frolicks in circles to the coin's fanfare!      So anyway, you guys at Rare have made me incredibly happy this week with the mentioning of Diddy Kong Racing DS. I don't have anything to ask of it at the moment, though, but I'm excitedly waiting to see more of this game and what it's going to become with all the new features mentioned. And it's going to be awesome seeing Bumper again! I will say this, though: I really didn't notice until watching the little footage video that Tiny Kong has an insanely huge head. Scary girl! Why is her head so big?      Lastly, have you noticed that this DKR DS, along with all the DKC ports for the GBA have all been released nine years after the original?      Tootles,      Cammiluna Cheers for that. Although I must ask - have you ever actually seen a ferret? Here's a good picture of one. This link is also highly educational, as indeed is everything on that site.      According to the DKR team, "Tiny's head is that size to make her less aerodynamically efficient, unless she's in TT's wake as he's a shield to all that sort of physics stuff. The nine year thing is like a really really long pregnancy, in more ways than one!"   Dear Scribes,      Doctor Who's back in full glory after over ten years; isn't it time you Brits released a new take on your other greatest export: Battletoads? Though the other guy had a good point with Solar Jetman and Snake Rattle and Roll, I will go out on a limb and say that a new Battletoads game could possibly top Trafalgar for legendary British achievements. Besides, it'd be way more affordable than a couple dozen Ships of the Line.      Sasser "It's a little known fact that only two people were actually skilled enough to complete this game," reminisces the head of the Banjo team from his Battletoads days. "One was the software engineer that wrote it, was the other one you? So I think it would have a somewhat limited appeal in today’s market where cosseted players virtually want the games to play themselves. Even if we did do a new game, it would never top the legendary British achievements that are Jammie Dodgers, so we would sadly be wasting our time."      I got my photo taken with the Moxx of Balhoon at the Doctor Who exhibition in Cardiff a couple of weeks ago. Top tip: careful when you press the big red button by the Daleks, it makes a hell of a bloody racket.   Dear Scribe:      Rare make bear and bird look ugly in new game. Mumbo not ugly. Do not make Mumbo ugly. Bear and bird ugly enough before. Mumbo too handsome.      Mumbo got idea! Rare make stupid Wumba ugly! Wumba already ugly. Rare make Wumba uglier! Rare keep Mumbo handsome.      Mumbo Jumbo You crazy skull-faced fool, nobody even knows whether or not Humba Wumba's in the new game yet. Anyway, if you want us to believe you're 'handsome' under that mask, you might want to think about taking it off. In fact, why haven't you taken it off? I thought you were supposed to - oh right, we never explained that properly. Sorry, forget I said anything.   Dear Scribes,      I've been playing a lot of Perfect Dark Zero lately, and while I admit that it's grown on me, I still find myself disappointed by the same things as almost everyone else. The weapons are actually better then the original PD, more diverse and balanced better, but the story line in single player could have been better and there just aren't enough options in multiplayer. Like someone already said on Scribes, the game needs one hit kills and the option to turn off shields (and by turn off shields I mean no-one starts with shields). Your response was that this would require too much testing, but testing of what? Make an option to turn off shields and to turn on one hit kills, nothing needs to be tested. While the new maps and the new bot personalities in the other patch were nice, those updates obviously require much more testing then the options everyone wants (one hit kills, and no starting shields) which you refuse to give us. These changes alone would make the game 100 percent better and perhaps even make it as good as the original Perfect Dark, which remains to this day my favorite game ever made. All in all the game is tons of fun, and it just seems foolish to me not to give the fans what they want and make the game as great as it can be.      Sincerely,      Dan Bugg PDZ multiplayer counterargument get!      "Testing of what? Testing of the menus with those options and the games where you had no armour, Mr. Bugg. We don’t just slap stuff in without testing it because it’s just a minor change. We test the bejeezus out of it. And we had no time. And they are minor things, compared to the game as a whole. If they would make the game so great, and they are minor things, then the game is only a tiny bit less great than it could have been. If they make it 100% better then the game is so ungood that the total increase cannot possibly raise the worth of the game to a reasonable level."      There's your answer. Good name, by the way. Has to be in the all-time Scribes top 20.   Hi guys,      I've been a regular to your site since... Well just about as long as you've had a site to see, and I particularly like the wallpaper downloads for prettying up my desktop.      The only thing I wanted to ask is whether there's any chance of some widescreen wallpapers (1280 x 800 or higher especially), because as much as I love your wallpapers, it's just not the same when it's either sized or cropped to fit!      Otherwise... Keep up the good work... Now that Banjo-Kazooie has been OFFICIALLY announced for the Xbox 360, I actually have the reason I needed to buy a 360!! (No offence meant to the PDZ and Kameo guys!)      Shannon I'm afraid the entire PDZ and Kameo teams are already on their way round to your house with corkscrews and steak tenderisers. I tried to talk them out of it, but they seemed dead set on making an example of you. Sorry.      Still, I'll look into the widescreen wallpaper thing the next time we bang some out. Suppose it depends on the suitability of the source material (and whether or not I remember to mention it to whoever volunteers to make the wallpaper), so it might not be possible in all cases, but certainly something to bear in mind. That should be of some small comfort if you manage to beat a path through the bloodthirsty mob and flee the country.   Scribes!      Alright, I think I found something out about Banjo-Kazooie. This is so obvious I cannot belive nobody has figured it out yet. I know how you got the idea of Gruntilda Winkybunion.      Barbra Streisand.      ...I mean think about it, they look the same, they sound the same. You guys thought you were so clever by dying Barbra Streisand green and giving her a different name. But you didn't count on a genious made of potato chips that can't spell for crap too figure out your little secret.      SamF I can see where you're coming from (if Barbra Streisand's face has the same effect on you that Bette Midler's evil mush does on me). However, here's judgement on your theory straight from the source: "Quite creative but sadly incorrect, as if there was any inspiration for the witch it came from a character called Grotbags from the Pink Windmill. Confused? Do an internet search and prepare to witness the cream of mid-80s kid’s TV..."   Hello, Lover of Days,      Do you feel that Paon did a good job at DK: King of Swing? I personally think the game comes close to the awesomeness of the DKC series, unlike all the bongo stuff they've been bringing out on the Cube. Also, which DKC do you feel improved the most from SNES to GBA? I would say DKC3, if only because of Pacifica.      Captain Drake      (PS - When can we expect an Xtreme Staircase game?)