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Yooka-Laylee
''Yooka-Laylee'' is a platform game published by Team17 in 2017 for Windows, macOS, Linux, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch, followed by a version for Amazon Luna in October 2020. Developed by Playtonic Games, a group of former key personnel from Rare, ''Yooka-Laylee'' is a spiritual successor to the '' Banjo-Kazooie'' series released for the Nintendo 64 nearly 20 years prior. After years of planning to develop a new game, Playtonic Games initiated a Kickstarter campaign that attracted significant media coverage and raised a record-breaking sum of over £2 million. The game follows chameleon Yooka and bat Laylee on their quest to retrieve a magical book from an evil corporation. ''Yooka-Laylee'' received mixed reviews, with critics divided on whether emulating its predecessors was enough to make it a successful game, or whether it was purely trying to capitalize on nostalgia. While most critics agreed that it captured the essence of earlier platformers, they a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yooka-Laylee And The Impossible Lair
''Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair'' is a platform video game developed by Playtonic Games and published by Team17. As a sequel to ''Yooka-Laylee'' (2017), the game was released digitally for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One on October 8, 2019, followed by a version for Amazon Luna on October 20, 2020. Gameplay The title is a side-scrolling 2D platform game. The player controls Yooka, a male chameleon, and Laylee, a female bat, to complete various levels. In these levels, the objective is to collect quills and T.W.I.T. coins, as well as to free a member of the "Beetalion". The members of the Beetalion each give Yooka and Laylee an extra hit point for use on the final level, the eponymous "Impossible Lair". T.W.I.T. coins are used to unlock further progress on the overworld through Trowzer's "paywalls". Notably, it is possible to enter the final level at any point in the game, though it is heavily encouraged that the player first secure extra hit points ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Playtonic Games
Playtonic Games is a British independent video game developer. It was founded in 2014 and it consists almost entirely of former members of Rare. History Playtonic Games was founded in late 2014 by Steve Hurst, Steve Mayles, Gavin Price, Jens Restemeier, Mark Stevenson, and Chris Sutherland, all of whom previously worked at Rare. Of the founders, Price assumed the role of studio head. They were later joined by Grant Kirkhope and Steven Hurst. The first game the company worked on was codenamed "Project Ukulele", which was described as a spiritual successor to '' Banjo-Kazooie''. The team launched a Kickstarter campaign for the project, and it managed to reach the stretch goal of US$1 million within 24 hours. In part due to the campaign's success, the team's attention was often diverted to other aspects such as making merchandise items instead of focusing on game's development, and some choices related to game development were forced as well due to them being promised in the ca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grant Kirkhope
Grant Kirkhope is a Scottish-American composer and voice actor for video games and film. Some of his notable works include '' GoldenEye 007'', '' Banjo-Kazooie'', ''Donkey Kong 64'', and ''Perfect Dark'', among many others. He has been nominated for various BAFTA, ASCAP, and IFMCA awards. Early life and education Kirkhope was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, where his mother worked as a music hall dancer. Kirkhope's father was an avid music fan and exposed him to early influences such as Frank Sinatra and Glenn Miller. Kirkhope taught himself to play guitar at age 11 and is classically trained in the trumpet. Kirkhope was brought up in Knaresborough, North Yorkshire from the age of five, and attended King James's School. Kirkhope played in various bands after leaving the Royal Northern College of Music, including Zoot and the Roots along with the saxophonist Snake Davis. Kirkhope also spent many years as part of "the Big Bad Horns" which were part of UK rock band Little Angels. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Wise (composer)
David Wise is a British video game music composer and musician. He was a composer at Rare from 1985 to 2009, and was the company's sole musician up until 1994. He has gained a following for his work on various games, particularly Nintendo's ''Donkey Kong Country'' series. Wise is known for his atmospheric style of music, mixing natural environmental sounds with prominent melodic and percussive accompaniment. Career and influences Wise has said that he has had a wide range of musical influences, though the first instrument he learned to play was the piano, before later learning the trumpet, and then learning to play the drums during adolescence. He played in a few bands during his youth, and was still active in a band as of 2004. His career at Rare began when he happened to meet its two founders, as he explained in response to a question posted on its company website: "I was working in a music shop demonstrating a Yamaha CX5 Music Computer to a couple of people, Tim & Chris S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Banjo-Kazooie
''Banjo-Kazooie'' is a series of video games developed by Rare (company), Rare. The games feature a male bear named Banjo & Kazooie, Banjo and his friend, a large female red bird named Banjo & Kazooie, Kazooie, who are both controlled by the player. Banjo originally made his debut as a playable character in 1997 as part of the cast of ''Diddy Kong Racing''. Throughout the various games, they are tasked with thwarting the various evil schemes of a witch named Gruntilda. The first game, ''Banjo-Kazooie (video game), Banjo-Kazooie'', was released in 1998 to critical acclaim and was followed by three sequels and a spin-off racing game. The franchise debuted on the Nintendo 64 and subsequent entries in the series also appeared on Game Boy Advance and Xbox 360. The three main titles then saw a release on Xbox One as part of ''Rare Replay''. The franchise has been largely dormant since the release of ''Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts'' in 2008. However, Banjo and Kazooie have made occasio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rare (company)
Rare Limited is a British video game developer and a studio of Xbox Game Studios based in Twycross. Rare's games span the platform, first-person shooter, action-adventure, fighting, and racing genres. Its most popular games include the ''Battletoads'', ''Donkey Kong'', and '' Banjo-Kazooie'' series, as well as games like '' GoldenEye 007'' (1997), ''Perfect Dark'' (2000), ''Conker's Bad Fur Day'' (2001), ''Viva Piñata'' (2006), and ''Sea of Thieves'' (2018). Tim and Chris Stamper, who also founded Ultimate Play the Game, established Rare in 1985. During its early years, Rare was backed by an unlimited budget from Nintendo, primarily concentrated on Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) games. During this time, Rare created successful games such as ''Wizards & Warriors'' (1987), '' R.C. Pro-Am'' (1988), and ''Battletoads'' (1991). Rare became a prominent second-party developer for Nintendo, which came to own a large minority stake of the company, with the release of ''Donkey ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Steve Burke (composer)
Steve Burke is a British video game composer, sound designer and voice actor. He is mostly known for his work at the British video game developer Rare. Background and career Burke was involved with music from early age. At home his family had a piano, which Burke played nearly every day. He also was playing the clarinet at Manx Youth Orchestra. At age of 20, Burke moved to London and studied at music branch of King's College London. Then, he graduated from Royal College of Music with a master's degree. At college, Burke often went to film recording sessions where he met such the masters of orchestra such as John Williams and Michael Kamen. After college he was composing for films about a year before he was recruited by video game giant Rare in early 2001. He firstly provided additional music for ''Star Fox Adventures'', but his first major and most successful work at the studio was the soundtrack for 2005 game '' Kameo: Elements of Power''. The soundtrack was scored with Prag ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Team17
Team17 Group plc is a British video game developer and Video game publisher, publisher based in Wakefield, England. The venture was created in December 1990 through the merger of British publisher 17-Bit Software and Swedish developer Team 7. At the time, the two companies consisted of and were led by Michael Robinson, Martyn Brown and Debbie Bestwick, and Andreas Tadic, Rico Holmes and Peter Tuleby, respectively. Bestwick later became and presently serves as Team17's chief executive officer. After their first game, ''Full Contact'' (1991) for the Amiga, the studio followed up with multiple number-one releases on that platform and saw major success with Andy Davidson (game designer), Andy Davidson's ''Worms (1995 video game), Worms'' in 1995, the resulting franchise of which still remains as the company's primary development output, having developed over 20 entries in it. Through a management buyout performed by Bestwick, both Robinson and Brown departed from Team17 in 2010, lea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Platform Game
A platform game (often simplified as platformer and sometimes called a jump 'n' run game) is a sub-genre of action video games in which the core objective is to move the player character between points in an environment. Platform games are characterized by levels that consist of uneven terrain and suspended platforms of varying height that require jumping and climbing to traverse. Other acrobatic maneuvers may factor into the gameplay, such as swinging from vines or grappling hooks, jumping off walls, air dashing, gliding through the air, being shot from cannons, or bouncing from springboards or trampolines. Games where jumping is automated completely, such as 3D games in ''The Legend of Zelda'' series, fall outside of the genre. The genre started with the 1980 arcade video game, '' Space Panic'', which includes ladders, but not jumping. '' Donkey Kong'', released in 1981, established a template for what were initially called "climbing games." ''Donkey Kong'' inspired many clon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Banjo-Kazooie (video Game)
''Banjo-Kazooie'' is a 1998 platform game developed by Rare and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. Controlling the player characters, the bear Banjo and the bird Kazooie, the player attempts to save Banjo's kidnapped sister Tooty from the witch Gruntilda. The player explores nine nonlinear worlds to gather items and progress. Using Banjo and Kazooie's traversal and combat abilities, they complete challenges such as solving puzzles, jumping over obstacles, and defeating bosses. Rare conceived ''Banjo-Kazooie'' as a role-playing video game, ''Dream'', for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System following the completion of ''Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest'' (1995). The 15-member team, led by Gregg Mayles, transitioned development to the Nintendo 64 and retooled the game as a platformer after the role-playing format proved too complex. ''Banjo-Kazooie'' was inspired by ''Super Mario 64'' (1996) and designed to appeal to a broad audience, similar to Walt Disne ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spiritual Successor
A spiritual successor (sometimes called a spiritual sequel) is a product or fictional work that is similar to, or directly inspired by, another previous work, but (unlike a traditional prequel or sequel) does not explicitly continue the product line or media franchise of its predecessor, and is thus only a successor "in spirit". Spiritual successors often have similar themes and styles to their source material, but are generally a distinct intellectual property. In fiction, the term generally refers to a work by a creator that shares similarities to one of their earlier works, but is set in a different continuity, and features distinct characters and settings. Such works may arise when licensing issues prevent a creator from releasing a direct sequel using the same copyrighted characters and names as the original. The term is also used more broadly to describe a pastiche work that intentionally evokes similarities to pay homage to other influential works, but is also distinct enou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Platform Game
A platform game (often simplified as platformer and sometimes called a jump 'n' run game) is a sub-genre of action video games in which the core objective is to move the player character between points in an environment. Platform games are characterized by levels that consist of uneven terrain and suspended platforms of varying height that require jumping and climbing to traverse. Other acrobatic maneuvers may factor into the gameplay, such as swinging from vines or grappling hooks, jumping off walls, air dashing, gliding through the air, being shot from cannons, or bouncing from springboards or trampolines. Games where jumping is automated completely, such as 3D games in ''The Legend of Zelda'' series, fall outside of the genre. The genre started with the 1980 arcade video game, '' Space Panic'', which includes ladders, but not jumping. '' Donkey Kong'', released in 1981, established a template for what were initially called "climbing games." ''Donkey Kong'' inspired many clon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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