Banjo-Kazooie, from Rare Studios, is one of the most fondly-remembered games from the golden age of Nintendo 64.Playtonic Games, created by some former members of Rare, got together to launch a Kickstarter for what they described as the "spiritual successor" to Banjo--Yooka-Laylee! The team includes BAFTA-nominated Grant Kirkhope, who composed the original music for Banjo, as well as the sequels. I caught up with him after a busy week at E3 to talk about "putting the band back together" to create Yooka-Laylee.
Yooka-Laylee E3 trailer
In recent years, there have been many games with dark themes, even dark palettes, and Grant is proud of how Yooka-Laylee will fill an underserved niche--it's a bright, fun game that younger kids (and their parents) will love!
In one of the later Banjo sequels, Grant played an actual banjo and included it in the soundtrack. When I asked him if he planned to write anything for the ukelele for Yooka-Laylee, he said, "I'm not ruling it out. I'm not finished with Yooka-Laylee yet, so there's every chance I could do it!"
We'll have to wait until early 2017 to find out......
Episode tracklist:
Grant Kirkhope: Yooka-Laylee: Boss, Jungle
Malcolm Arnold: Bridge on the River Kwai: Sunset
Grant Kirkhope: Viva Pinata: Tranquil Hours
Follow Kate on Twitter @RespawnShowKR
