On this day Banjo Kazooie was released for the Nintendo 64 in Europe. The concept originally began as a SNES game codenamed 'Project Dream'. Instead of a bear, the game was to feature a young boy called Edison. The project was started around the end of the SNES's life cycle and the game was tweaked for the new Nintendo system, Nintendo 64. Edison lacked the charm and mascot appeal that the development studio, Rare, wanted to achieve. It was decided to replace the young boy, Edison, with a humanoid bear by the name of Banjo. Kazooie was an afterthought. The development team wanted to give Banjo the ability to double jump. They contemplated giving banjo wings but it was ultimately decided to introduce a sidekick character, Kazooie, which allowed for many interesting gameplay dynamics and dialogue. The game was released and was instantly a global sensation. Banjo Kazooie received high acclaim from all media outlets. To be fair the game deserved the praise. It was one of my favourite platformers of all time. The game, unfortunately, did not reach its full potential as Rare, toyed with the idea of having Banjo Kazooie as an expansion game through the means of a 'lock-on' adapter. Similar to how Sonic & Knuckles worked. However, due to development time constraints, this idea was scrapped. There is still some visible reminisce of the idea in the game such as the unreachable key in Wozza's Cave. The feature was to be referred to as 'Stop n Swap'. In my opinion, the game didn't need this feature as it was and still is an amazing platformer. Thank you Rare for the fond childhood memories. #thisdayingaming #onthisdaygaming #todayingaming#videogamehistory #videogames #Nintendo #Nintendo64 #N64 #Rare #RareStudio #BanjoKazooie #BanjoTooie