While the world and his dog are currently enjoying Banjo and Kazooie’s third outing, I’ve found myself absolutely loving the original, which has recently been released on Xbox Live Arcade. 

While there are a few issues with the emulation - a few sections, particularly when Banjo is swimming, suffer from horrendous slowdown - this is otherwise perfect. Indeed, it begs the question, why on earth hasn’t Microsoft allowed Rare to release more of its back catalogue on Live Arcade?

After all, aside from Nintendo, only Rare themselves came close to creating essential N64 titles, and while some of them - Donkey Kong 64, Diddy Kong Racing - still belong to Nintendo, there’s still plenty of other titles that we’d love to see resurface. Where is Jet Force Gemini? Where is Blast Corps? Where is Perfect Dark? It seems bizarre that Microsoft spends a small fortune on the popular British developer and doesn’t actually allow them to do what they do best; create highly innovative and genuinely great games.

Granted, the likes of both Viva Pinata, Kameo and Banjo Kazooie 3 are a massive return to form, but I don’t want to see them creating (admittedly good avatars) I want them to be able to do what they’ve always done and the release of Banjo Kazooie makes me want it even more.

Beautifully structured, full of genuinely engaging characters and extremely tough in places, this is easily one of the best games currently available on Microsoft’s service, and when you consider some of the past titles we’ve rated over the years, that’s high praise indeed.

Rare has already revealed that Banjo Tooie will be arriving sometime next year, let’s hope some of its other classics aren’t too far behind.

When we first heard about Sega’s brand new compilation that would feature 40 classic Mega Drive games, our first thought was… well we can’t say but it rhymed with “trucking amazing.”After all, who wouldn’t get excited about a new compilation for the PS3 and Xbox 360 that featured the likes of Streets of Rage 2, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and the mighty Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle?*But then the first screens appeared and we became scared, very scared.Sega in its infinite wisdom has released shots where all the lovely pixels had been smoothed out; suitable for the latest high-definition TVs but totally offensive to our old eyes. The end result is a selection of screenshots that don’t do these classic games justice.Luckily, there is an option in-game to turn this annoying feature off, so our blood pressure has returned to normal.Add in the fact that numerous interviews, arcade and Master System games will be unlocked and that the coding is being handled by those geniuses at Backbone Entertainment, and the Sega Ultimate Collection could well become the best compilation of all time.*Stuart forced me at gunpoint to name that last one

High-Definition awfulness

Pixel perfection.

When one of the writers of X360 went out to Japan recently guess what they found in the local gaming shop?

That’s right, standing loud and proud and protected from the environment in a nice plastic bag was the Gauntlet issue of everyone’s favourite retro magazine. It looked so nice and shiny it brought tears to our eyes.

If you’ve discovered the magazine in a country you were visiting, send us a picture and we’ll be sure to put it up on the blog.

And people say they can never find the magazine…

While the Xbox360 community looks forward to the incoming release of Banjo and Kazooie’s third adventure, we’re patiently awaiting the opportunity to revisit the original N64 hit.

Don’t get us wrong, we’re still mega excited (are we too old to say that?) about the bear and bird’s third outing, but there’s something about their original adventure that makes us feel all warm and gooey inside.

We’ve always maintained that the original Banjo was the best platformer on the N64 (yes, even better than the excellent Super Mario 64) so we can’t wait for the release of this new high-def version, if only so everyone else realises what we already know. Gahhuh!

Wow. It’s like we’ve never been away from the dynamic duo.

Crikey! Has it really been a month since the last excellent edition of Retro Gamer appeared? It certainly has been and if you thought last month’s issue was amazing, wait until you see what we’ve been able to cram into the magazine this month. Honestly, we really do spoil you sometimes.

Running the Gauntlet: Due for release on Nintendo’s DS we take a look back at Gauntlet’s rich legacy to find out who really shot that food.

The Making of… Beneath a Steel Sky: Revolution Software’s Charles Cecil looks back at one of the company’s greatest Amiga release.

The Big Interview… Hideo Kojima: The creator of Metal Gear takes time out of his busy schedule to talk to us about his hectic and prestigious career.

Ultimate Exclusive!: No one knew who made Ultimate’s C64 games. Until now! Martyn Carroll delivers an amazing 8-bit exclusive.

The Complete History - Castlevania: With the season of the witch approaching, Retro Gamer takes a look at Konami’s long-running Castlevania franchise and hopes some remembered the garlic.

The Making of… Super Pipeline I & II: The boys from Taskset reveal how a simple dripping tap spurred them on to create one of their most successful franchises, the excellent Super Pipeline.

The Making of… Rampage: Retro Gamer does the monster mash with Rampage’s developer and finds out why it nearly didn’t happen.

Retroinspection - Commodore 16: It may not have been as powerful as the C64, but the Commodore 16 still had plenty of great games.

The Making of… Samba De Amigo: With Samba recently hitting Nintendo’s Wii, we look back at the creation of the original rhythm-action.

And much, much more including, Reader Revival, Gauntlet DS, Super Robin Hood, Terrormolinos, Mr Heli, X-Men, Shiny Entertainment, Skyblazer

We get a surprising amount of mail here at Retro Gamer, but never had we had something as comprehensive as this. In fact, we can’t work out whether to be flattered or scared by William Swords’s lengthy love song to Retro Gamer.

You can decide for yourself as we’ll be putting up the entire letter over the next few days.

The dripping title suggest this could be a scary ride…

Points are immediately lost here due to me being the only person who is not properly in focus. Poor show!

Notice how our initials make up the Retro Gamer ethos. And how the first person is the current editor and the last the previous editor, Martyn Carroll. This is clever stuff.

So many classic characters together, but where’s Miner Willy? Expect people to start moaning about the lack of 8-bit coverage very soon.

Are you still reading? It’s going to get much better. Honest.

If only all of our readers put in this month effort whenever they sent in letters.

Tune in tomorrow for another six pages.

We’re great believers of the freebie at Retro Gamer, so the news that the incoming Xbox Live update of N64 classic Banjo Kazooie would be free if you pre-order Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts was bound to get our attention.

As well as getting the classic platformer for absolutely nothing, you’ll also be able to play it nearly two weeks ahead of its official street date, which makes it even more of a bargain. For more information about this amazing offer simply head along to Rare’s official website at www.rareware.com/company/news.html

By all the things that are good and holy, Capcom’s Leo Tan has just turned up in the office with two Street Fighter IV arcade cabinets. Taking stock of this momentous event I have now made a list of the most important things to ever happen in my life.

1) Street Fighter IV turns up in office

2) First child is born

3) Second child is born

4) I get married to this woman

5) I’m the editor of Retro Gamer

There’s been an absolute dearth of classic retro games on Live Arcade recently, so imagine our joy when classic FPS Duke Nukem 3D appeared on the download service last night.

Although it’s not been given any sort of graphical update (although many would argue it’s not needed) it controls exceptionally well on the 360’s pad and has all the violence and risque humour intact. Shaking a fist-full of greenbacks at a stripper has lost none of its charm, while even the flushing of toilets brings back a wave of giddy nostalgia.

Some will no doubt be disappointed that this isn’t the superior Saturn port, but there’s no denying that Duke Nukem still remains a brilliant little blaster. Available for a paltry 800 points, this is a must have blaster and should tide us over until Duke Nukem Forever comes out.

Funny, brutal and still brilliant. God bless you Duke.

Being the busy editor that I am, I don’t get to update this blog as often as I’d like. Still, here are a few pictures from when I recently (around a month ago now) went to Pisa and Florance in Italy.

Here’s an Italian pidgeon that’s perched on some statue. Despite the fact that it lives in another country, it sounds exactly the same like an English pidgeon.

This is the Leaning Tower of Pisa. It’s easy to identify this monument as there is a sign next to it saying Leaning Tower of Pisa and lots of idiots have their picture taking in front of it so it looks like they are trying to push the thing over. Apparently no one is allowed to take a photo of the tower unless they do the same thing at least ones.

Here’s the Umbrella Logo from the Resident Evil series. This is obviously undisputed proof that the T-Virus actually comes from Italy. Therefore whenever a new game comes out you’ll never have to listen to the awful story that accompanies it as you now know the actual answer.

Here’s my gorgeous wife, Melanie enjoying an icecream in Florance. When ordering icecreams point to the smallest cone possible, otherwise you’ll end up paying £6.50 for one like my wife did. It was bloody nice, but then  you’d expect it to be for an insane price like that.

This last picture is particularly interesting as the Italian government has obviously stolen Sega’s Dreamcast logo, stuck a hose on it and is trying to pass it off as an emergancy sign. If there is any justice in the world, the money Sega gets back from the Italian government for wrongful use of their logo will be used to fund Dreamcast 2. Oh sorry, Nintendo’s already done that…