Published Jul 29, 2026, 12:00 PM EDT
Tom Wilson is a Gaming Features Writer at Screen Rant. Over the past five years, Tom has worked as the Editor-in-Chief at The Game Crater, as a Staff Writer for GamingIntel, a List Writer at TheGamer, and, of course, as a Senior Writer at ScreenRant. Tom has experience writing reviews, guides, news, and features, and has been responsible for teams of writers, training them and editing their work.
Tom graduated with a Masters in Multimedia Journalism, and has since gone on to build up his portfolio of games journalism work.
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The Nintendo 64 was one of the greatest consoles of all time, and I can’t imagine many gaming enthusiasts refuting that. Sure, it had its fair share of duds, but the strides in mechanical, technical, and creative innovations it took pushed the entire gaming industry forward into the golden age that we all get to enjoy today. A large contributing factor to those leaps forward were, of course, the impressive games that went on to inspire and influence a generation of developers.
Of all the many perfect Nintendo 64 games available, one of them has been given the Unreal Engine treatment to bring it into the modern era. There’s something rather poetic about the generation that helped us get to a point in which photorealistic 3D visuals are even possible being reimagined with said visuals, and I can’t think of a better game to receive such a treatment. Fans will absolutely want to check this one out, and newcomers who’ve never had the pleasure of experiencing this N64 classic can finally do so in HD.
It would appear that remakes of N64 titles are becoming somewhat commonplace. We were recently treated to gameplay of the official Ocarina of Time remake, and now developer François Montagud has uploaded gameplay of his Banjo-Kazooie remake built entirely within Unreal Engine 5. One has to appreciate the photorealistic approach UE5 brings to the table in order to get the most out of what Montagud is offering, but it does look rather spectacular, even if it deviates wildly from the original game.
Montagud explained via the official YouTube upload that the goal of the remake project was to “preserve as much as possible the charm and identity of the original game while bringing it a more modern visual experience, with richer vegetation, dynamic lighting and more detailed environments.” In many respects, he has accomplished that, as, while the more stylized visuals have been replaced in favor of the more grounded UE5 aesthetic, the surreality of* Banjo-Kazooie’s* world, coupled with its cartoonish character designs and environmental structure have been kept intact.
Not everyone will love it, and indeed some of the comments on the YouTube upload have been a tad negative. Such is the nature of remakes, with even the recent *Halo: Campaign Evolved *and *Star Fox *next-gen refreshes getting flack for losing what made the original experience so special. However, considering that Banjo-Kazooie is one of the most important and prolific N64 games ever made, it makes sense to at least attempt to remake it in what is clearly becoming the industry standard engine. There is, however, one slight caveat with this remake that fans won’t want to hear.
This remake is just a fan project and won’t ever be made available to the public. That means that no one will be able to play it, and it’ll remain a portfolio piece rather than a playable demo or even full game. It is a shame, but an unexpected result, especially considering how litigious certain companies can be when it comes to remakes. Unfortunately, at least for the time being, it doesn’t appear as if there are any major plans to release an official Banjo-Kazooie remake or new entry, as Xbox has remained somewhat cagey about the whole affair.
The last Banjo-Kazooie game was released in 2008, nearly two decades ago, and since then, Xbox has remained tight-lipped about the series. Banjo-Kazooie creator, Rare, is still a developer under the Xbox umbrella, but its latest title, Everwild, was canceled, and it currently doesn’t have any projects in the works, at least that are public knowledge. Additionally, when asked by Games Radar about Banjo-Kazooie, the executive vice president of Xbox, Matt Booty, gave a fairly non-committal answer, ostensibly saying that anything could happen.
“We’re in the great position that we have our first-party studios, we have first-party publishing, who [get] to work with great partners, like Kojima [Productions], and we also have all of our great third-party partners from around the industry. We’ve got ID@Xbox, which brings in so many great partners that are kind of on a different part of their game development journey. It’s all of it. So, I think the answer is there are options to do all kinds of things, and we’re certainly looking at those all the time.”
As a result, it seems like the closest fans will get to a proper Banjo-Kazooie remake is Montagud’s project, and that will only go as far as the YouTube gameplay video. It is, of course, altogether possible that Xbox will release a new game in the series, at least once it has figured out its current first-party strategy. Hopefully, when that happens, Rare, or whoever develops it, can find a balance between Montagud’s UE5 adaptation of Banjo-Kazooie*** ***and the game’s original, **N64 **timeless aesthetic.