Banjo-Kazooie is one of the most beloved 3D platformers of all time and one of the most important Nintendo 64 games ever released. The wait for Banjo-Kazooie‘s return however has been a long one, as the franchise has laid dormant since the release of Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts for the Xbox 360 in 2008. While Nintendo fans have had to wait to see Banjo-Kazooie return to the platform ever since Microsoft acquired Rare in 2002, the characters’ appearance in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate in 2019 inspired hope in fans that the games would return to Nintendo consoles in the future. Today, Nintendo Japan briefly listed the N64 versions of Banjo-Kazooie and Blast Corps for imminent release on the Wii U Virtual Console, before quickly removing them.
This listing mainly comes as a shock to fans because the titles were listed for release on the Wii U eShop just as the Nintendo Switch is about to enter its fourth year on the market, rendering the console outdated. Nintendo stopped officially supporting the Wii U after the release of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild in 2017, which doubled as a Nintendo Switch launch title, and since then the company has continued to bring Wii U titles to the Nintendo Switch, with the seemingly final major Wii U port, Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury, coming in February 2021.
The Wii U Virtual Console listings briefly appeared on Nintendo Japan’s release schedule, with the releases scheduled for later today, December 30th 2020. Interestingly, the publisher for both titles was listed as Microsoft Japan, meaning that there is likely a deal in place with both companies to re-release the game on Nintendo platforms officially at some point, as it is unlikely that Nintendo would publish such details without Microsoft’s consent. The titles were later removed from the release schedule, with Nintendo releasing a statement (as translated by Gematsu) stating “Banjo-Kazooie and Blast Corps were listed as Wii U titles to be released on December 30, but will not be released. We apologize for the error.”
While Nintendo fans are almost surely used to bizarre situations like this at this point, especially with how the company has handled the release of Super Mario 3D All-Stars, this situation is particularly strange because not only does it revolve around the release of another publisher’s projects (specifically Microsoft, which is synonymous with Xbox,) it’s regarding their release on the Wii U of all consoles.
It’s hard to tell if Nintendo does actually plan on releasing Banjo-Kazooie and Blast Corps on the Wii U Virtual Console at this point. It’s likely there’s more to this story than a simple error, fans will just have to wait and see. The Wii U’s Virtual Console has received much criticism from fans since its launch in January 2013 due to the poor quality of the emulator used to render the games. Oddly enough, Nintendo reutilized this emulator for the recent Nintendo Switch release of Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light, despite not utilizing it for the Nintendo Switch Online NES application. This listing might imply that Nintendo is planning on using this emulator once again for Banjo-Kazooie and Blast Corps on Nintendo Switch.
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