10 Perfect Video Game Sequels You'll Never Get

5. Banjo-Threeie

Why Not?

Despite Rare being a supremely talented developer, once they were bought out by Microsoft, it was only a matter of time before some corporate whim got in the way of what the studio wanted to do.

As such, whatever the original vision for 'Banjo Threeie' was, it was put through the mass market wringer, emerging in 2008 to some incredibly divisive reviews in the form of Nuts & Bolts. Fans hated it for having such a weird 'customise your own vehicle and go driving!' focus, whilst many critics still tried to whisper, "Actually guys, it's not that bad!"

Though, it mattered not. This wasn't the proper Banjo sequel many N64 fans were hoping for, and as other ex-Rare chaps assembled Yooka-Laylee as a peace offering, even that was received about as well as a fart in a lift.

All of which stands to reason, that it would take a minor miracle for Microsoft to 'allow' Rare to revisit a property that was verging on a cult classic anyway.

What Would Be Perfect?

Though you can't deny that Yooka-Laylee going back to 90s platforming roots meant it felt 'old school' in a bad way, back in 2002 we'd of gobbled up a proper Banjo sequel - not to mention Threeie would've been the characters' debut on Xbox.

At the time, Microsoft's platform had next to nothing in the way of 3D platformers, and BK's Mario 64-esque gameplay would've been one hell of a contrast to the other, more mature titles on offer.

Discard the empty open worlds and vehicle sections, restore verticality to the environments and give us plenty excuses to deploy the two characters' traversal abilities. As it stood, Nuts & Bolts relied way too much on "talk to NPC, build new ride, drive to next NPC, repeat", and as Rare have been enslaved to Microsoft-only games for almost a decade, they aren't going to resurrect "an old Nintendo game" any time soon.