13 Infamous Mis-Steps That Ruined Iconic Gaming Characters

4. Banjo Kazooie Changed Genres

When the original Banjo-Kazooie game arrived on the Nintendo 64 is 1998 many called the platformer a Super Mario 64 killer. The game had far better graphics, the controls were easily as good and the story and characters felt like they ripped straight out of the offices of Pixar. Banjo-Tooie was hyped in the ending sequence of the first game, but took years to arrive. By the time it did arrive, it was one of the N64's swansong games meaning that gamers who had bought the first game during the early part of the N64's lifecycle had now moved onto Sega's Dreamcast or were saving their cash for the Playstation 2. The game therefore didn't get the sales or attention people would have expected which damaged the franchises status as a headlining act. The real misstep came after Rare was sold to Microsoft and had left the nurturing arms of Nintendo. Their Xbox 360 adventure could have played it safe as a fun platformer, but Banjo-Kazooie Nuts And Bolts was a strange hybrid platform racer. Whilst not a bad game it wasn't the game Banjo fans had been waiting for and the game wasn't a huge success.