I imagine we all have that one video game franchise revival we keep hoping for every time announcement season comes around – a little flame in your heart for the return of a nostalgic favorite you loved as a kid. For me, that’s Banjo-Kazooie. I’ve nearly given up hope that Xbox will ever deliver the Banjo-Threeie I’ve waited 25 years for, but luckily, one fan developer is helping fill the gap with an incredible tribute game in Dreams.
Dreams is, of course, the whimsical game creation tool built by LittleBigPlanet developer Media Molecule. I remind you of that fact primarily because PlayStation has very much allowed Dreams to fall out of the limelight since official support ended in 2023. But that hasn’t stopped William ‘Eupholace’ Butkevicius from using it to build an absolutely incredible-looking Banjo fan game.
The catch is that Mumbomania is much smaller in scope than a full Banjo sequel would be, consisting of just a single level. It’s a pitch perfect recreation of Treasure Trove Cove, the second world in the original game, and one that comes with an array of new challenges to overcome and mechanics to play around with, so it still manages to impress even with a roughly 30-minute playtime based on the playthrough video below.
It’s certainly impressive enough to have attracted the attention of the original developers. Gregg Mayles, who led development on the original Banjo-Kazooie, retweeted the release announcement for Mumbomania and called it “splendid.” Legendary composer Grant Kirkhope also shared the announcement, and even the official Rare account got in on the action: “Put our fanciest hat on just so we could tip it to this. Incredible work!”
It’s only available in Dreams, but that looks impressive. I admire the dedication, although at this point, you should probably use proper tools and make the game/demo available to more people.