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Take a look at this stunning Unreal Engine 5 recreation of Banjo Kazooie's Spiral Mountain level

Semir Omerovic

Published: 09:02, 28 June 2024

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Take a look at this stunning Unreal Engine 5 recreation of Banjo Kazooie's Spiral Mountain level

Banjo Kazooie Re-Jiggyed is a concept project by Environment Artist Alex Lessard

Key Points from the Article

The level, Spiral Mountain, is brought to life with the art style of Spyro and Crash studio Toys for Bob.
The artist, Alex Lessard, worked on the project for three months and used ideas from all three games.
The environments, assets, and effects are stunning, showcasing the potential of a new Banjo Kazooie game.

Banjo Kazooie Re-Jiggyed is a concept project by Environment Artist Alex Lessard

Environment Artist Alex Lessard spent three months working on recreating Banjo Kazooie's tutorial level in Toys For Bob style in Unreal Engine 5. The results are unsurprisingly stunning.

Banjo Kazooie is one of those dormant Microsoft IPs that have a special place in my heart so you can probably understand my frustration that we haven't had a new instalment in this family-friendly series since 2008's Nuts and Blots.

We have had some rumblings that a new game could be in the works but nothing has been officially confirmed by Xbox yet. In the meantime, some developers decided to take the matter into their own hands and recreate the game's iconic tutorial level Spiral Mountain in Unreal Engine 5 using the art style of Spyro and Crash studio Toys for Bob', perhaps to encourage Microsoft to finally give one of their teams the budget to make a new Banjo Kazooie title.

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Artist Alex Lessard shared a stunning video and screenshot showing Spiral Mountain as you've never seen it before. It's lush, rich with detail featuring a modern lighting system but most importantly, it retains the charm and the design of the original level.

Lessard say he worked on the project for three months with the goal to take the level from the first game as a guideline and recreate it with some ideas that were used in all three games.

"What if Banjo-Kazooie was remade from the ground up today? Based on the work of Toys For Bob's Spyro Reignited Trilogy and Crash 4 : It's About Time, I explored the idea of rebuilding from scratch the tutorial level of the game, Spiral Mountain, in Unreal Engine 5, within 3 months," Lessard said on ArtStation.

Alex Lessard

Banjo Kazooie Re-Jiggyed is a concept project by Environment Artist Alex Lessard

Alex Lessard

The environments of the iconic tutorial level look stunning in this Unreal Engine 5 makeover

Many of the assets including various plans have been created from the ground up for this project while other Unreal Engine 5 creators helped him create the dynamic sky and water effects.

"While using previously known techniques, I took the opportunity to learn how to create a variety of plants for this project and meshes for landscape purposes. For the sky, I was helped by So Stylized, the creator of the Dynamic Sky and Weather pack on the Unreal Engine Marketplace. The water is from the same creator and the VFX are also from the Marketplace," he explained on ArtStation.

Alex Lessard

I don't know about you but now I really, really want a new Banjo Kazooie game by Toys From Bob

This is obviously just a cool fan project and has nothing to do with any potential Banjo Kazooie reboot but it does give us an idea of what the new game could look like if it ever comes out.

I was hopeful that Toys For Bob's would be the studio to take on this franchise but it seems they are working on a new Spyro, which is exciting too, so Microsoft will probably have to find some other studio that is interested in reviving this classic IP.