Banjo-Tooie is finally coming to Nintendo Switch Online, 2 years after the first game

Banjo-Tooie is the critically acclaimed sequel to Banjo-Kazooie, and most people regard them as some of the best 3D collect-a-thon platformers in the Nintendo 64, a console where the genre thrived more than ever. After many years, fans of this classic can re-experience it on their Nintendo Switch.

Nintendo recently posted a trailer that confirms the addition of Banjo-Tooie to the Nintendo 64 catalog of its Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack service next week, on October 25. This was long overdue, because Banjo-Kazooie has been available on the service since 2022.

However, the most interesting aspect of this new version of Banjo-Tooie is the addition of widescreen mode, something that is not quite common on Nintendo Switch Online releases. This not only makes the game look great, but it most likely means that Microsoft decided to use the version of the game that it’s also available in the 2015 collection, Rare Replay.

This Banjo-Tooie port shows us how much the relationship between Nintendo and Microsoft has improved

Fans are quite excited about Banjo-Tooie’s addition to the Nintendo Switch Online service, not only because of the high quality of this fun platforming adventure but also because of the significance this game and its predecessor had for the Nintendo 64. The bear and bird duo starred in two of the best titles in the system, not to mention that they solidified the close relationship between their developer, Rare, and their publisher, Nintendo.

However, as most fans already know, Microsoft bought Rare in 2002, which gave the rights to the Banjo-Kazooie IP to one of Nintendo’s biggest competitors. After a long absence, the bear and bird duo finally returned to the Nintendo family in 2019, when the company added both of them to Super Smash Bros Ultimate as DLC fighters. This marked the beginning of a fresh new amicable relationship between Microsoft and Nintendo, which led to the inclusion of Banjo-Kazooie and other classic Nintendo 64 games by Rare on Nintendo Switch Online and culminated with this new port of Banjo-Tooie. Nevertheless, fans are still hoping that both companies will continue adding some of the studio’s other titles to the service in the near future, like Conker’s Bad Fur Day or Donkey Kong 64.