In Rare’s latest edition of Rare Revealed, the developer talked about Dream, a SNES RPG that could have been. The concept later led to the studio developing Banjo-Kazooie for the Nintendo 64. During this nine and a half minute video, however, Designer Gregg Mayles, Artist Ed Bryan, and Engineer Paul Machacek talk about their experiences working on Dream and Banjo-Kazooie, while preliminary footage from the project is shown.
Dream would have been an isometric RPG using Donkey Kong Country‘s technology and inspired by JRPGs and LucasArts’ adventures. It would have followed a boy named Edson and Dinger, his pet dog. The duo would travel the world, trying to keep pirates from collecting “Floaty,” a material that would essentially allow them to create a fleet of airships. Both Edson and Dinger had their own abilities, with Edson wielding a sword and attacking and Dinger being able to dig up objects and do his own things.
However, the switching of attention from the Super Nintendo to the Nintendo 64 meant Dream dying. Development continued on it for 16 more months, during which time it evolved. Edson was replaced with Banjo, who started out as a rabbit, and eventually something the developers considered “too ambitious” to with which Rare was more familiar. Eventually, Dream became Banjo-Kazooie.
More information on Banjo-Kazooie’s creation is talked about in Rare Replay, which is immediately available for the Xbox One.
