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.
Just check out the trailer for Banjo-Kazooie: Mumbomania above. (Or play it for yourself in Dreams.) I often find myself a bit more critical of fan games than most, but this is a rare effort that truly captures the spirit of the original and genuinely looks like it has the old-school control precision you’d want. If this exact video popped up as the “one more thing” at my dream Xbox press conference, I’d be more than satisfied.
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 worth noting that Eupholace isn’t just an outstanding fan developer. He’s also part of Moon Studios, working as a level designer on action-RPG No Rest for the Wicked, and it sounds like he might be stepping away from this sort of fan project in the future.
“Mumbomania is just one level and there are no plans to add any more,” Eupholace says in a tweet. “I’d like to move away from big Dreams projects now, so unless I get the opportunity to work on an official Banjo-Threeie (which I would be thrilled to), this is it for now.”