The Evercade platform’s new versions of Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie were created with extensive help from Rare, reveals CEO Andrew Byatt.
While owned by Xbox, some see the Evercade version of Banjo-Kazooie as a definitive version of the platformer with never-before-seen content. There are brand-new cheats, new dialogue sequences, and even a bunch of never-before-released music tracks that can be listened to via a new music player.
For the ports of Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie, Byatt explained that it was a project filled with passion. “Some of these guys that worked on this project are so enthusiastic and passionate about it. They’re doing every little touch. Putting our consoles in the game and all that kinda stuff which is kinda cool,” Byatt told FRVR. However, it’s not just the Evercade team that poured a tonne of energy in.
While the port was handled by the Evercade team, Byatt explained that there was significant involvement by Rare and Xbox to help create the new release.
“Sometimes the licensors, in this case, [are] really involved and wanna see the best possible product and they’re really pushing and testing themselves,” Byatt said. “Sometimes they just wanna literally sign a contract and get some cash and move on because they’ve got other priorities. Sometimes they don’t really get involved. This is one of those where they really put in a lot of energy into it behind the scenes to kind of help and approve and make sure things are perfect.”
The new port was helped by the fact that Rare’s Banjo duology is stunningly well-preserved with the team having access to source assets, source code, and unreleased items. “We got source for these,” he said. “We can do a lot of with backwards engineering of the original… it’s quite rare that source is available, really, but we’ve done it without source before and you’re sort of engineering this stuff from assembly, basically, and converting it. That’s another 12 months on top, really, or 9 months on top, but if you’ve got source it makes a massive difference.”
Byatt was keen to mention that the new ports of Rare’s iconic 3D platformers are not the only titles that have Evercade-exclusive bonuses. “I guess Duke Nukem 1 and 2, we remastered those,” he said. “That has widescreen support and it runs at 60 frames-per-second so it runs a bit [better]. We’ve done that and we’ve got some other stuff in the pipeline that is more porting kinda related.”
The majority of Evercade releases are a collection of ROMs run through an emulator, although some have tweaks specifically for the platform. “[When] there’s a bug or some issue with a game, we’ll fix it as we go along though QA and the rest of it. And then when we put it to market people are sort of sending us messages saying ‘aw, why is that bug not there anymore? When I was a kid that was the bug! I can’t do that anymore.’ So people really do like the really authentic experience.”
The Evercade CEO explained that “most” releases for the hardware family will be emulation-based, but there are other projects like Banjo-Kazooie’s full port in the works for the system.
Later this year, fans will receive The DOOM Collection, a new series of ports to the platform. The collection includes DOOM and DOOM II as well as Master Levels, TNT: Evilution, The Plutonia Experiment, No Rest for the Living, SIGIL, SIGIL 2, and the multiplayer Deathmatch Pack. That collection releases on October 20, 2026.
For more from our chat with the Evercade CEO, read about how the ongoing component crisis is affecting the handheld company.
