Clever nods to the past

[TheCartoonGamer]

I think it would be really cool if Project Ukulele made callbacks to various Rare games. I don't mean just in terms of gameplay and music, but also in terms of characters talking to one another. For example, somebody makes a sly reference to Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts in a way only fans of the BK franchise would get. Anybody else think so, too?

[noahcopeland44]

I agree! Battletoads references any one?

[tk7261]

Yea that seems like it would make a lot of sense in a BK humor style that this game will have.

[Jazz]

If any of you playtonic members are reading this: Don't go overboard with how games today are nitty-gritty and different, and don't insult the player like what happened in Nuts and Bolts, when lots of jokes were about how it wasn't like the old days.

[MushroomMoon]

Yea just any kind of nod to the originals would be perfect and is pretty much what I'm hoping for out of easter eggs. I'll add that even a sneaky character cameo like Banjo or more 'Missing Tootys' would do it for me. I just really need to see this happen.

[MFWolfe]

[photonblaze]

YES!

[siggeplump]

I think the writers of these games have always had a sensibility for meta and self-reference. I think they should naturally stick to that, but only if it comes spontaneously. "Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts" basically hit you over the head with snide comments and fourth wall breaking all of the time as if it were desperately trying to be like the other Banjo games but it went overboard and sometimes wound up coming off as being quite full of itself. If you go back to the original Banjo-Kazooie it's very subtle, rare and very classy. It's basically like Monty Python and The Holy Grail where it is all about this fantasy quest for a supernatural object in an immersive world, but it just happens to have characters that occasionally reference our world in casual conversation.

Self reference should be for the purpose of a good chuckle, a wink and a nod. Sometimes I feel as if people use it out of desperation, much like BK: NB and even Banjo-Tooie did occasionally, to try and compensate for something they were insecure of and tried to brush it over with a joke. It always bothered me when characters in Tooie would say "Of course you will get a jiggy if you help me out with this!" It's like, if the game itself is so lacking in confidence about it's own formula that it needs to make cracks about it, then why am I playing it? Just because you say it doesn't make it right. Yeah, I'm looking at you, L.O.G.

Keep it lighthearted and sweet. "Best shaman in game" and so forth. And have it escalate. What I loved about the original Banjo-Kazooie is that it would go over your head if you weren't paying attention and it would build over the course of the game. By the time you got to Grunty's Furnace Fun the game had done such a good job building an immersive and lovable world that it had earned the time to make a fourth-wall busting gag. Comedy is all about timing, as they say. Don't rush your way to the punchline.

[Phineas Q. Phailboat]

Mr. Pants anyone?

[Marius]

Or just have an old ship captain talking about Project Dream once again

[DarkTone]

Minor nods are fine.

[NPChilla]

So long as the nods are subtle enough that you can take them or leave them - if this game, Playtonic's first as a company, is filled with references to ANOTHER company's oeuvre (Rare in this case), it'll likely confuse total newcomers/kids who know nothing of the team's past or give the impression that they're stuck in the past.

One or two slight nods are harmless but too many and it becomes a slippery slope...

[Ped]

The only nods I need is a Witch as a main villain and a good indian or afro sorcerer to transform us or give us some powers through the stages.
Really I really really like that magic stuff.

[Taco In A Can]

[Scrubber]

Its a given that they will do this anyway.

[Taco In A Can]

If there is a water level outdoors, I think it would be cool to find some yellow shorts and a blue backpack Easter egg hidden in some bushes or hung on a branch(someone went skinny dipping?). Obvious to find or not.

Red feathers in a weird spot could also be a nod. Or a quest involving the collection of bear teeth and some red feathers.

Trowzer could mention a 2nd or third 3rd degree relationship with previous heroes or their trainers who've been through such and such training "Sossss I knownsss I thing or two, okayss?". Like he's establishing his credibility to teach new moves.

Transforming into a dryer instead of a washer by accident like in B-K

If there are instruments in a level's theme or a character's theme, there should be the appearance of a Banjo next to a Kazoo.

There should be a tiny key shaped ice in a drink, or in someone's drink.

If there's a nest which isn't a main feature but just part of the environment somewhere. It should have all the colors of the stop 'n' swop eggs.

That's al I got for now.