It was yesterday’s sweet and bitter moment when banjo kazooie You have accessed the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Plan service.

It’s great to see the popular British developer duo return to the Nintendo platform after such a long time. It’s been nearly 20 years since Microsoft acquired Rare, and nearly 24 years since the original Banjo-Kazooie game released on the N64, if you count.

Leigh Loveday, a writer and designer who joined Rare in the 1990s, used the Switch Online version of the game to reflect on the era of the company Nintendo, noting how “so happy” Rare was to be working with old friends once again to bring Bird and Bear to generations. New Nintendo:

“The topic of rare classics reaching the Switch audience is a question people have been asking for a long time, so we’re excited to be working with Nintendo to bring Bear and Bird to the platform.” .

And in case you were wondering, the Switch version is the “real” N64 that many will remember:

Keeping the gameplay exactly the same as the other titles available, this version of Banjo-Kazooie is the original Nintendo 64 version as you may remember it. And if you grow up on next-gen consoles, we hope to turn a new wave of gamers into Mumbo Jumbo washing machines, step away from Snacker the Shark and meet Grunty’s Furnace Fun for the first time.”

In addition to the kind words shared on the Rare blog, here are other messages shared by Rare and some of the team members working at Banjo-Kazooie:

Rare is arguably the most popular live streaming service for Xbox and PC today. sea ​​of ​​thieves. The team is also working on wild natureA fictional title shrouded in mystery.

Are you going to try Banjo-Kazooie on the Switch this weekend? What other rare game from the N64 generation would you like to see return to Nintendo’s hybrid platform? Tell us below.