Nostalgia 64 Creator Details The Games Worlds And Inspirations

In case you missed it, late last week, a trailer for Nostalgia 64 went viral on Twitter. The game-sized mod is a fusion of Banjo Kazooie and a multitude of different Nintendo 64 titles, created by prominent Banjo modder Markus Kurko, who, on their YouTube channel, says they “try to create the Mods that I would have liked to play 20 years ago.”

With the mod releasing later this year and the trailer hitting the eyes of hundreds of thousands, we spoke to Kurko, who told us all about the project, how it came to be, and what the future holds.

Banjo Kazooie: The Jiggies Of Time

Historically, Kurko has created standalone mods like Banjo Kazooie: The Jiggies of Time, a complete crossover between The Bear and the Bird and Ocarina of Time, which took five years to create. His latest, Nostalgia 64, expands on his previous work, serving as a mash-up of several of the most popular Nintendo 64 titles.

Players will play through what Kurko told us is “a typical Banjo Kazooie game” However, instead of traversing areas like Freezeezy Peak and Mumbo’s Mountain, players will dive into levels from games like Super Mario 64, Pokemon Snap and Yoshi’s Story. Nostalgia 64 will feature a full standalone story, with each world containing a “defeated boss and a note that says “Bottles was here.” seemingly referencing the once-friendly mole character from the original Banjo games.

Banjo And Kazooie Over Mario And Link

Kurko, a former 3D modelling student, noticed a lack of Banjo Kazooie mods back in 2014. “Super Mario 64’s modding scene was already broader then, but unfortunately, the Banjo Kazooie Modding scene had just started, and there wasn’t a single full Banjo mod available.” Because of this, he was “motivated” to start playing around with the modding tool Banjosbackpack, and it was from here that his love and talents developed.

Fast-forward to the COVID pandemic, Kurko started to create “small Banjo Kazooie worlds”, publishing them every few days, aptly naming the project “Banjo: Stay at Home”. After a year, with nine worlds created, Kurko created a hub world and thus, Nostalgia 64 was born. However, in 2021, for reasons beyond his control, Nostalgia 64 was put on ice, with development resuming in January 2024.

Resuming the project in 2024 was Kurko’s most difficult challenge. He had to discard multiple ideas from 2021 and rework others to fit with the new vision of the game, which was “hard and painful.” It’s not all bad, though, as Kurko is “happy with the decision; otherwise, the project would never see the light of day,” adding that he thinks “players will like the new ideas.”

An N64 Lovers Dream

Nostalgia 64 is an ambitious endeavor. The game will feature an abundance of worlds from Nintendo 64 classics. Kurko told us that Super Mario 64, Bomberman 64, Goldeneye, Diddy Kong Racing, Pokemon Snap and Conker’s Bad Fur Day were available since the project was Banjo Kazooie Stay At Home, with four more in the pipeline since the project restarted, which includes Yoshi’s Story, a recreation of the Banjo Kazooie beta and two more levels that he “preferred to keep secret so as not to spoil the surprise”. Not only will Nostalgia 64 feature full worlds, but the game will also include other secret areas “inspired by 2D NES, SNES and Game Boy games”. These include Pokemon, Donkey Kong Country 2 and Super Mario Bros. 1 and 3.

Kurko also told us that the Pokemon Snap world was made by Bynine, developer of Cavern of Dreams, a full N64-inspired platformer that was released on Steam and Nintendo Switch late last year, scoring a 77 on Metacritic and receiving overwhelmingly positive reviews on Steam.

With the project restarting, certain ambitions did have to be scaled back. Originally, a Blast Corps level was planned for the game that included a “Banjo Blastdozer transformation”. Unfortunately, with Banjo Kazooie modding tools far more limited than some of its other N64 counterparts, “Adding new animations, mechanics or abilities can only be done with code, and it’s something quite difficult that very few people know or are interested in doing.” Kurko also tossed around ideas for a Kirby level, which later became Yoshi’s Story, and a Goemon level.

Looking Toward The Future

Nostalgia 64 has been a labor of love for Kurko. He hopes the audience will “enjoy a trip of nostalgia to many of the N64 games that captivated us in our childhood,” as well as getting a sense of great satisfaction from “a high-quality modding project of our favorite Bear and Bird duo, after many years without official games.”

Once the game releases, Kurko has no plans to rest, with his head “full of ideas for new projects”. He has two previous projects in the works, Banjo Kazooie 4: Quest for Kurkoins and a Zelda prototype, but his lofty ambitions don’t stop there. In the future, he’d love to work on his own game prototype using Unity or Godot, “Although for this, I would need resources to be able to hire part of the external work (programming, music/sound and animation maybe), so I see it difficult in the short term.”

Nostalgia 64 will be released later this year.