Retro Wrap-Up: Banjo-Kazooie Edition

So as Ben Clarke reported on a few days ago, some ex-Rare employees are getting together and planning to make a spiritual successor to Banjo-Tooie. As you can probably imagine, that has a lot of us at Operation Rainfall pretty friggin’ stoked. In honor of this occasion, the Operation Rainfall Retro Commercial Research Team (in other words, me) found a couple old Banjo-Kazooie commercials for your viewing pleasure in this week’s Retro Wrap-Up.

Yeah, Super Mario 64 invented the 3D platformer. Yes, Super Mario 64 changed the face of gaming as we knew it. I still think Banjo-Kazooie was better.

Anyways, here are the highlights of the week.

Crunchyroll is coming to the Xbox 360.

Jeff Neuenschwander takes a look at ActRaiser in our first Does It Hold Up segment.

Fire Emblem: Awakening gets a new DLC mission. Somebody think of the children!

The Mass Effect Trilogy is coming to the 360 and PC soon. The PS3 won’t get it until later, though.

There’s a rumor going around that Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD Remix is going to be for Japan only. Let’s hope it isn’t.

A reprint of 999 shipped out this past week, complete with some sweet new boxart.

Nintendo announces the Wii U’s launch line-up in North America.

Sony’s going to try out a new PSN Day 1 Digital program for several games, a few of which will get 10% off the price for PlayStation Plus members.

Mark of the Ninja is coming to Steam. You can check out Jared Cyhowski’s review of the game here.

Unsurprisingly, the Wii U is going to be region-locked.

Finally, Jonathan Higgins puts together a Top 10 list for the best handheld games on Nintendo devices.