Xbox might not be making a new Banjo-Kazooie, but there’s a brand new game featuring everyone’s favorite bird and bear available now via Dreams on PS4 and PS5.
Banjo-Kazooie: Mumbomania is an impressive-looking platformer made for Sony’s game creation platform that looks good enough to have been made by Rare itself.
A trailer released via social media this week shows the kind of classic Banjo-Kazooie gameplay fans love, and have long called out for more of. In a level that looks straight out of the series’ history, Banjo the bear jumps, glides, rolls and gets shot out of a cannon as he explores and hunts down collectibles.
Banjo-Kazooie: Mumbomania is out NOW on Dreams for PS4/PS5!
Music by @thegamebrass #banjokazooie #dreamsps4 pic.twitter.com/nhMNCnIbcD
— Eupholace | William Butkevicius (@Eupholace) December 3, 2025
Perhaps most impressive is the range of transformations on offer, with Banjo turned into a hulking rock golem, cutlass-wielding pirate, and more.
Originally launched on the N64 in the late ’90s, Banjo-Kazooie eventually arrived for Xbox 360 in 2008 following Microsoft’s acquisition of developer Rare. But despite earning a legion of fans, the franchise has not seen an all-new entry in 17 years, since Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts released for Xbox 360, also back in 2008.
Despite repeated calls from fans for a new Banjo-Kazooie to be made, Xbox has made no suggestion that a fresh title is in development — and Rare now seems singularly focused on making fresh content for Sea of Theives.
“You’ve seen from our history that we haven’t touched every franchise that people would love us to touch — Banjo fans, I hear you,” Microsoft’s gaming boss Phil Spencer said back in 2023. “But it is true that, when we find the right team, and the right opportunity, I love going back to revisit stories and characters that we’ve seen previously.”
Outside of being playable in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Banjo and Kazooie now feel largely forgotten. Still, fans of the duo have still had the spiritual successor Yooka-Laylee to enjoy. Developed by various members of the original Banjo-Kazooie team, the game recently got a polished-up re-release in the shape of Yooka-Laylee: Replayee, which arrived in October of this year.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
