Nintendo made a bad move when it let Banjo-Kazooie's developer get away

We could have had more Rare hits on Nintendo consoles if the Japanese gaming company hadn't let the developer get away.

For many people, developer Rare is synonymous with Nintendo classic games despite not being part of Nintendo for two decades now. That's because Rare created dozens of hits on retro Nintendo consoles. Among its impressive repertoire there's Donkey Kong Country, GoldenEye 007, Diddy Kong Racing, Donkey Kong 64, Jet Force Gemini, Perfect Dark, Conker's Bad Fur Day, and of course, Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie. Now that our favorite bear and bird duo are on Nintendo Switch as part of the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack, I couldn't be happier.

Banjo-Kazooie A true classic everyone should play

Banjo-Kazooie was actually the very first N64 game I owned as a kid. Growing up with five siblings, I had to purchase the N64 console and games myself. So, I often used my babysitting money to rent from Blockbuster rather than purchase a game. But as soon as I had checked out Gruntilda's crazy lair I knew this would be the first game I actually bought. The infectious music, zany locations, and quirky characters all work together to provide a unique experience I have never seen anywhere else in a platformer.

Banjo and Kazooie have their own skillsets that they use to help each other reach new locations and solve puzzles, which makes for some fun problem-solving. Not to mention, the ability to magically turn into various animals with the help of a character named Mumbo Jumbo makes exploration even more fun since you can discover areas in new ways.

Many people compared Banjo-Kazooie to Super Mario 64 when it released since they were both 3D platformers in a colorful fantasy world where you went about collecting shiny golden objects. Coins and Stars in Super Mario 64 and Music Notes and Puzzle Pieces in Banjo-Kazooie. However, Rare's characters were far more crude, ready at any moment with potty jokes or just to say the craziest things. As a kid, this was peak humor and still makes me chuckle today.

If you haven't played Banjo-Kazooie before I highly recommend you check it out on the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack service. However, it will be more enjoyable if you can manage to get your hands on the N64 controller for Switch since it has all of the correct buttons and single joystick that the game was designed for. As The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time showed us, controls can be pretty wonky if you're using a Switch controller with the Expansion Pack games.

While I'm happy Banjo-Kazooie is on Switch, I'm honestly a little shocked it was able to happen given Rare's ex-relationship with Nintendo.

Rare was monumental to Nintendo's golden age Contributions to Nintendo's identity

Back in the 80s and early 90s, Rare made a name for itself by producing several notable hits on NES and SNES, including Battletoads. Eventually, the company caught Nintendo's attention and entered into a partnership with the gaming giant. In fact, the Japanese gaming company considered Rare one of its key developers and gave the British video game company free rein to make a 3D CGI game using Nintendo's characters. That's how Donkey Kong Country for SNES came to be. As we know, it was a huge success and resulted in several sequels and spin-offs.

Rare grew to more than double the number of employees during that time and Nintendo backed it with an unlimited budget as it continued to produce hit after hit. This success continued with Rare's N64 titles. Unfortunately, today Rare no longer creates Nintendo games due to Nintendo's business plan from back then.

Nintendo and Rare breakup What happened here?

Rare's founders, Tim and Chris Stamper, fully expected Nintendo to acquire the studio, but the Japanese gaming company didn't make any moves. Nor did it provide the second-party developer with any increased funding after the 90s and 2000s successes. As such, the Stampers began courting other potential buyers and were eventually acquired by Microsoft in 2002 for the large sum of $375 million, and there Rare has stayed since.

While it might seem obvious to us that letting such a big part of its identity get away was a bad move on Nintendo's part, the Japanese gaming company was intent on moving away from second-party developers at the time, so they weren't interested in acquiring Rare despite all the good games the developer had made. Nintendo historically hasn't always made moves that make sense but that's neither here nor there.

After becoming part of Microsoft, Rare attempted to create a new 3D game starring the Bear and Bird, but Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts was so different from its previous games, missing key features of the originals, that it had a very mixed reception. Rare also released a collection of its previous titles including Banjo-Kazooie, Conker's Bad Fur Day, and Perfect Dark in the Xbox exclusive, Rare Replay. Since then Rare has shied away from this classic duo in favor of new characters and creations.

This has lead to several successes, the most notable of which is the online action-adventure multiplayer, Sea of Thieves which released in 2018 for Xbox One and Microsoft Windows. Just recently Xbox Game Studios collaborated with Disney to even bring Jack Sparrow and a few other Pirates of the Caribbean elements into the game. Rare seems to be thriving, quite content and happy with being Microsoft-owned.

Will we ever get a new Banjo and Kazooie Nintendo game? Not likely

Since Rare holds the rights to Banjo and Kazooie and the company is now owned by Microsoft it's likely we will never see these two again starring in a new adventure on a Nintendo console. The closest we'll probably ever get happened when the two were added as a new DLC fighter in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, which is a game that already features guest fighters from several other consoles and franchises outside of Nintendo.

Honestly, it's even a little surprising that we got the original N64 game on the Expansion Pack given Rare still holds those rights. In somewhat positive news, it does seems like Rare's hit shooter GoldenEye 007 is headed to Xbox Game Pass according to leaked acheivements, but it's hard to say if it will be coming to the N64 emulator too. That game is so tied up with movie licensing deals that it will take several negotiations between Microsoft, Rare, Nintendo, MGM, and more for it to ever come to the subscription service.

Fortunately, there is a modern game for Nintendo Switch that has been deemed as a spiritual successor to Banjo-Kazooie that Switch owners can enjoy, and that's the similarly named Yooka-Laylee. It was created by several former Rare employees now within Playtonic Games and published by Team17. Just like the cooperative bear and bird, this new platformer stars a green chameleon and his sassy bat friend who use their individual moves to platform each other around a fantasy world collecting golden "Pagies," beating baddies, and solving puzzles. There's even a sidescroller sequel called Yooka-Laylee: The Impossible Lair if you want even more lizard and bat fun to scratch that Banjo-Kazooie itch.

Banjo-Kazooie's spiritual successor

Yooka-Laylee

$40 at Best Buy

Another platforming duo

Use Yooka's long tongue and Laylee's powerful little wings to get around and collect items. Capital B is out to absorb all of the books in the world and turn them into money and it's up to you to stop him.

A Rare classic

Banjo-Kazooie was one of the best-selling N64 games in its time and left a lasting impression on the generation of players who experienced it on that retro console. It's so delightful being able to see the original game return to a Nintendo console now that Rare and — by extension Microsoft — hold the rights to these characters. But Nintendo shouldn't have let Rare get away in the first place.

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Should Fitness Plus ditch the Apple Watch requirement? I think so.

Apple's guided workout service is terrific, but the barrier to entry limits its appeal.

For a long time, Apple has preferred to keep its best features and services to itself so it's no real surprise that Apple Fitness+ is only available to Apple device owners just over a year since its launch. However, we have seen Apple move away from this strategy in recent years, either in search of increasing services revenue or through external pressures to open up its walled garden, moving some of its services cross-platform.

A for-pay fitness service seems like the perfect app to roll out across platforms. Several such services already exist on the web and in apps, but none with the brand cache, budget, and production value of Apple Fitness+. That begs the question, why can't Apple just put Fitness+ everywhere? The answer: the Apple Watch.

No Apple Watch, no Fitness+

The call for Apple Fitness+ to ditch the Apple Watch requirement is not a new one. Despite praising the service overall in our Apple Fitness+ review last year, our reviewer Luke Filipowicz even called it out then:

It pains me to say that if you're reading this review and you don't have an Apple Watch, I can't recommend Fitness+ as a service unless you're willing to shell out the money for the smartwatch.

There are many great fitness trackers out there; some are better suited to certain types of workouts than even the best Apple Watch. Fitness-focused devices from the likes of Garmin and Fitbit are popular with keen exercisers while smartwatches from Samsung, TicWatch, Fossil, and many more brands all help you keep an eye on your daily activity.

That means that there are plenty of folks, both fitness fanatics and those who are just trying to be a bit healthier, that cannot be served by Apple Fitness+ because they'd need to own an Apple Watch in order to sign up and try it out.

Launching the Fitness+ app on other platforms, as it has with the TV app and Apple Music, would put it in front of many more eyeballs and unlock whole new markets of users.

If Apple wants to keep the service exclusive to its own platforms, removing the Apple Watch requirement and opening up Fitness+ to anyone with an iPhone, iPad, or Apple TV would still increase the addressable market greatly.

A tale of two strategies

Whether or not Apple would consider taking this step depends on whether the company sees Fitness+ as a feature that sells Apple Watches or a service it can sell in and of itself.

In the past, Apple's primary focus was on hardware. That's where the company made its money with significant margins on every product. Software features and tight services integrations were merely tools to get people to buy products and keep them in the Apple ecosystem every time they upgraded a device. Even when Apple put iTunes on Windows in 2003, it was a move designed to shift more iPod units.

However, in recent years we've seen a shift of emphasis from Apple toward growing its services business. It even put out a press release just last week detailing how well that part of the business is doing.

While we've seen some services like Apple Arcade and Apple News+ remain exclusive to Apple users, others like Apple Music and Apple TV+ have launched on competing devices. Particularly with TV+, Apple is pushing hard to scale that business as it continues to spend copious amounts of money on Apple TV+ shows. It won't be spending as much to staff its Fitness+ instructor and production teams, but the service's reach is severely limited by the number of people wearing an Apple Watch, which is already a sub-group of iPhone owners.

Close your rings

Apple has put a lot of its Apple Watch marketing efforts into the "Close Your Rings" mantra. Fitness+ instructors sign off each session by encouraging you to close them, your Apple Watch pings you periodically to keep you up to speed on your Activity ring progress each day, and at this time of year Apple even encourages you to take the "Ring in the New Year" challenge.

Fitness+ sessions include messaging that would make little sense to a non-Apple Watch wearer.

Opening up Apple Fitness+ poses potential complications when it comes to these metrics, especially when communicating to those taking part in sessions who have never used an Apple Watch. When the instructor asks you to check in on your Activity ring progress, the Fitness app puts your ring data front and center. Similarly, instructors often mention heart rate or the Burn Bar, metrics that the Fitness app won't be able to display without that tight Apple Watch integration. Fitness+ has thousands of sessions all with messaging that would make little to no sense to non-Apple Watch wearers.

That being said, you can currently choose to start a Fitness+ workout without your Apple Watch on your wrist — you merely have to have an Apple Watch to sign up for the service in the first place — and Apple deals with it by simply not showing your metrics on screen.

Apple could be clear with users upfront when signing up for Apple Fitness+ that the best experience will be enjoyed by those wearing an Apple Watch. It could also use that as an opportunity to explain the terminology used by instructors and the metrics that they are missing out on without one. In doing so, that special sauce would remain a sell for the Apple Watch while Apple still picks up $10 a month from folks who are excluded from giving them that money right now.

Time will tell

Apple Fitness+ is only just in its second year of existence, and there are plenty of ways to improve Apple Fitness+ in 2022 and beyond. It's likely that Apple will resolve some of the lingering issues the service has before it looks to broaden its addressable market.

If it really wants to juice its subscriber numbers, though, it needs to either get more people wearing Apple Watches or open it up to everyone. The latter would likely be easier and may even help achieve the former.

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This genius idea could eliminate telephone call anxiety for good

What you need to know

• Some people are anxious about incoming phone calls.
• A concept imagines a world where people have to tell you what they want before you ever answer.
• This might not work for phone calls, but it could absolutely work for FaceTime video and audio calls.

It could be a great way to screen calls before you answer them as well.

Some people suffer from anxiety whenever they receive a telephone call and sometimes that comes from not knowing what the person who is calling wants. Wouldn't it be cool if we could know what that call is about before we answer it?

That's something that Dan Mall's wife also thought, so he set about creating a concept of what that might look like. The result is a system that has the caller enter the reason for their call before placing it. Then, that description appears on-screen when you receive the call on your iPhone. It's a simple fix for a real problem.

My wife has wanted to feature on her phone for a while where people have to let you know WHY they’re calling you, so I decided to sketch it out for fun. 🧵

— Dan Mall (@danmall) January 19, 2022

The concept also imagines a world where the iPhone would automatically send a call to voicemail if no description has been provided, adding another layer or protection.

On the receiving end, you can preview the subject of the call the person entered as a way to decide whether or not you want to take the call right now. pic.twitter.com/mSuu0LSEvp

— Dan Mall (@danmall) January 19, 2022

While it seems unlikely that this would work with standard telephone calls, Apple could definitely apply it to both video and audio FaceTime calls — although the voicemail thing wouldn't work seeing as there's no voicemail for FaceTime at all.

I think this would be a brilliant addition to iOS and I'd love to see Apple implement some version of it if only for call screening purposes. The best iPhone is an iPhone that I never have to talk on as far as I'm concerned! I can't be the only one who feels that way, surely?

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Apple says to clean its fancy $19 Polishing Cloth with ... dish soap

What you need to know

• Apple's $19 Polishing Cloth has been the breakout hit of the last 12 months.
• The Polishing Cloth is the only way to clean the nano-texture Pro Display XDR.
• Apple has shared how to clean the cloth itself and it's insanely easy.

This thing is so special that it's the only way you can clean the nano-texture Pro Display XDR.

Apple's insane $19 Polishing Cloth is the only way Apple says nano-texture-endowed Pro Display XDR owners can clean their monitors so you could be forgiven for expecting it to need special treatment. But as it turns out, it doesn't — you just need to throw some dish soap at the thing and get right back to cleaning.

Apple has a support document that's designed to tell people how to clean the aforementioned Pro Display XDR and nestled at the bottom of that is a section all about cleaning the cloth itself. It was spotted by 9to5Mac and it's simplicity in itself.

Clean the polishing cloth

1. Hand wash the polishing cloth with dish soap and water.
2. Rinse thoroughly.
3. Allow the polishing cloth to air dry for at least 24 hours.

That last part seems fairly important for obvious reasons, so please do make sure that your Polishing Cloth is nice and dry before waving it anywhere near that gorgeous Pro Display XDR. Or anything else, for that matter!

The Polishing Cloth might be the best iPhone cleaning solution around, but it's still a hard sell. Not that you'd be able to tell that if you'd been trying to get hold of one of late. It's only recently that delivery windows for the little cloth have begun to get a little more reasonable!

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Some new MacBook Pro SD card readers are struggling to read SD cards

What you need to know

• Some new MacBook Pro owners report that their SD cards are not being read correctly when inserted into their machines.
• Users report slow transfers, Finder crashes, and more.

Some cards crash Finder, others transfer data more slowly than expected.

Apple's new 14 and 16-inch MacBook Pro brings SD cards back to the Mac, but it isn't all sunshine and rainbows — because not all SD cards appear to work properly and there's little explanation as to why.

According to a MacRumors report, multiple people have posted to a thread in its forums to report that some SD cards don't appear to work correctly when inserted into the MacBook Pro's slot. Some cards reportedly cause Finder to crash, while others are able to transfer data but at a speed much slower than expected.

Same issues with 14" M1 Pro. Just seems to be super flakey and inconsistent. Half the time it'll recognize the card successfully (though it takes anywhere from 30s to 1m) and half the time it'll throw an error. These are all Sandisk Ultra cards, both XC and HC, that were formatted in my camera. I tried reformatting them w/ the MBP and that didn't seem to make a difference. All my cards work as expected in my 3 other USB card readers.

Worryingly, there doesn't appear a pattern to much of what people are reporting but there might be a sliver of light at the end of the tunnel. Some people who have contacted Apple have been told that the company knows of the problem and that a fix is coming via a software update. Unfortunately, no timescale has been given as to when that will be released and while some note that the issue is more likely to occur with older cards, the lack of predictability is a problem right now.

The new machines are among the best Macs the company has ever made, especially for professionals. But non-functional SD card slots will definitely temper the excitement of a new machine somewhat. Fingers crossed for a quick fix. If you own a new MacBook Pro and are suffering from this issue, reach out to Apple and add your voice to the chorus — the more Apple is aware of the issue, the better.

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Apple brings Apple Configurator app to the iPhone

What you need to know

• Apple has brought its Apple Configurator app to the iPhone.
• The app allows administrators to enroll newer Macs in Apple Business Manager or Apple School Manager.

Enrolling Macs is getting a lot easier.

Today, Apple launched the Apple Configurator app for the iPhone. The app, which was already available on the Mac, makes it even easier for administrators to set up a Mac in Apple Business Manager or Apple School Manager.

Apple does say that, in order to use the iPhone app, the Mac will need either a T2 Security Chip (which as released in 2018) or one of the new Apple silicon chips the company rolled out in 2020. You can learn more about the app below:

Apple Configurator for iPhone makes it easy to assign any Mac with the T2 Security Chip or Apple silicon to your organization in Apple Business Manager or Apple School Manager so that you can take advantage of Automated Device Enrollment.

Once signed into Apple Configurator with your organization Managed Apple ID with the Device Enrollment Manager role, you can provide a network configuration to the Mac by sharing the iPhone's network configuration or by choosing a configuration profile to install on the Mac.

To assign a Mac to your organization, bring the iPhone running Apple Configurator near a Mac showing the country picker in Setup Assistant and scan the image or manually enter the six-digit PIN. After the Mac is assigned to the organization, it appears in an 'Added by Apple Configurator' MDM server placeholder in Apple School Manager or Apple Business Manager; the Administrator or Device Enrollment Manager can then assign it to an MDM server for Automated Device Enrollment. The status button in Apple Configurator provides a report of devices which have already been assigned to your organization.

When a device has been assigned and enrolled in this way, it behaves like any other device enrolled using Automated Device Enrollment, including mandatory supervision and MDM enrollment. The only difference is that the user has a 30-day provisional period to remove the device from the organization, supervision, and MDM.

The Apple Configurator app for iPhone is available to download for free from the App Store.

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Apple TV+ nabs nine nominations for the 27th Annual Critics Choice Awards

What you need to know

• Apple TV+ has earned nine nominations for the 27th Annual Critics Choice Awards.
• "For All Mankind," "The Morning Show," "Ted Lasso," and "Come From Away" all earned nominations.

Apple TV+ is eating up the noms.

Apple TV+ continues to rake in the nominations.

The Critics Choice Association has announced the nominees for the 27th Annual Critics Choice Awards and Apple TV+ has pulled in nine nominations for "For All Mankind," "The Morning Show," "Ted Lasso," and "Come From Away."

Critics Choice Association TV Branch president Ed Martin said that we now "have even more choices than we did before the pandemic, for critics and viewers to embrace."

"Although the industry is still recovering from the COVID-19 lockdown, you wouldn't know it from the wealth of amazing television programs our nomination committees pored through to come up with this year's nominees. We have even more choices than we did before the pandemic, for critics and viewers to embrace. While the streamers continue to break new ground with some wonderfully unexpected offerings, it has been an unusually strong year for all areas of television. We look forward to honoring the year's finest shows at what promises to be our most exciting awards ceremony yet."

You can check out the full list of nominations below:

• Best Drama Series: - "For All Mankind"
• Best Comedy Series - "Ted Lasso"
• Best Foreign Language Series - "Acapulco"
• Best Movie Made for Television - "Come From Away"
• Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series - Billy Crudup in "The Morning Show"
• Best Actor in a Comedy Series - Jason Sudeikis in "Ted Lasso"
• Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series - Hannah Waddingham in "Ted Lasso"
• Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series - Kristen Chenoweth in "Schmigadoon!"
• Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series - Brett Goldstein in "Ted Lasso"

The first two seasons of "For All Mankind," "The Morning Show," and "Ted Lasso" are streaming now on Apple TV+. The first season of "Acapulco" and "Schmigadoon!" are also streaming on the service. "Come From Away" is also available.

The 27th Annual Critics Choice Awards will air live on the CW and TBS on Sunday, January 9, 2022.

If you want to enjoy any of the nominated content in the best quality possible, check out our list of the Best TVs for Apple TV 2021.

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