Banjo: Recompiled adds widescreen, dual-stick controls, and mod support to the N64 hit

The N64 decomp and recomp scene has exploded in the past year, and over the weekend, the latest release was shadowdropped out of nowhere. Despite being a fan project with no involvement from Nintendo or Microsoft (which owns Rare), the Banjo-Kazooie recompilation is fully playable on PC, Linux, and Mac, and fixes and modernizes many aspects of the classic 3D platformer.

Banjo: Recompiled is essentially a full remaster of the original game, improving frame rates and adding widescreen support for modern displays. It also enables the use of a second analog stick to control the camera, providing a much more modern control scheme than the C buttons on the N64 controller.

The new port also includes several quality-of-life improvements, such as a new Note Saving toggle that saves the Notes you collect on each level. In the original game, the Note count would reset every time you revisit a level, which can be tedious if you miss one.

One of the most exciting aspects of the release is mod support. While most fan edits of games are done via romhacks, mods are a much simpler way to make changes or add new content. It’s a simple drag-and-drop procedure, with three mods supported out of the gate. Two are content mods from legendary modder Mark Kurko, and the other is an enhanced texture pack. The developer also created a simple tool for romhack creators to turn their creations into mods for Banjo: Recompilated.

This is the latest recompilation from Wiseguy, the same developer who created the N64: Recompiled tool. This tool automates much of the work required to create native ports of N64 games via static recompilation. Previously, this required painstakingly reverse-engineering a game’s code line by line, then creating a renderer to run that code on modern hardware. Static recompilations still require tweaking and polishing, but the N64: Recompiled tool also includes a built-in renderer to speed things up even further.

Wiseguy’s previous port of The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask has been a big hit, and now boasts more than 120 community-created mods. The Ocarina of Time port is still in the works, although other groups like Harbour Masters have already created popular fan ports of both N64 Zelda games, as well as Star Fox 64, Super Mario 64, and Mario Kart 64. These native ports are significant efforts in preserving N64 games, as accurate N64 software emulation remains challenging, and the trident controller doesn’t translate well to modern Bluetooth controllers.

You can download Banjo: Recompiled from the official GitHub page today, but note that it doesn’t contain any game files. The setup requires an original N64 ROM for all copyrighted game assets.