It's been a long time coming, but fans have managed to fully decompile all of Banjo-Kazooie's code, meaning that it's now possible for unofficial PC ports to be developed, not to mention many, many more mods for Rare's classic 3D platformer.
Video game decompilation can sound pretty complicated, but what it boils down to is reverse engineering the game to end up with usable code (not the original source code, mind you). Once that's obtained, the doors are blown wide open for mods, ports, and all sorts of community projects – we've seen this before with the likes of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and the original Paper Mario was similarly decompiled last year.
In Banjo-Kazooie's case, the 3D platformer's decompilation project has been in the works for quite some time. If you scroll through the GitLab page's history, you can see that it was first made in early 2021 before its first actual activity was recorded in July 2022. Progress has been trackable with handy percentages shared on the page, showcasing the completion of the overall project as well as individual sections of it, such as cutscenes. Right now, as highlighted in a tweet from @BringBackBanjoK, we're looking at clean 100%s across the board.
Banjo Kazooie decompilation project has hit 100% 🚨 This means we will very soon see native ports to PC and people will be able to essentially create a Render 96 style remake pic.twitter.com/xeOxrNPS9vAugust 29, 2024
But what now? Well, this could mean everything, or it could mean little, depending on what fans decide to do with the decompilation. The code itself is essentially a tool to allow for the likes of native PC ports and mods, but it's all up to talented fans to produce those things themselves. Regardless, there's no doubt that this must be a triumphant moment for everyone who's been working on it for so long – it'll be interesting to see where the community goes from here.
For more games like Banjo-Kazooie, be sure to check out our list of the best platformers of all time.
