Banjo patched with SDTV text option

By Tom Bramwell Published 22 December, 2008

Writing's on the tall.

Rare has reportedly patched Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts so that dialogue boxes and prompts are easier to read on standard-definition TVs.

The latest auto-downloading title update turns on large text by default, according to forumites, and introduces a toggle to the brightness and contrast options menu.

When it launched in late October, Banjo was criticised for its tiny on-screen text, which was difficult to make out on smaller SDTVs, impossible to adjust, and important to making progress.

It's the same problem that affected Capcom's Dead Rising in 2006, although to Rare's credit the developer responded to concerns with an update, whereas Capcom didn't.

Sadly we don't have a copy of Banjo in the office, but images on numerous blogs and widespread reports from users confirm its existence.

For more on the game, which transplants Rare's lovable bear and bird character combo into a build-your-own-racer, check out our Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts review.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (10) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • SteveB #1 3 years ago

    Is it an option so it can be switched off ? It looked perfect as it was on my HD TV.

  • mattigan #2 3 years ago

    I just love it when site admins disable the back button, it makes me never visit their site again.

  • moggsy #3 3 years ago

    @mattigan

    There is no way to disable a browsers back button. Sometimes on certain sites pressing it just refreshes the page you are on though. You can dip into the 'back history' (usually a drop down list off of the back button) to get back to a previous page in that case.

  • bushwod #4 3 years ago

    amazing how many devs make this mistake.

  • Kon #5 3 years ago

    Good news this is finally out. Unfortunately just as annoying to me was the fact that the text auto skipped in the demo. Can anyone verify if this has been changed for the full (patched) game?

  • Doctor_What #6 3 years ago

    I could name at least one creative director who said, when a junior designer raised the issue of unreadable text 'we don't care about standard definition gamers'. They then patched the game with SD text a few months after release when they realised how dumb this was.

  • homerramone #7 3 years ago

    I just love it when site admins disable the back button
    He's right - you cant disable it. Its more likely that a link opened a new tab/window - so there is no back

    And yeah - should think so too - impossible to read on my 32" TV...

  • Tricky #8 3 years ago

    @kon, yes, it appears that you now have to press A to advance each bit of text.

  • Darren #9 3 years ago

    Well done, Rare. :)

    I've kind of got used to the small text now but having looked at the screenshots comparing the two, the larger text suits the game far more so I'll be enabling it when I return to the game over the Christmas period.

  • m0thr4 #10 3 years ago

    I just love it when site admins disable the back button, it makes me never visit their site again.

    Which site are you referring to? I have never seen this happen.