The Making of Jetpac Refuelled – Celebrating 15 Years with Xbox Feature

Back to the world of Xbox, and with the 360 launch done, Rare moved to make one of its most memorable games, Viva Pinata. It would be the last game made under the Stampers, who left the studio by the start of 2007.
At the same time, the firm was also experimenting in other ways, and began to look at the burgeoning space for smaller downloadable games; a realm in which Microsoft arguably led the way at first with Xbox Live Arcade.
“We were just excited to play around with Xbox Live Arcade,” says Lee Schuneman. “After building these giant monolithic games that take four years, it was nice to go out and do something a bit smaller, with simple game mechanics whilst also leveraging the power of what a modern console can do.”
That effort led to the release of side-on shooter Jetpac Refuelled, which rekindled another of the Stamper’s pre-Rare works; the 1983 ZX Spectrum release Jetpac.
Resplendent with arcade gameplay, menacing difficulty and a visual upgrade, Jetpac Refuelled was an early star of Xbox Live Arcade; a platform that did a great deal to demonstrate the value of digital stores granting exposure to modest, creatively distinct games.
“Our thinking was to keep the core Jetpac mechanic, but make the visuals meet what the expectations are from consumers today,” explains Schuneman. “We had a lot of fun. Wil Overton did all the artwork. His background was on the Super Play magazines. He is a fantastic artist, so it was as much a love letter to him and his style, too.”
2007’s Jetpac Refuelled marked Rare’s only released dalliance with such a concept (aside from the externally-developed HD upgrades of Banjo-Kazooie, Banjo-Tooie and Perfect Dark), but it helped frame what small, digital titles made for a mass audience could be; something that is a major driving force in the games industry today.