Banjo-Kazooie

"So, is Kazooie a Boy, a Girl, or a Republican?"

Banjo-Kazooie was one of the most popular games to grace the Nintendo 64 and for good reason. It had gameplay that rivaled that of possibly the best game on the Nintendo 64, Super Mario 64. It had an original, yet clichéd storyline that was better than par, but most importantly, it introduced some great new characters from Rare's lineup.

When I asked my friend to bring over Banjo-Kazooie, I was going off my memories of a game that was extremely fun to play. However, it wasn't as fun as I remembered. It seemed too childish for me to enjoy it, but it wasn't that bad. I loved the stupid little conversations between Kazooie and Bottles, even though that was humor that was in the conversations were directed towards children. Some of the mini-games that were in the levels were fun to do and some were even challenging!

Like I said in my last sentence, some things in the game have a challenge to them. If you are an experienced gamer, then you probably won't have a problem snapping through the levels quickly. However, the mini-games that some of the levels have can get quite challenging. You'll be sitting in front of the TV for hours trying to find that last Mumbo Skull so you can get that Jiggy that has been teasing you.

Banjo-Kazooie was also praised for its open-minded gameplay and mechanics. I'm going to credit the skills that you can learn to these achievements. In almost every level, you'll find one of Bottles' mole holes. If you go over to the mole holes and press the B button, Bottles will pop out and, after a short flaming war with Kazooie, he'll teach you a new move that you'll need in order to progress in the game. Say that there is gross water with piranhas in it that you just can't seem to get past. Find Bottles and he'll teach you how to make Kazooie wear tall boots to get through the water. Say that there is an extremely high ledge that you just can't get to. Find Bottles and he'll teach you how to use Kazooie to launch up there with a launch-pad.

Throughout each level are puzzle pieces known as Jiggies. You have to do certain tasks within the level to collect the Jiggies. What are these Jiggies good for? Scattered throughout Gruntilda's lair are jigsaw puzzles with no pieces in them. If you use your Jiggies on them, you can enter the jigsaw puzzles to go to the level pictured in them. This is the main part of the game and, if you haven't noticed, it is a lot like Super Mario 64, but in that game you collected stars to enter paintings.

What's a Super Mario 64 clone without having to collect a certain amount of something to get a something? Being the Mario clone it is Banjo-Kazooie has a feature similar to that of the Red Coins in Super Mario 64. Hidden throughout the jigsaw puzzles by Gruntilda are weird elf-like creatures of all different colors. When you find all the different colors of these creatures, you are rewarded with a Jiggy.

Of course, there has to be an original feature in Banjo-Kazooie. This would be the fact that you have Kazooie. Banjo is basically Mario but dumber. Kazooie is smart and is way more useful then Banjo ever is. Kazooie can run up steep slopes, shoot eggs of her mouth (and butt), fly, super jump and countless other abilities that Bottles will teach the proclaimed bird-brain what to do.

What would any videogame be without a shaman with a skull for a head? I'll tell you what kind of videogame that would be, nearly everyone but this one! By collecting his missing Mumbo skulls, you can have Mumbo Jumbo, the shaman; turn you into an animal that is themed with the level you are in. For example, in the swamp he'll turn you into a crocodile so you can converse with the other crocodiles that live there. In another level, he'll turn you into an ant so you can go up steep slopes without having to learn any of Kazooie's abilities first.

An evil witch named Gruntilda was sick and tired of being ugly so she sought out the cutest bear cub alive, Tooty to steal her youth and beauty. Tooty's brother, Banjo, gets word of this from a mole named Bottles who tells them how to defeat Gruntilda and save Tooty before the evil witch steals her youth!

The environments in Banjo-Kazooie all look alright, but some of the levels are clichéd. There is a snow level, which I hate the most in videogames. I wish they would have had more originality in the levels. All the characters of weird eyes, which is common in Rare, but the eyes look way different then they did in any other Rare games which I have no real opinion about, but any other gamer might.

Banjo-Kazooie should take you a while to play as it is a platforming game, but there is almost no replayability what-so-ever, unless you want to collect all of the Jiggies.

This game is practically a collector's item. Any gamer who wants to own some of the classical videogames should not let Banjo-Kazooie stay at a videogame store.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 07/10/06