Banjo-Kazooie

"Mario 64 with a bird and a bear and a really stupid title."

Banjo-Kazooie is another solid platformer for the N64. Many feel that this game unseats Mario 64 as the greatest one on the N64. I disagree. It does have better graphics and possible better sound but it lacks the originality that Mario held. And this factor is its downfall. Banjo's moves seem a little to similar to Mario's in my opinion. Or maybe its downfall is the stupid name. Come on Rare, couldn't you come up with something better than Banjo-Kazooie. Sheesh....

Graphics: 10
There is no doubt about it. Rare can produce some of the most amazing graphics on the N64. Banjo-Kazooie (which I will refer to as BK from now on because the title almost makes me mad) has some of the best graphics on the N64. Possibly the best even though it is a few years old. The world's are rich and colorful. It almost reminds me of a cartoon. All the enemies are well designed and look perfect. The water effects are the best I've seen on the 64. Everything looks so realistic, yet funny enough to remind you that this is a game.

Sound: 9
Some great songs yet nothing too memorable. I don't really go around humming tunes from BK as I would from Zelda or Mario. But it does have some good quality. The sound effects are even better though. Banjo's voice, while annoying, is just as I'd imagine a hick bear to be. G'huh. Bear-swatting enemies across the chest and shooting eggs out of Kazooie's a..rear also sound great. Everything is so alive in the game in the sound department. If you see something moving chances are you're going to hear a something out of it. And for the most part it always sounds good.

Control: 10
Well, they pretty much ripped off the control from Mario 64 so how hard could it be. I'm not really rating them for originality. They did add a few things. You can hold in the R-button to follow behind Banjo which really helps in those areas where no camera angle will show your character. The analog stick is used well in the game too. Push it forward a little and Banjo will slowly walk, crank it and he will run. You have an wide array of attacks that are used with some different button combinations but none of the combinations are so confusing that you can't pull an attack off. All the C-buttons are used for the camera again but it seems like Rare improved on Mario's setup. The camera angles seem a little better and help in this game a lot. I'd say the control for this game is as close to perfect as you can get.

Gameplay: 7
I'm not too happy here. Everything seems too much like Mario 64. All the moves are very similar except you have a bear and a bird instead of a short, fat plumber. The butt-stomp turned into the beak stomp. Punches turned into bear swipes. The flying cap isn't needed since you carry a bird in your backback. The life system even seems the same. Instead of a pie chart you get a certain amount of honeycombs. When the honeycombs are gone your dead. Just like Mario's pie chart. The story is kind of weird. Banjo's younger sister is kidnapped from the evil Gruntilda. Gruntilda wants to use her new machine to take all the cuteness out of Banjo's sister and pump it into herself. It's up to Banjo and Kazooie to save her. With some help from some minor characters along the way, such as Bottles the mole who teaches you some new moves or Brentilda the good fairy-witch-thing who gives you hints, it shouldn't be too tough. That's the big suprise on this game though. It is a lot tougher than it looks. This game looks like it'd be way easier than Mario 64 but it's not. You have to collect several jiggly pieces in order to open up the new worlds. Finding all of them can be a bit of a challenge. While I'm a little upset at how much it plays like Mario 64 I don't stay upset for long. I just remember how great of a game Mario was and how Banjo adds to it. If only it could have been a little more original.

Replay: 7
It's hard to judge replay on platformers. Some people want to play them several times while others only play it once. I'm the type that will play through the game one time and never touch it again. If I do complete the game then I consider it to have pretty good replay value. Replay value for me is having the game make me want to come back to it day after day. Banjo-Kazooie does that for the most part. Lacking a multiplayer mode hurts this score a little bit too. There really isn't too much to come back to once you collect everything and find all the cheats and secrets.

Final Synopsis: A good game but just falls short of the great category in my book. Certainly worth a rent and I'd say a buy for most people. I bought it and I don't regret the amount of time I put into it. Some people may be turned off by its ''cuteness'' but I say if you don't want to play a good game by the way it looks that's your loss.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 08/22/00, Updated 08/22/00