Banjo-Tooie

"This time it isn't so easy (or short)"

Rare took the criticisms of Banjo-Kazooie to heart and made a sequel that's even better. Even Banjo acknowledges the difficulty of the first game when he says, “It's not going to be so easy this time.” And he's right. There's a noticeable rise in difficulty. There's also a noticeable expansion of the size of the levels and the time it takes to complete the game. Everything from the script to the visuals is much improved, and this is a game certainly worth playing, even if you haven't played the original.

The Good:
+ Massive, detailed levels
+ The opening movies
+ There's so much to do

The Bad:
— A couple of levels in the middle grow tedious
— The story disappears after the opening scenes

The Perplexing:
? Why does Rare remove Grunty's rhymes?

Story—8/10

The opening scenes are great. While Banjo, Kazooie, Mumbo Jumbo, and Bottles the mole are playing a game of cards, Grunty's sisters revive the old hag, who then destroys Banjo's home while poor Bottles remains inside. Grunty sets her sights on revitalizing her bony body by using a weapon of her sisters' invention: B.O.B., or Big ol' Blaster. It absorbs the life from whoever it strikes and stores it in the machine for Grunty's use when the machine fully charges up. All the while Rare bares its sharp comic teeth, despite the fact Grunty's sisters have demanded she stop rhyming.

Unfortunately, after the beginning scenes, the story disappears. This is true for most platformers of its time (and a trend such platformers as Ratchet and Clank have thankfully changed). Rare sets up lots of promising story points early on, especially dealing with Grunty's frightening new weapon, but drops them. Because of this, the way things turn out in the end is disappointing.

Early on, though, it's clear that Rare put a lot of thought into its creation. You visit the Jinjo Village, where all of the Jinjos are missing, and meet King Jingaling, the bling-bling king of the Jinjos. Even the jigsaw pieces, or Jiggies, and the empty honeycomb pieces have new masters: the spiritual and powerful Jiggywiggy, and the flirtatious Honey B. The role of Bottles is replaced by his brother, Jamjars, who takes the death of Bottles very coldly (a topic Rare doesn't handle very well in this game, as a matter of fact). Mumbo Jumbo no longer handles transformations, but the Native American (if there could even be Native Americans in Banjo's world) Humba Wumba does. She says that she's much better than the amateur Mumbo Jumbo, and she's right. Her transformations are much more impressive than Mumbo Jumbo's and much more helpful. Rare has created quite a society of characters, and this fleshing out of its world immerses the gamer much deeper than the original game had.

Gameplay—9/10

The name of the game is more, more, more. There's more of everything. More moves, more characters, more bosses, more eggs. Strangely enough, though, there are less Jiggies to collect, only ninety compared to the previous game's one hundred. But that doesn't hurt the game one bit. The only problem with more, more, more is that sometimes things become a little overwhelming, though that's better than the underwhelming previous game.

The levels take anywhere from two to three times as long as the levels from Banjo-Kazooie took. So, yes, that means it will take longer than half an hour to collect every single thing. You might spend anywhere from one and a half hours to three hours, depending on the level and depending on you. The thing to keep in mind is that many levels require that you revisit them later in order to get a few of the Jiggies. Unfortunately, you might spend a decent chunk of time trying to find ways to get a Jiggy that requires a move you learn in a later level. There's a real community between levels, not only because moves from one level are required to get a Jiggy from a previous level, but because some levels literally connect. Some paths in some of the levels lead you to an area in another level that you couldn't otherwise reach. There's even one challenge that requires the cooperation between two other levels to complete it. This really gives the game qualities of epic proportions.

Mumbo Jumbo has an enhanced role. Unlike Banjo-Kazooie, he's in every level and is required for at least one task per level. He's a playable character this time around, albeit a minor one. I've never seen a character so happy to become the playable character and so upset when his turn is up. Rare infuses a lot of personality into him. Just watch his face when he uses his staff as an electrical taser-like weapon and you'll notice the intensity of his expression, and when the weapon's charge dies down, he looks disappointed. While he no longer presides over transformations, he still uses magic. For each level he casts a different spell, from animation of a gold statue to oxygenating the water. Sometimes he has to cast his spell several times and sometimes only once. Either way, it's a nice addition.

Humba Wumba, as I said, takes over Mumbo's old job, and she's much better at it. There's a different transformation in each level, from a tyrannosaurus rex to a laundry machine to a bumblebee, which Humba improves over Mumbo's from Banjo-Kazooie. Some transformations have a larger impact on the game than others. The t-rex, for example, is disappointing. Rare lost a golden opportunity to allow you to go on a rampage when they relegated the adult t-rex's role to merely stepping on a giant button and scaring away a cave man. But other things, such as a honking van, play large roles in the levels. This is a nice improvement over the previous game, where two of the transformations were required for only one Jiggy each, and the third wasn't necessary for anything.

And we can't forget Banjo and Kazooie. They have a whole slew of new moves and a whole slew of new characters to interact with. Kazooie's quips are no longer childish insults, but satirical jabs. She truly bites, er, pecks, and much of her stuff is hilarious. As for moves, you have all of the old ones, though a few of the moves aren't necessary, especially the dive bomb attack and the golden feather. So the new moves you learn throughout the levels aren't simple rehashes of moves from the original game, but they are truly new moves. There are new types of eggs to fire (though only the grenade egg serves a consistently useful purpose besides the regular eggs), new shoes to wear (the old green boots are now only required for one task), and most importantly, the ability for the bird and bear to separate. Banjo and Kazooie learn even more moves when they separate. Rare makes clever use of Banjo's empty back pack and forces Kazooie to be a real bird by hatching eggs. The problem with too many moves, though, is that many of them have a very limited usage. Kazooie's glide, for example, is a good idea, but you rarely need it or have a good chance to use it.

My main complaint is that the game sometimes grows tedious, especially in some of the middle levels. Terrydactyland and Grunty Industries are so monstrously huge that it's easy to forget where an area is that you need to revisit. The problem with this type of platform game is that there are no hints as to an item's whereabouts, or the hints are hidden. Searching becomes a drag, and the two above-mentioned levels are when the tedium is at its worst. Amplifying the tedium, though, are Mumbo and Humba. To use their skills requires you to travel to their home (and the warp pads only mildly relieve the tedium) and then go and switch to Mumbo or jump in Humba's pool. And when you're done, you have to go back. The more you have to do this, the more tedious it becomes. The backtracking is tiresome, but the game is worth that little bit of tedium.

Longevity—10/10

Fans will be happy to know (though they probably do because this game is eight years old) that Banjo-Tooie takes twice as long to finish as Banjo-Kazooie. It took me twenty-two hours to collect almost everything and defeat Grunty at the end of the game. There are also multiplayer modes, which I haven't fiddled with yet, to keep the gamer busy with a few friends. The game is addictive enough to keep you up for hours into the night searching for that final Jiggy. With Banjo-Kazooie 3 supposedly coming out at the end of this year, Banjo-Tooie is definitely worth a play for those who haven't played it or even a re-play for those who have. If Rare can improve on this game, then Nintendo might have to watch out or its giant, Super Mario 64, might lose its place atop its throne.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/21/08

Game Release: Banjo-Tooie (US, 11/19/00)