Banjo-Kazooie

"I seem to have lost my witty tagline...."

You have a best friend, correct? Unless you live an antisocial lifestyle or reside in a cave, then the odds are that you certainly do. But would he or she be willing to go adventuring with you, constantly lending a hand and always being at your side? Probably not - it's a rather ludicrous idea to even consider, don't you think? But best friends Banjo and Kazooie are willing to do just that in order to rescue Banjo's sister from the clutches of the evil Gruntilda.

As the game begins, Gruntilda is proudly hunched over her cauldron, aptly named Dingpot. She rubs her hands in excitement at the thought of putting her favorite invention to use, a machine that could suck the physical beauty from other living beings for Gruntilda to absorb. It would certainly teach her sister Brentilda a lesson, for Brentilda had inherited the family looks and left Gruntilda tragically hindered in that department. Grunty asks Dingpot who he thinks is the most attractive creature in the world, and to her dismay, Dingpot replies with Tooty as his answer.

While this is going on, Tooty is skipping around her home in Spiral Mountain and talking to her mole friend, Bottles, who soon spots a figure swooping towards them at a high speed and then inquires if that's Tooty's big brother, Banjo. After replying that it couldn't be Banjo, it became apparent that a furious Gruntilda was coming to kidnap Tooty.

Just as the sound of noise traveled through the window of Banjo's home, Kazooie popped out of Banjo's backpack and tried to wake up the lazy honey bear named Banjo, but to no avail. Soon, a burst of wind blows open the curtains, and Banjo hears the distant cries of a familiar voice-Tooty!
Immediately, Banjo awakens and heads out of his home along with Kazooie to rescue his beloved sister from the despicable witch.

You're sure to appreciate the amount of character development that Gruntilda has received. As you play the game, she will periodically make comments about your adventure, consistently rhyming in couplets. Throughout her lair, you will meet her sister Brentilda several times, and each time, she will tell you three repulsive facts about Gruntilda, and those facts will be useful late in the game.

First of all, I will say that Banjo-Kazooie is a collectathon-style game. It's a style similar to the legendary Super Mario 64, only with an expanded formula. While BK certainly borrowed some ideas from that game, BK executed those ideas with flying colors, in addition to throwing in its own.

I'll start with the beginning area here. The game begins in Spiral Mountain, the home of our two heroes, Banjo and Kazooie. Banjo is a dopey, unintelligent bear while Kazooie is a wise-cracking, mouthy, red-crested Breegull. Wondering what a Breegull is? Apparently, it's some type of fictional bird. Anyway, the game starts out with B&K having to learn some simple moves from their mole friend, Bottles, close to home. With that in mind, Spiral Mountain essentially serves as a tutorial area.

Once those moves are learned, Banjo and his buddy Kazooie can progress into the overworld, Gruntilda's Lair. Gruntilda, or Grunty, is the main villain of the BK series, and a truly repugnant witch at that. Inside her vast lair, there are nine entrances that each lead to a different world. Though it is the overworld of the game, Gruntilda's Lair almost feels like another world by itself, because like the actual worlds, it has ten Jiggies to be found in it.

As one would expect from a collectathon, there are multiple collectables for Banjo and Kazooie to obtain in each world, and each serve a specific purpose. Notes, for example, allow the player to open the magically sealed note doors that halt the player from progressing in Gruntilda's Lair. Jiggies, undoubtedly the most important item in the game, appear as golden puzzle pieces and must be acquired through completing a specific task, and these tasks are often quite varied and always entertaining. They may involve helping out an NPC, defeating a mini-boss, and more.

Banjo and Kazooie possess a large variety of moves at their disposal, and they are all integral to finding Jiggies. The default moves and the ones learned at Spiral Mountain are not all, in fact, there's quite a bit more to their arsenal of moves. You'll find Bottles hiding in a molehill in each of the first six worlds, waiting to Banjo and Kazooie to come along so he can teach them a new maneuver. Many of these moves can be used anytime, but others require a pad or ammunition to utilize.

Of course, it would be a crime not to speak about the worlds themselves. They are all designed beautifully, and only get better as the player dives deeper into the game. The greatest example of BK's wondrous worlds would be the very last world, Click Clock Wood, a mostly vertical world that centers around a giant tree. There's more to it than that, though. At first, Click Clock Wood begins in Spring, with a notably cheery atmosphere to it. Excluding Winter, there's a special switch to be found in each season that will allow Banjo and Kazooie to move on to the next season, ending with Winter, and it's quite a sight to behold when you visit a giant beehive in Summer to get a Jiggy, come back in Autumn to see that most of the bees have left, and finally return in the frigid Winter to see the beehive has completely frozen over, along with all the vegetation. Furthermore, each NPC here does something different each season. For example, in Autumn you'll retrieve acorns for Nabnut, and visit his home in Winter to see him hibernating. BK's level design is simply astonishing.

There is a magical shaman named Mumbo Jumbo, who can be seen in five of the nine worlds. Once his fee is paid off with Mumbo Tokens, he will offer to transform Banjo and Kazooie. These transformations are necessary to obtain every Jiggy, and are quite varied, ranging from a pumpkin to a bee. They are a refreshing alteration from using Banjo and Kazooie, and an entertaining gameplay element indeed.

Banjo-Kazooie has a very whimsical atmosphere to it, and the NPCs help to enforce that. You'll find them in every world. Each has their own predicament, and will offer up a Jiggy if Banjo and Kazooie assist them. Aside from their appearances, what makes them charming is that they all have their own voice: repeated sounds that sound like gibberish.

At the time of its release, Banjo-Kazooie was one of the most attractive Nintendo 64 games out there, and they are still quite respectable. Unlike the earlier N64 games, there's no blocky character models or anything of the sort. The water looks especially great, in particular, and the bright, colorful worlds are essential to the charismatic feel of the game.

One of the definite highlights of BK is the awesome music, which is complete with many memorable tunes. It's been months since I've played this game and I can still recall most of the game's music, and that's rather remarkable, I'd say.

Each world has its own music to accompany the theme. Gobi's Valley has Egyptian-style music, while Frezeezy Peak has Christmas-y music. One interesting aspect regarding the music is whenever Banjo and Kazooie go into a different area within the same world, the music has a different vibe to it but retains the same melody that said world's main tune has. One of the first examples of this is the water, where diving into it will change the music into an ambient harmony perfectly suited to being underwater. A nice touch, Rare.

One of the few low points of BK is the replayability. My first playthrough (with no guide, mind you) took me a respectable 22 hours. Subsequent playthroughs only took about six hours, and I was in no rush.

Aside from the obvious (replaying the game), there really is not much to keep you playing. You can fiddle around with the sandcastle in Treasure Trove Cove, which allows you to activate various cheats for your pleasure, but there's nothing other than that. You'll probably shelf BK after beating it and then come back several months later for another playthrough.

One of the few points that keep me from giving BK a 10/10 is the game's easy difficulty. Aside from Click Clock Wood, the very last world, all of the Jiggies are found pretty close together and even the toughest ones shouldn't take over one try to collect-a couple attempts at the very most. Still, it's not ridiculously easy, and with so many other high points the difficulty isn't a tough matter to overlook.

Banjo-Kazooie ranks among Rare's best work and is a truly outstanding title that I encourage all Nintendo 64 owners to check out, if you've not done so already. You may also get a new version of it on the Xbox Live Arcade on your Xbox 360, which features updated visuals, improved draw distance, achievements, and the return of the infamous Stop N' Swop feature. I'd have to recommend getting that version.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/03/09, Updated 09/30/09

Game Release: Banjo-Kazooie (US, 05/31/98)