Banjo-Kazooie

"Jigsaw peices, Witches, Moles, Mechanical sharks with two golden teeth and a talking toilet all in one game. Oh My!"

Jumping Flash, the first 3D Platformer game was highly un-noticed, and Super Mario 64 came out a long time after that, becoming a block-buster hit, been crowned ''The Best game of all time'' and inspired many publishers to make complete mess' of 3D platforming games. Nintendo's best developer, Rareware had some projects going on, Two of which was 3D platformers, Banjo-Kazooie and Conker, which where going to rival Super Mario 64. Banjo-Kazooie eventually came out and became the blockbuster of 1998. Is this THE Mario beater that was promised?

Storyline - 8 : Snow White meet Story Boffins at Rare. The story starts off with Gruntilda, an evil and very ugly witch who thinks she is pretty, she asks her cauldron who is the prettiest of them all, and the cauldron shows a picture of Banjo's little sister, Tooty. Gruntilda gets very mad and grabs her broomstick. Gruntilda flies out of her lair, searching for Tooty, meanwhile, Tooty is speaking to Bottles the mole about going on an adventure with Banjo, Gruntilda spots her and kidnaps her. Throughout all this, Banjo is sleeping, and it isn't until after the kidnap he wakes up. Back at Gruntilda's lair, Gruntilda tells her cronies to transfer the beauty from Tooty to Gruntilda. It is all up to Banjo and his best friend, Kazooie to save her from such a terrible fate.

A great opening I know, but that seems to be it, there isn't really any major plot twists, except the one or two. There are some ''individual'' storylines in the levels, like some polar bears haven’t got their presents yet or 5 Jinjo's are lost. For what it is, it is a great and funny storyline, but it could of made a 9 or a 10 if it had a lot more plot twists.

Graphics - 8 : Banjo-Kazooie has brilliant graphics, especially for a dying system like the Nintendo 64. The graphics of the levels go in to great detail and are colorful, so fans of proper Platform games will feel at home. The water effects add a great touch to the game. In some parts of the game, Kazooie can fly in the levels, and flying on huge outside levels like Treasure Trove Cove or Freezeezy Peak is just breath taking, Having a birds eye view of a huge world is what every platform game needs. Just a few times in the game, I have noticed that the game's graphics are a little blocky. The worst thing about the game's graphics is circles. The circles in the game, like buttons or some noses and pupils of eyes are not circles, they are more of a Hexagon (A shape with six sides). This isn't really noticed at first glance, but I thought I better add this.

The character animations in the game are very good and fast. The animations are very creative, because Banjo has a backpack, with Kazooie inside, and when you do a back flip or a Peck attack, both characters do they own bit to perform the attack, and adds humor, as well as detail. As for the backgrounds, there isn't really any apart from the sky and a few clouds, but this is because of outside levels, in indoor levels, you just so a large metal wall or some machinery as a background.

Sound and Music - 8 : I think the music in this game is the best music on the Nintendo 64 (Or maybe joint first with Zelda : Ocarina of Time) , it has great music for outside levels, and you might even return to some levels for the music. Indoor levels might have creepy or machinery music. Gruntildas Lair (This is Gruntilda's base where you select levels, kind of like Mario did in Peaches Castle) has some familiar music, ever heard ''If you go down to the woods today''? If so, you will be greeted with the tune to that song in Gruntilda's Lair.

The characters do not actually speak in this game,. words come on the screen and the character makes a noise, like ''Mmmm mmm mmm'' as a talking noise (Thank you Rare for putting in Subtitles), this is not the first game on the Nintendo 64 to do this, as Star Fox 64 / Lylat Wars had the option to do squeaky noises too. I would prefer the characters speaking, it could've been down but the game might of been out later then scheduled and the game might be much more expensive, due to cart size.

Gameplay - 10 : Where would a 3D platform game be without huge worlds and lots of moves to learn and master? Before you set off on your adventure to save Tootys ''Skin'' you have to climb a small mountain, but first Bottles the mole wants to train Banjo and Kazooie. Bottles teaches you few of the many moves, you'll learn many moves further in the game. The moves are weird and sometimes funny, like the ''Rat-a-tat rap'', the Rat-a-tat rap is a peck attack, there is a Featherly Flap, which lets Banjo stay in the air a bit longer. There are many moves to start off with, and that’s only a selection. The moves you'll learn later on are extremely useful, like a Golden feather, which makes Banjo and Kazooie invincible, and a egg attack, where Kazooie shots an egg out of her butt (!!!!).

In some of the levels is a hut, shaped like a skull, if you enter the hut as Banjo and speak to Mumba Jumbo (One of the stranger characters) and give him some skull tokens, he will whip up some magic turning you in to an animal. These animals range from Termites to Bumble Bee's to even a PUMPKIN! These creatures are vital to your quest, as they maybe they are the only one can perform a task.

Banjo-Kazooie is a collecting game, like Mario had his stars to collect and Yoshi had his melons and other tropical fruits, in Banjo-Kazooie, you have to collect many things, the first is Jigsaw pieces, there are One Hundred in all, these pieces will fill in pictures unlocking levels. The jigsaws are treated like stars from Super Mario 64, perform a task and get one. Most of the tasks in the game are either finding things or doing a mini-game, like clearing a path for Christmas lights or racing or fighting a boss, there are many other ways to get Jigsaw pieces (These are called Jiggys in the game) like exploring or doing other mini games. It is important you collect every Jigsaw Piece, that way, you will get something special...

The second thing to collect is Musical Notes, these notes are like Mario's coins. There are scattered through the level (100 in each) and you must collect them all. These is a very hard task, because if you die on that level, even just once, you will have to start the entire note collecting again. Notes can open some doors in gruntilda's lair, letting you progress on your quest, and notes might even hold a surprise later on...

The third thing is Skull Tokens, there aren't many on each level, but once you have collected enough, speak to Mumbo on a level which he is on and he will transform you in to a animal (explained above). The fourth thing is Jinjo's, there is five on each level. These colorful cute things have been captured, and you nee to find and collect them on each and every level for a Jigsaw piece. The rest of the things to collect are eggs, feathers, gold feathers which just add ''ammo'' for the characters, plus there is Honeycomb pieces which fill up the health bar.

There is a ton of secrets in the game, some are ''Easter eggs'' which STILL haven’t been explained, but some have. The biggest secret is the most talked about one, And once you see this, you'll know what it is, I aren't saying anything, or it'll spoil the surprise.

During the game is a board game, which is huge, it is not really Mario Party, but some squares have questions, some have death squares, some are Jokers (you can skip a square) and some have mini games. Pure class, you will be playing the game once again, just for this.

Replaybility - 9 : Banjo-Kazooie is a massive game, twice as big as Super Mario 64, and has a lot of secrets and Mini-games. This'll last you a long time, and has several hard bits. Once you have played and completed once, you will most proberly want to start a new file and try and rush through the game in the fastest time possible, I heard it can be done in less then 5 hours, but that is rushing, and you'll need to know where everything is and the fastest route to it.

Overall - 9 : Just made a 9. There is a lot of detail, gameplay and secrets in the game, and this is one of Nintendo 64's best platformers. Some better graphics and voice acting would of made this

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/29/01, Updated 07/29/01