Banjo-Kazooie

"The best platformer around, and could be even better"

Published in 1998, Rareware's Banjo-Kazooie is still the best example of how 3-D platformers should be, and in spite of its quality, it still has some flaws that prevent it from being the perfect platform game, leaving plenty of space for improvements.

In this game you control two characters: Banjo, a bear wearing yellow pants, and Kazooie, the breegull that... ehr... lives in Banjo's backpack. The game plot is nothing really new, but not as banal as Mario's: you always have a damsel in distress - this time she's Tooty, Banjo's handsome sister (as handsome as a lady bear could get - she's even got blonde hair!), who's been kidnapped by the evil witch Gruntilda, who wants to steal Tooty's beauty to become beautiful herself.

Apart from its simple plot, the game is actually a masterpiece - let's see why.

The graphics are amazing, beating every Playstation platformer around and even many other N64 products come later - at times, they're even better than Donkey Kong 64's, and surely less glitchy. Everything is a pleasure to look at, from the huge environments - you can look just anywhere and see every detail with none or minimal polygon loss - to the smoothly animated characters and monsters, which have been designed with incredible humour and fantasy. The colors are perfect, and the textures too. Graphically, this is still one of the best games around, and you'll find yourself reaching for the first-person view button just to look around and be amazed by how far you can see. There are a few minor glitches, but much less than in Super Mario 64.

The sound is also very good. The music is brilliant and will never get annoying, and the FX are just like in a cartoon. All the important characters have digitalized voices, but these are completely different from the usual speech - they're cartoon-like too, and are no more than sounds you would normally associate with the character. Not only this saves space on cart, but is also very funny and a very important part of the game: you must pay attention to the voices, because you will need to recognize them at a certain point in the game.

The gameplay is good, but has some defects. The main goal of the game is to collect two types of things. Jigsaw puzzle pieces, also known as Jiggies, are needed to open the entrances to the levels. There are 100 Jiggies in the game, 10 in each level. Gruntilda's Lair, which is the world that contains the 9 levels, also hides 10 Jiggies. Jiggies can be found in many ways - sometimes they're just sitting in a place waiting for you to pick them up, other times you'll have to perform some special task to get them. In each level you have to find and rescue 5 creatures known as Jinjos, and when you do, you'll always be awarded a Jiggy.
The second important thing to collect are musical notes. There are 100 notes in each of the 9 levels, and they're used to open the doors in Gruntilda's Lair to reach new areas. The notes are one of the major gameplay problems - if you don't collect all 100 notes in a level, in fact, the next time you return to the level you'll have to collect them all again, even if you missed just one. This happens because the max number of notes you find each time you visit the level is registered, and you'll be noticed when - and if - you beat the record the next time you play the level. This is very frustrating when you're missing only 10 or less notes, mainly because they're well hidden and the last levels are massive, and this brings us to the second major flaw in the game.
This game is GIGANTIC. The levels are huge, and their sheer size is something that will both amaze and annoy you. Some levels, such as level 3, are smaller than others, but you won't believe how much stuff the programmers managed to squeeze into just one big room. Although this makes the game a lot more interesting and various than Mario 64, making you want to turn on the console just one more time to see if you've missed some tiny secret, it can get enormously frustrating in the last three levels, which is not good. If you consider that nearly 80% of the collectibles must be found to get to the final battle, you'll understand why this game may not appeal all players.

The controls are very good: Banjo and Kazooie can perform a wide variety of moves, taught to them by Bottles the mole in the levels, and all of them are performed very naturally, making the game a joy to play. They can also be transformed into various thing by the shaman Mumbo Jumbo to perform some special actions they normally couldn't. The only problems come when Banjo and Kazooie are flying, because the controls get a bit awkward and it's very easy to misjudge distances and to miss your target. It seems that flying is the most difficult thing to recreate in a platform game - if you played Mario 64, you'll know what I mean. This problem is connected to the last major flaw of the game, which is the camera, which sometimes has a hard time trying to follow you from behind and sometimes just screws up, making some delicate passages a hell to beat. In my opinion, though, this is something you always have to cope with in such games, no matter what.

The fun this game can give you is unbelievable. There are dozens of funny characters, and so many out-of-this-world situations that you'll find yourself smiling, or even laughing, more often than not. It's like playing a cartoon, only this is in 3-D. The size of the game also provides week of playing - you'll need at least 30 hours to finish the game the first time, and possibly more to find everything. If you can tolerate the most frustrating passages and the awful note counting system, you're in for big, big fun which will last for a while. Moreover, the level design is top class - Clanker's Cavern, Rusty Bucket Bay and Click Clock Wood will have you wonder just how they could think of such things.

Do you have to buy this game? The answer can only be yes, provided that you can still find a copy. Banjo-Kazooie is arguably better than Super Mario 64 (though missing the unmistakable ''Miyamoto Magic'' that only Mario games can offer), and not as big as Donkey Kong 64 and Banjo-Tooie, thus being the better balanced platformer ever created for every console. This has been my favourite game for more than two years, and although it's not perfect, it will please you more than it will enrage you. This is a game that will be long remembered by players around the world, and the best deal for any Nintendo 64 owner.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 08/06/01, Updated 08/06/01