Banjo-Tooie

"The game with so many suggestive jokes that we all want to give the people at Rare a good slap on the wrist..."

Ah, the ridiculously titled Banjo Tooie, Rare's very last family game for the Nintendo 64. Although, I would like to say, how in the heck did this game get only an E rating? There is more subtle sick humour (no, not outright, like in Conker's Bad Fur Day) then you can shake a stick at! Er, anyways, people call me sick for thinking things like that. They obviously don't know Rare like I know Rare! Anyways, down to buisness. Banjo Tooie is a worthy follow up to it's original game, Banjo Kazooie. Now, let's set aside the fact that you can't port the secrets from Banjo Kazooie as promised and review Banjo Tooie as a game of it's own.

Some Background Info

At the very end of Banjo Kazooie, a mysterious sequel, entitled Banjo Tooie (again setting aside the secrets) was promised. Several days after the release of Banjo Kazooie, Rare said they were indeed planning another game starring Banjo, Kazooie, and the whole BK gang. The game was set to be released in November 1999. All we could do was speculate until them. But the game was soon delayed until March 2000, then May, then July, then August, then Febuary 2001 (!), then backwards to September 2000, then to December, until finally, the release date stayed put at November 20th, 2000. That's the whole wait in a nutshell. So was the wait worth it? Of course it was! Onto the reviews...

STORY: TEN OUT OF TEN: A huge improvement on the fairy tale story of Banjo Kazooie, but is it suitible for kids?

Well, Gruntilda is rescued from her grave (I won't go into details, at risk of spoiling the ending of Banjo-Kazooie) by her two sisters in the rather impressive opening sequence. Unfortunetly, Grunty is just a skeleton from her two year (hey, they're doing it in real time!) stay in her grave. Her sisters plan to use a life sucking gun to collect all the life force on her home island, Ilse de Hags (Rare likes to have large guns destroy islands in their platformers). However, Mumbo Jumbo the Shaman overhears all this and runs to Banjo and Kazooie's house to warn the two. Gruntilda gives chase, and Mumbo barely arrives at the house. Banjo and Kazooie were in the middle of a poker game with Bottles the Mole. Gruntilda, intent on getting four birds with one stone, so to speak, destroys Banjo's house with an evil spell. After doing so, she escapes to Isle de Hags with her sisters.

However, Gruntilda fails to realize that Banjo, Kazooie, and Mumbo were sucessful in escaping the house before it was destroyed. Bottles, however, refused to take the warnings of Gruntilda seriously, and did not leaved. Bottles staggers out of the house, and dies right before the trios eyes. A potentially touching sequence is then dampened by one of Kazooie's mean comments. None the less, Banjo and Kazooie set off after Gruntilda, intent on revenge. After they arrive on Isle de Hags however, the sisters zombify the Jinjo leader, King Jingaling. It's then that Banjo and Kazooie realize that there is much more to this than their personal vendetta...

Without a doubt, an awesome story, especially when compared to the previous game, where the stakes were considerably lower. Now we've got a much darker storyline (though most of the game itself is really quite lighthearted), with the whole island at risk. However, is it too dark for young children? The opening sequence is set on a dark night, Bottles chared corpse lies on the ground for the majority of the game, and the overall dark premises of the game might be too much for any sequemish kid. That plus all the innuendo, and we've got a game between ''Everyone'' and ''Teen.'' Ages 10+ maybe? Oh well, I, a fifteen year old, enjoyed the story, so chances are, you'll like it too.

GRAPHICS: NINE OUT OF TEN: Really good graphics, but are they anything special?

Naturally, since Rare worked on this for 2+ years, the graphics came out really quite nicely. Banjo and Kazooie are fine (even if Banjo is slightly jagged around the edges). The thing you really have to appreiciate about these characters is how Rare gave them an actual shadow! Such an effect would have had to have a lot of time and work put into it for something so minor, and for this, I applaud them. All the worlds are beautifully designed, and as always, the bosses are absolutely gigantic. Naturally, in the video game world, huger means more detail, and Banjo Tooie's bosses are no exception. All the smaller characters are well done too.

Now, many people comment on the severe amount of slowdown in Banjo Tooie, bad enough to ruin the game. What the hell are you talking about, people? I can remember a few scattered instances in which the game slowed down, enough to effect the gameplay abit, but slowdown is nowhere as frequent as people make it out to be. Not at all. However, people are right about the slow loading times between worlds. It takes 3 to 7 seconds to travel between worlds, which may not sound bad in retrospective, but it does get slightly annoying after playing for a while. Given the fact that each world is huge though, this little problem is quite understandable.

However, in light of recent Gamecube and X-Box debuts, I am just not as wowed by the graphics in Banjo Tooie as much as I used to be. Come to think of it, I never was wowed too much by the graphics in Banjo Tooie. This is mostly due to the fact that when I turned on the game for the first time, I thought. Good! But it is nothing different from Banjo Kazooie! Banjo Kazooie's vivid graphics when it came out were a huge leap and bound for the N64. But Banjo Tooies graphics fail to capture that revolutionary feel of quality that BK had. Oh well, they're only graphics...

AUDIO: TEN OUT TEN:Rare once again meets their extremely high standards.

To be honest, the music rocks. It is of good quality, and the themes fit the world appropiately. As usual in a Rare platformer, there are barely more than a dozen songs, but they are changed to fit the situation accordingly. Example: In Glitter Gulch Mine, there is a relatively upbeat theme as you explore the main part of the mine. Enter a darker interior, and the music becomes darker, and is played on a different instrument. Find an pool of water, dive in, and the music becomes intentionally muffled to stimulate an underwater feel. Jump onto a minecart, and the music become faster, and more upbeat then normal, as you strain to reach a location in time. However, the most ambitious songs are undoubtfully the boss themes. They are loud, tense, scary, and make the bosses themselves all the more great. Jet Force Gemini still has the best music of any Rare game, but the boss themes of Banjo Tooie are better then the JFG ones.

Sound effects are excellent. The gibberish that are the character's voices returns, and is quite welcome to me. I've grown to appreciate the character's unique voices, and come to look at them as one of the defining elements of the Banjo series. Chances are that you'll be annoyed though. That said, there really is nothing much else to comment on. Sound effects are almost impossible (not to mention very boring) to discuss when compared to music, but rest assured, you not be disappointed by them.

CONTROLS: TEN OUT OF TEN: Rare pulls through with the control yet again, most creativily this time.

Rare cleverly picks up where they left off in the game's original, by sticking you with all the moves you learned in Banjo Tooie right away. In case you're new to the Banjo series, there is a series of molehills all around where you start, to teach you all the moves from the previous game. You are not required to listen to the molevilles, thank the lord. With Bottles deceased, his stereotyped military drill seargent brother Jamjars takes up the reigns of the move teaching postition. This mole lacks the Kazooie/Bottles antagonism, but this is made up for by the fact that Jamjars teaches you his move by singing the instructions to you in a military jingle. Entertaining stuff! There are only so many button combinations that the N64 can handle, so the game lets Banjo and Kazooie split up (more on that later). There's lots of potential for new moves. Also, the camera has been pushed to it's fullest extent. It is smoother, and it is easier to get it where you want to be.

GAMEPLAY: NINE AND A HALF OUT OF TEN: Dear, dear, where to begin...

I could have a field day covering the gameplay, not necessarily because it's confusing or tedious, but simply because there is so much to do and discuss. Well, I'll do the best I can...

The basic aim of the game is to collect magical Jigsaw pieces that will allow you to open up new worlds, like in the first game. There are enough variations to keep things fresh though. The means you must go through to get a single Jiggy is much more challenging and complex this time through. There is always a Jigg You won't be beating any world in seven minutes this time through, oh no! The Jinjos return, and have been scattered about the worlds, once again. There are a few variations here again though, and once the Jinjos are collected, they will stay collected. Very good.

In order to collect all ninety Jigsaw pieces, you are required to use teamwork. Sometimes, you have to solve multiple tasks in several worlds to obtain a single Jiggy, the family of dinosaurs in Terrydactaland being a perfect example. Speaking of which, each world is designed wonderfully. Back to the subject, you also need to let Banjo and Kazooie split up. Each character can get Jiggies that the other can't. Mumbo Jumbo also lends a significant hand this time around, as he becomes a playable character! I know what you're thinking, ''But O'Hanley, who will do the transformations? Mumbo's rival, Humba Wumba, will handle the transformations this time 'round, most bizarre ones at that. You didn't really think Rare would throw the transformations, one of the defining elements of the Banjo series out the window like that, did ya?
In addition to this, you also have to collect notes to pay for Jamjar's moves, collect Cheato pages for cheats, Jinjos, Glowbos for Mumbo and Humba, and much more.

The writing is quite prolific and clever. I present to you the wittiest non-sexually suggestive sample writing that comes to mind:

Lord Woo Fac Fac: Who dares intrudes on Lord Woo Fac Fac while he sleeps in his appallingly cramped locker?
Banjo: Oh, uh, we just brought some mail for you Lord Fac...
Lord Woo Fac Fac: Lies! You were going to steal my Jiggy, and drain my home, leaving me to flap pathetically around on the floor until I shriveled up and died, weren't you?!
Kazooie: Something like that...

Ah, ya gotta love that good ol' British humour. Look out for many little suggestive conversations or site gags as you travel through this game. I won't go into detail, at the risk of preventing posting of this review, as I've worked too hard on it. You can tell Rare's writers really had fun with this...

So why do I not give this section a perfect ten? While Rare really had fun hiding Jiggies, and the writing, the overall game engine itself lacks the usual Rare spark. I get the impression that Rare was looking at this as a chore, unlike with Banjo-Kazooie. Still, top notch stuff!

ORIGINALITY: SEVEN OUT OF TEN:For a sequel, it works well with what it's got.

Banjo Tooie doesn't really try to be different from the original, it is rather like a James Bond movie, in which each movie follows a distinct formula. We don't really want the James Bond movies to follow a different path, same goes for the Banjo series.

DIFFICULTY: EIGHT OUT OF TEN: Not overly easy or difficult. Perfect:

This game mainly tests your puzzle solving abilities, brute force is hardly used. There are only a few extremely hard Jiggies, but you are only required to collect 70 out of 90 jiggies to beat the game anyways. Moving on...

REPLAY VALUE: NINE OUT OF TEN: You'll keep coming back for more.

Even after you ''defeat'' Gruntilda, there is still plenty to do. Assuming that you didn't collect absolutely everything along the way. The game is always fun to start over again, or you could try and find our the mysteries behind some of the unsolved things. Give me a holler if you do find something...

BUY OR RENT

I would definetly recommend buying this game. It's worth the 50 dollars, and the price will likely go down as the Nintendo 64 becomes more and more obsolute to the general public.

THE CLOSING WORD:

And so ends easily my most detailed and ambitious review to date. I put a lot of work into this one. Will it win the Review of the Week? Nah. Good night!

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 01/02/02, Updated 01/02/02