Banjo-Tooie

"Even better than the first"

Introduction

There was a lot of hype about this game for a very long time, especially due to the promise that you would be able to return to worlds in the original game to collect hidden items. One of the first things I noticed was the rather conspicuous absence of this particular feature. Fortunately, the game has so many other great features, you will hardly notice after a while.

Gameplay - 9.5/10

The worlds are bigger and often more complex than Banjo Kazooie. Here, getting jiggies is rarely a straightforward task, as there are a lot of new moves to learn. The musical notes are replaced with "Note Nests", which seems a bit of a cop out at first, but since you only have to pick them up once, it saves a lot of time wasted having to search over areas again; getting rid of the lives system was a good idea too. The best part of the game is undoubtedly the ability for Banjo and Kazooie to split up. In the original, Kazooie remained in Banjo's backpack all through the game, only emerging to perform a few special moves. Here, you can go all over the place with her, and she has some pretty neat tricks up her sleeve, such as the ability to hatch eggs (not as useless as it sounds). There is, however, the annoying presence of needing to mash buttons in one particular part of the game, involving a race against one of the new characters, which may leave you infuriated and with a sore finger, unless you happen to possess a turbo controller.

Another great addition is the ability to control Mumbo and perform spells with him. While you probably won't want to control Mumbo for long (his jumping and attacking abilities are incredibly poor), this is a nice feature. There are a number of new transformations, although at times the fact that they appear on every levels seems a little like overkill. Each level has its own boss battle, each introduced by an amusing cutscene, and there are a number of battles with Gruntilda's minion, Klungo.

Another change is that you often have to return to levels you beat before to get items you couldn't, making the game even less linear than the previous; I was also surprised by the fact that most of the levels connect with each other, either via doors or via Chuffy the train, who you must ride in order to transport items and characters to various places. The quiz format returns near the end of the game, and this time there is a cool replay mode, as well as a two player mode. Two player mode is where I had my biggest disappointment; like nearly every other game on the Nintendo 64, you are required to have at least two human players, as there is no option to play against the computer.

Story - 9.5/10

The story is more interesting than before; Gruntilda has returned, and she is now a skeleton, so she is now stealing peoples' lifeforce. The story is generally darker in tone (the opening sequence features the death of Bottles), and the humour in the game is often very morbid (after fighting a giant angler fish, you actually see it flip upside down and die, and there is the much talked-about reference to the Grey Jinjo Family, who have been run over). The supporting characters are fleshed out, with Bottles gaining a family and Mumbo gaining a rival in the form of Humba Wumba. Kazooie is even more abrasive than ever, and very funny for it, though Banjo made me angry at first, yelling at her frequently near the start. There are a few things you will be amazed they got away with in a Children's game (I guess they were working up to Conker's Bad Fur Day). The only thing I didn't like about the characters was the fact that Gruntilda stops rhyming, acting on the orders of her bossy sisters. One of my favourite parts of the original was Grunty's insistence on talking in rhyme.

Graphics - 10/10

These are sharper than ever before, with the characters looking just as good; you would expect a lot of slowdown, but this hardly ever occurs.

Sound - 9.5/10

Okay, the music isn't quite as good as the classic tunes from Banjo Kazooie, but there are still some nice touches, such as the weird sounding theme that fits the surreal world of Cloud Cuckooland. The character voices are great too. In particular, there are newcomers Jolly and Merry Maggie, who seem like an in-joke only older players will get (such as Jolly's incredibly camp voice). A good aspect of it is the inclusion of a jukebox that allows you to play the tunes (though this omits all the ones that were kept in from Banjo Kazooie for some reason).

Play Time/Replay Value - 10/10

This is likely to take longer than the original, not surprisingly, and you will still want to play it again and again.

Final Recommendation

Like the original, buy. This is the best of the Banjo games by far.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 11/29/04