Banjo-Kazooie

"The bear and bird are fantastic"

Story – 9/10

Gruntilda, an evil ugly old witch, stood in her lair looking for a victim to use on her new invention. It was a machine that could suck the physical beauty from any person and give it to Gruntilda! She turned to her cauldron and it showed the face of Banjo's cutesy sister, Tooty.

Back at Banjo's house, Kazooie heard something outside. Gruntilda had kidnapped Tooty! She squawked and yelped at Banjo to wake up and when he finally did, the pair of them set off on a huge adventure to save Banjo's sister and stop Gruntilda.

Gameplay – 10/10

This is one of the most perfect 3D platform adventures you'll ever play. You control Banjo the honey bear and inside the backpack he wears is his life-long pal, Kazooie. Kazooie's a bit of a loudmouth but she's a central part of the tons of humor you'll encounter in this game. So you move around with Banjo and punch and jump with him but after you learn some more advanced moves from your good friend Bottles, you will be able to use Kazooie to good effect while she's in the backpack. Some of Kazooie's awesome moves involve using her wings to fly, using her long legs to trot up steep slopes and even a limited invincibility move to shield you from attacks. There are absolutely loads of moves to learn and you'll have to use them all to complete the game.

There loads of levels and every single one of them is huge. Your aim in each level is to collect Jiggies which are golden jigsaw pieces which you have to place in giant picture frames to open a new level. There's 10 Jiggies in every world and you have to do all sorts of tasks to get them. Some are placed in hidden hard-to-reach alcoves. Others are prizes for defeated a load of giant frogs. You also have to collect musical notes, of which there are 100 of them in every level. Certain doors in Gruntilda's Lair can only be opened with a certain amount of notes so you need to collect as many as you can. There a number of other things to collect in the game such as the spirited creatures Jinjos who have been captured and hidden in each world by Gruntilda. Mumbo tokens are also needed to hand to your pal Mumbo Jumbo. He can transform you into different creatures like a bee and a termite to access areas only available to these creatures.

You'll spend hours at a time in every level because they are so huge and the amount of tasks to complete is amazing. Finding all the Jiggies, notes, Jinjos and everything else will take you ages. The game ranges in difficulty depending on which Jiggy you are after. Some are tougher to achieve than others and later levels will test your skill when there are poisonous waters to swim in and quicksand that will kill you. You've got to be good to beat some of the later levels and get those Jiggies and notes too, and you need all the moves to help you beat the enemies. But it's so much fun and one of the biggest adventures you'll ever play. Banjo-Kazooie will last you ages and ages.

Controls – 10/10

Move around with the control stick, jump with A and attack with B. Z makes you crouch and R centers the camera behind Banjo. The C buttons change the camera positions and zoom in and out. Everything's all very simple and just as you'd expect. After a bit of playing, you'll learn moves which require you to hold Z and press a C button to perform them, so you'll need to memorize what each C button does, but by the time you've learnt them all you'll already know what the previous button did so it shouldn't be a problem. All the moves make good use of the controller buttons and you won't have any difficulties.

Graphics – 10/10

BK has some beautiful graphics. Bright and colourful worlds and lots of action all going on at once. Everything's just as you'd expect from a Nintendo 64 game and they really are some of the best on the console.

Sound – 10/10

Believe me; you won't get these tunes out of your head for days on end. There are so many fantastic tunes for every single level and you just have to sing along to them. Even after years of not playing the game, you will definitely still remember some of them and sing them in your head. They really are that good.

Another great feature is that every single item you pick up makes a different sound effect. There's a musical instrument for every item, it's great. It's little things like this that make the game so brilliant.

Overall – 10/10

This game is perfect in every way. As soon as you start playing, you'll be hooked. The game is so huge and it will take you ages to beat. So many moves to learn, items to collect, doors to open, worlds to find…Banjo-Kazooie is exactly what you want from an adventure game. If you own a Nintendo 64, you need this game in your collection. It's one of the best 3D platformers ever made and you will not regret buying it.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 03/25/05