Banjo-Tooie

"Pure gaming gold, courtesy of Rare."

Rareware created Banjo-Kazooie in 1998 for the Nintendo 64. It revolutionized adventure-platformers on every level. It used everything the Nintendo 64 could offer and provided a massive game, full of clever puzzles and excellent platforming challenges for all ages. Rare had taken the praise and success of Banjo-Kazooie as a cue to make a sequel. Banjo-Tooie is that sequel and improves on an already stellar game in every way.

Graphics 10/10

The game's graphics push the Nintendo 64 to its farthest limits to create some of the best worlds you can find on the system. Each world has a unique theme, as with Rare's other games, and each one uses the theme and characteristics in the gameplay itself. One level takes place in an ancient-Mayan temple area and many of the puzzles use the different ideas of the level to its fullest. Each character in the game is animated well and has character in their movements. But above all the character, the game's graphic gold lies in the immense scale of each level. If you thought Banjo-Kazooie's levels were huge, your jaw will immediately drop at the size of Tooie's, especially when you realize that the N64 Expansion Pack is not required to play such a massive game. When taking flight as Kazooie, you realize the scale of the levels. They are huge. In first-person view, the camera moves with a perfect and realistic flight view or a crosshair angle (a new addition to Tooie). The graphics in Banjo-Tooie are beyond amazing and are prime examples of what the Nintendo 64 is capable of achieving.

Audio 10/10

Banjo-Kazooie's worlds had some of the most ridiculously catchy level themes ever, and Tooie follows in that musical and clever path. The original theme from the first is redone slower and smoother, and each song reused in Tooie is as great sounding and catchy as it was in 1998. The new level themes are excellent and diverse, both in tempo and in instrumental selection. The Mayahem Temple uses tribal instruments providing an authentic feel, and the Glitter Gulch Mine has some more banjo playing for the gamer's enjoyment. Sound effects are excellent, from Kazooie's egg-shooting to a good, solid attack to a minion. The voices are still the ridiculous dribble, but are so funny to listen to during each cutscene. Each sound is respective and appropriate to the character's personality or appearance. Banjo's dim-witted uh's and Mumbo's tribal chants are funny to listen to. Audio is improved in both scale and quality in Banjo-Tooie and stands by the graphics in pushing the Nintendo 64 to its peak.

Gameplay 10/10

Banjo-Kazooie combined an accessible control system with intuitive puzzles, massive worlds, many different objectives, and a crazy story and dialogue to top it off. Banjo-Tooie does all of what Banjo-Kazooie did, but multiplies it immensely. Everything in Tooie is bigger, badder, and better. Along with more levels, puzzles, and enemies, new moves are introduced to promise an even better gaming experience.

The story picks up two years after Gruntilda's untimely and humiliating loss to Banjo and Kazooie and the twosome are relaxing with their friends Bottles and Mumbo Jumbo, two characters from the first. Gruntilda's sisters arrive and save the bony beast and sort out a plan to make Gruntilda young and full of life. Mumbo investigates to find the witches planning to attack the house. He warns the others of the attack. Banjo and Kazooie leave, but Bottles refuses to leave. The witches use their giant drill/laser to blow up the house and bringing Bottles' life to an end. Now, with the entire island of Isle O' Hags in danger, Banjo and Kazooie return to fight Gruntilda once again.

After quickly getting a refresher of Banjo-Kazooie's original techniques (which are all available at start) from Bottles' spirit, the twosome take off to fight Gruntilda in the giant island that is Isle O' Hags. Spiral Mountain quickly becomes a distant memory as the huge hub starts the journey. Visiting the magical master of the Jiggy, Jiggywiggy, Banjo and Kazooie can travel there to open new worlds to explore. In the worlds are the classic Jiggys, the golden puzzle pieces which are essential to opening the many worlds to explore. Even in the first level you'll realize how absolutely huge the game is. Fortunately, warp pads are now present so walking around isn't a chore. Each level has its own theme and each brilliantly designed puzzle coordinates itself with the theme. Each one is clever and figuring them out involves both appropriateness and intuition in completing them.

Banjo-Tooie presents a huge amount of new moves to use in the massive worlds, each new one taught by Bottles' drill sergeant, Jamjars. Besides being a bit of a blowhard, Jamjars will teach some clever and incredibly helpful moves in exchange for the many notes scattered across the world. The notes, however, are used for moves, which are used to reach the levels instead of being used on Note Doors as in Banjo-Kazooie. Jamjar's “advanced” moves live up to his proclamation. The moves feel much more advanced and are surprisingly easy to use, even having so many buttons on the controller. One move that is introduced right off the bat is Egg Aim, when your first-person view now becomes an aiming sight. Above this is that some levels use a later move, the Breegull Blaster, to put the player in specific levels to do some good ‘ol fashion Goldeneye style shooting. This surprising addition doesn't make the controls weird at all, and are excellent diversions to the platforming and puzzle solving the game creates. The most unique move is the Split Up, where Kazooie hops out of Banjo's backpack and each character can be controlled separately. With this new mechanic, even more puzzles and even more moves can be learned by each character. This tremendous avalanche of new moves is very welcome and the game's support of these moves with challenging and well-designed puzzles makes the game a blast to play. The bosses in Banjo-Tooie are some of the most entertaining and well-designed you can find. Each one, along with having a funny tagline, says hilarious dialogue and has a ton of character making you laugh till the final attack. But don't think the final attack will come quickly. The bosses in Banjo-Tooie will mix the sharp reflex platforming with the puzzles, causing you to think on your feet and find their weakness while avoiding their attacks. This brilliant combination of challenge and cleverness, along with the humor of the bosses makes them absolutely amazing. Banjo-Tooie's game design is stellar, and provides an incredibly fun game.

Mumbo Jumbo, the duo's shaman buddy returns, but this time not for the transformations. Yes, the skull-headed magical guy is now a playable character! Mumbo's newest spells don't just transform, but can do a variety of things, all of which are essential to completing the challenges of Banjo-Tooie. Don't worry about the transformations though; Mumbo's magical rival, Humba Wumba, steps up to change Banjo into a variety of odd things, each one crazier than the next. The integration of Mumbo's spells and Humba's transformations is perfect and never feels overdone.

The classic concept of collecting the critters and completing the challenges returns. The Jinjos (the cute little creatures of the first Banjo-Kazooie) are now spread throughout all the levels and are now divided into different color families with different amounts of members. Finding these creatures promises reward, making finding them just as fun and important as finding the Jiggys themselves. There are many new items to find and aid in the quest and fortunately, the item collecting never seems to be put on too thick. Right when you're sick of item collecting, the game changes up. This is one of Banjo-Tooie's strongest qualities: variety. There's just so many things to do in Banjo-Tooie. Whether you're quickly timing jumps or shooting down enemies from the sky, the game constantly throws new and fun challenges at you. Some challenges even affect other levels, making each solution just feel right. When you complete a puzzle, you know it. Each level's puzzles and challenges will feel new and original from the moment you enter the world and don't stop. It's amazing how a game so whimsical can create such a deep, diverse, and entertaining experience for all to enjoy. In my opinion, this is one of the best-designed games you can find on the Nintendo 64, or any console for that matter. This is also a prime reason to have an Nintendo 64, even if you have Mario, Zelda, Goldeneye, and such. It's incredible on every possible level.

Replay Value 10/10

Banjo-Kazooie only had the story mode. Banjo-Tooie has the story mode and much, much, more. I mean, it has a mode literally called “Replay”. This mode allows the player to replay minigames, bosses, and cinema that are found throughout the single-player. Replaying the bosses is very addictive and so is going back and playing through the plethora of minigames that can be unlocked throughout the single-player. And once you're done with that, go ahead and plug in some more controllers. Yes, there's multiplayer. The Goldeneye-style levels in the single-player brought forth a shooting game for up to four players. Shooting eggs four-player split-screen Goldeneye style seems weird, but remains a major replay. Done with the shooting? Replay the minigames with up to four players. If you somehow get bored of the replay and multiplayer, finding all 90 Jiggies in single-player will take more time than you may think. Rare had every base covered in replay, giving Tooie a huge amount of things to do, games to play, and fun to be had.

Final Verdict 10/10

Rareware has improved on an already incredible game. They've combined perfect platforming, amazingly clever puzzles, a huge amount of replay value, an excellent amount of humor, huge worlds, great graphics, and catchy audio to produce a game that is a must play to anyone who has an Nintendo 64. This is Rareware at their absolute finest. If you like Banjo-Kazooie, buy this game. If you like Conker or DK64 or anything from Rare, buy this game. If you have a Nintendo 64, buy this game. If you don't have a Nintendo 64, go out, buy one and buy this game. The game breathes good game design and the presentation is some of the best the Nintendo 64 can muster. This game cannot be praised enough. It is some of the best adventure-platforming since the first. Please buy this game; you will not regret it.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 11/10/05