"Not a crash and burn, but not any air show either"

Racing game on the GBA? Well, your first thought will probably be Mario Kart Super Circuit, which had excellent success on the GBA. It's known for it's excellent controls and steering, good graphics, and classic Mario feel. Well, with that as your competition, it's hard to match up, but Banjo Pilot doesn't even come very close.

The initial idea is promising, taking the traditional racing game and extending it into another dimension by making it planes instead of cars. You can go up, down, and side-to-side now. Unfortunately, it just doesn't work as well as it sounds. The control of the plane is strange, and going up and down takes a while to get used to. Motion is a bit delayed, so sharp turns are impossible. You can flip around corners (Banjo's version of jumping), but it doesn't really do much for you and it doesn't always work right. There's no real advantage in flying high or low, except for the fact that you pick up the items at a certain height. So basically the ability to go up and down is more of a gimmick than an actual advantage. You'll more than likely just want to stay at the height that the items are at, unless you go for a boost.

Yes, a boost. But instead of the kind of boost in Mario Kart, where it's always there no matter what, this boost must be bought. You buy your boosts once you save up enough "pages", which you get from winning races. They appear around the tracks and stay once you have bought them. There is a single boost and also a longer track of boosts that take you through a lot of the level. This is cool at first, but once you get the long track of boosts, it becomes the central point of the race, completely taking away the racing aspect of it.

But even the racing aspect of it isn't all that great, since level design is repetetive and confusing. There's sometimes no clear level boundary, just a clear wall that you end up running into if you take a wrong turn. There should be clear track boundaries showing you where the wall is, but there isn't in some places. The levels also just aren't very unique and are mostly boring. The graphics just aren't as sharp as they could be. The backgrounds are too blurry to even make out in some cases.

But the real annoyance is how lame the items are. Unlike Mario Kart, which has around a dozen different items, this game has about four or five: different kinds of things you shoot at your opponents (all which target your opponent, since actually aiming it yourself would be impossible), a sort of ice thing that freezes opponents (banana), and a boost, etc.) Basically fewer, lamer versions of what Mario Kart invented.

But it does surpass Mario Kart in some ways, and one is with character selection. There's not a huge selection of characters, but there's more of a wider spread of abilities. Instead of instantly going for Toad, the fastest character, you have more of a choice. Plus, you unlock new characters using the aforementioned "pages". Banjo Pilot also has a different game style. Other than the standard Time Trial, GP, and Quick Race, it also has the "Jiggy Challenge". In this, you not only race a computer controlled character, but you also have to collect puzzle pieces around the level. This provides a good challenge for once you beat all the other races.

So all in all, Banjo Pilot had unique ideas, and had some successes, but in the long run, it came up short. The controls and graphics are okay, but just aren't sharp. The items are too limited and the levels need better designing. In the end, this game isn't a complete waste of time, as it can indeed be fun to play for a while, but it's just a too flawed to make it an all-time great.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 09/01/05, Updated 01/08/07