Game Description

Banjo-Kazooie is Rare's first platform outing on the Nintendo 64 after dominating the last days of the Super NES with the Donkey Kong Country trilogy of genre-defining platform games. In Banjo-Kazooie you control a cute honey bear named Banjo, alongside a flying sidekick Kazooie. Your quest revolves around rescuing your sister Tooty from the old witch Gruntilda.

Banjo-Kazooie is set within one huge world that leads off to nine smaller levels: Mumbo's Mountain; an island paradise complete with a pirate hippo in Treasure Trove Cove, the massive and dirty waste pile of Gruntilda's Lair and the home of one giant disposal unit (a metal fish) of Clanker in Clanker's Cavern. Advance through the dangerous swamp waters of Bubblegoop Swamp; explore Freezeezy Peak, where players can enjoy various sports as well as freeze to death; journey to Mad Monster Mansion, where ghosts, ghouls and gravestones are the notes of the day; board an old ship and fight angry cooks in Rusty Bucket Bay; and finally achieve puzzle champion status in Click Clock Wood.

Banjo and Kazooie are also capable of various moves, many of which are performed in tandem, that include standard jumping and roll attacks as well as Kazooie's beak buster, beak barge, egg fire, flying "rat-a-tat" combo, glide and other moves taught by your mole friend Bottles, who provides help throughout your adventure. There are also plenty of things to collect, from jigsaw pieces (which are featured ten times in every level and placed in pictures that allow you access to new worlds) to musical notes which open new parts to Gruntilda's Lair, Jingos, Mumbo Tokens (which transform you into alligators, bees, walruses, pumpkins and termites), new moves, feathers for flying, eggs for firing, and various others. Banjo-Kazooie also features three save game spaces on the cartridge, Rumble Pak support, and is optimized for PAL release (full screen). ~ Brad Penniment, All Game Guide

Roots & Influences

It doesn't take very long to see the Super Mario 64influence in the design of Banjo-Kazooie. Many moves are the same (jumping, swimming, flying and back flips) and the worlds have more than a few similarities. Both games have you exploring a desert, winter wonderland, haunted house and water-based areas while you collect a certain amount of objects. While Super Mario 64 has you gathering stars to open up new areas within a castle, Banjo-Kazooie has you gathering jigsaw pieces. Other elements in common include racing boss characters for a reward, activating multiple switches, and a camera system influenced by the user. ~ Brad Penniment, All Game Guide

Review: Enjoyment

Retains Nintendo's playability while taking many values of the 3D Platformer/Adventure genre to a new level. ~ Brad Penniment, All Game Guide

Review: Overall

At first sight, Banjo Kazooie comes across as nothing more than a copy of Super Mario 64 with both games sharing similar control styles, story lines, courses, visuals, and even game aims. Except that Banjo-Kazooie takes every Super Mario 64 element to the next level, which sums up as one of the truly great platformers of all time.

Visually, no title on the Nintendo 64 compares with the level of brilliance and depth of the texture quality and fluidity of smoothness of the worlds by eliminating those plain over-used textures the Nintendo 64 is known for. The worlds are also a lot larger and though not all details appear on the horizon, the system slowly fades them in rather than over-fogging or letting objects pop out of nowhere. The animation and frame rate is also superb, and the character 3D models smoothly created with detailed and colorful texture mapping.

Control in Banjo-Kazooie is simply flawless, borrowing heavily from Super Mario 64 with instantaneous movement and an impressive list of moves. The course and character design in Banjo-Kazooie is also mind bubbling, amassing typically cute Nintendo characters that fit so well into a game packed with details at every corner. One of the most amusing parts of Banjo-Kazooie is the characters-voice-samples, which are mashed up samples suited to the characters appearance or type. Light humor shines through as well with a rather amusing plot where Gruntilda's sister tells funny little secrets about Gruntilda that you have to remember to pass the quiz later on in the adventure.

The general aim of Banjo-Kazooie is to collect enough musical notes and jigsaw pieces to open up new levels in Gruntilda's Lair. But it isn't easy performing a multitude of tasks to earn jigsaws such has beating bosses, performing character described tasks, transforming into other creatures, collecting jingo's, collecting notes, completing mini-games, races, and other little missions. On another note, the force feedback in Banjo-Kazooie is very impressive while even more so on a PAL release where optimization cuts the size of the borders considerably, improving the look.

Banjo-Kazooie is simply one of the best Nintendo titles ever produced and certainly up there with Rare's finest. While it appears to be a standard Super Mario 64 rip off, Rare's attention to detail and ability to create the most playable titles easily eclipses Super Mario 64 visuals, playability, variety, and design. A must purchase for any Nintendo 64 owner. ~ Brad Penniment, All Game Guide

Review: Graphics

Never before has the Nintendo 64 been able to push such a variety of detailed textures at such a smooth, colorful, fast rate. ~ Brad Penniment, All Game Guide

Review: Sound

The character voices are amusing, but the soundtrack, although nothing special, suits the game mood perfectly. ~ Brad Penniment, All Game Guide

Review: Replay Value

A decent length offers plenty of secrets and a strong second or third-time-through value. ~ Brad Penniment, All Game Guide

banjo kazooie