Banjo-Kazooie

• Release Date: 1998
• Genre: Action
• Style: 3D Platform
• Similar Games: Super Mario 64 (Nintendo 64), Spyro the Dragon (PlayStation), Croc (Game Boy Color)

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).

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.