Banjo-Tooie (N64) review | Nintendo Life

Banjo-Kazooie was a game that revolutionized the platform on the N64: Rare’s innovative level design, humor, and excellent controls made it the pinnacle of platforming on Nintendo’s console. Fans of the original will most likely remember the developer’s lavish in-game promises about the sequel, Banjo-Tooieincludes the ability to swap items with the original Banjo (hence the hidden ‘Stop ‘N’ Swap’ items). And while these dreams never came true thanks concerns from NintendoWe still have a pretty impressive sequel.

Beginning at Banjo’s home on Spiral Mountain, Tooie picks up several years after the events of the first outing. Banjo et al. are all safe and cozy playing cards in their homes, Grunty is still stuck under a rock, Klungo is still desperate about his lover’s fate and things couldn’t be better. Of course, that just means things are bound to get worse. Grunty’s terrible sisters Daz and Damo Mingella and Blobbelda quickly arrive on the scene; two ugly sisters whose noisy entrance through the rock face in a monstrous digging machine foretells a great tragedy in the lives of bears and birds.

Upon arrival, the witches take out the spell book and free Grunty from her vermin-infested clutches, discovering that two years under a rock have transformed our favorite rhyming witch into bone form. Reunited, the trio attack Banjo’s house, killing Chai in a spell of vicious intensity before escaping in the digger.

With the game’s surprising start, Banjo and Kazooie set out to seek revenge on the skeleton Grunty and her siblings, following them to previously unexplored locations. However, while they are searching for the sisters, the terrible trio are plotting to use a strange machine called the Big-O-Blaster to drain the life force from the entire world and thus restore Grunty to her former carnal glory again. Starting with King Jinjaling, the evil witches cause the world’s energy to pass and only Banjo and Kazooie stand between them and victory. Unbelievable!

From the start, like the story, everything in Tooie feels grand, larger than life and a little overwhelming compared to its humble predecessor. Coming to Jinjo village for the first time shows the huge importance of this game: there is so much to do and explore here, and this is just the first part of the hub world – and there are countless more parts of Isle O’ Hags can swallow Spiral Mountain in one gulp.

Entering a level in Banjo-Tooie is a bit similar to Kazooie. The size of each world is quite a surprise (sorry, Grunty’s rhymes are quite infectious, apologies to everyone who finds this too much!)…

Um. Instead of having levels that can be completed in one sitting, Tooie’s stages are specifically designed to tie together through tunnels and other vehicles with a more ‘open world’ approach . You can’t be 100% complete level until you complete most of the game and gain access to linked areas and later game abilities.

This is confusing at first, as it’s not clear that jumping between levels is required – you’ll wonder how to get some Jiggies, only to realize that a few hours later you’ll have access Access them through another level. However, this design for connecting all the levels together suits the game’s expansive approach and fuels your typical completionist well – depending on skill and your geographical understanding, there are about 20 hours of content here and there Maybe becomes overwhelming, it’s still thoroughly enjoyable. Since 2000, we’ve all gotten used to navigating vast open world spaces.

The levels themselves are richly designed: from circus to prehistoric land; From the ocean depths to the depleted mines, the settings are varied and atmospheric – and truly capture the peak of ’64. You’ll be amazed at the variety and feel enchanted by this quirky fairy tale. The core loop of the original is still there: you get a few Jiggies; a new world opens; Repeat until the witch is defeated and you have collected everything. Of course, Tooie mainly focuses on collecting musical notes and all kinds of other weird and wonderful objects, but now there’s much more to it than that. Gone are the days of having to complete a level in five or ten minutes; Banjo-Tooie massively expanded the canvas and a few cracks began to appear.

Some of these cracks are due to a trait not often shown in sequels: our heroes retain all of their moves from their first outing, which is quite handy. Or is that so? It’s ironic that Rare chose to keep the same moves from the first game from the start – something many people found annoying. Are not happens in the sequels – the team puts themselves in a bit of a pickle. No new moves means there’s little variety, but an expanded move would be cumbersome.

With Chai lacking a tangible form, brave adventurers turn to Jamjars – the dead mole’s tough brother – to teach them new moves. The most important of which is the ability to split the duo: Banjo and Kazooie can progress through levels on their own, with loads of new abilities – Kazooie even learns to hatch eggs! The gameplay changes dramatically when the duo separates and you have to think outside the box (ah, backpack in our furry friend’s case).

However, breaking up and getting lost isn’t fun, and given the scope of the levels, it’s sometimes unclear what you’re actually supposed to do. Other Jamjars additions, such as using the Kazooie as an FPS-style gun (in a closed environment – you can’t view the entire game in first-person mode), bill drill, spring-loaded shoes, and Many new types of eggs from fun to it’s just a bit too much to manageespecially since the moves from the first game are still there. Going through five types of eggs is not particularly appealing.

And then we’ll introduce Mumbo Jumbo as a playable character. Basically, all he’s used for is finding special Mumbo pads and activating them, then you return to his hut. Unfortunately, controlling the poor mage offers relatively little value.

However, Tooie balances the difficulty with almost all of the control precision of its predecessor: it’s just a little less fluid when pulling off new moves, which is still far ahead of most games. other. The transformations are back (this time you actually get to play as a washing machine and a dinosaur!) But it’s Humba Wumba who works his magic and transforms the bear and the bird – poor Mumbo really got a raw deal.

Level bosses also enter the fray for the first time, from a giant patchwork bubble dinosaur to an old, grumpy lump of coal and a pterodactyl. These additions bring even more humor and depth than the first outing. There’s probably more depth than we need, but just enough.

But it’s too big Actually a big flaw? In our opinion, no – and certainly not after many years of open-world experience. Played on original hardware, the game’s real flaw is that it’s notoriously unreliable — well, reliable poor – frame rate. Like Rare’s other late-cycle N64 releases, it stretches the console to its breaking point – and then stretches it some more. Xbox and Rare replay The re-releases have resolved this issue, and it also plays much smoother via Nintendo Switch Online. This is just something to keep in mind if you’re plugging into an original cart.

The only thing that slightly tarnishes this brilliant fairy tale adventure is the back seat taken by the villainess Gruntilda. She no longer teases and provokes you with couplets; she seems to just be there at the end to make a good fight.

Overall, Banjo-Tooie is a great game with all the variety and imagination you’d expect from the glory days of Rare, although the vastness of the game makes it hard to take advantage of it. every drop of enjoyment from it. With option for four players Golden Eyes-in deathmatch style, things can also get fun with a few friends around, even if it’s relatively short-lived.