Let it show on the record that I am not a fan of Summer. It gets too hot to do anything productive, one can't sleep without some steady fans or AC, and there is the mild case of Crazy I get whenever there isn't anything new to fuel my slow building addiction to electronic entertainment. This week, the withdrawal has become so unbearable that I've looked back to old classics again without the rose tinted glasses of nostalgia. Yes, I am looking back at a series of games I loved in my youth and surprisingly enough, still hold up somewhat to this day.
Banjo Kazooie was one those weird gambles that paid off in the long run. Back in the day when the N64 was the "must have" console because of all the polygons, Super Mario 64 set the groundwork for what a 3D Platformer should be, even though it has not aged well. Rare took a look at the formula and had the blasphemous thought, "what if we made it better?" Thankfully the people behind the project didn't have their heads explode at the thought of one-upping Nintendo, probably because they were on their payroll at the time, and got to work. How does the result hold up twelve years from now? Not too bad.
The story takes place in the almost Disney-esque land of Spiral Mountain, home to animated vegetables with big pairs of eyes, friendly talking animals and a wicked witch... you heard me. The evil green skinned, wart nosed, pointy hat wearing witch called Gruntilda who pretty much fit the criteria at the time for evil villain. She looks evil, casts magic spells that can turn you into a frog that's on fire, has a hideout carved out of a mountainside in her image, and she kidnaps a little girl named Tooty in order to steal her youth because she's no spring chicken. What's so important about the little girl, you ask? Well, she's your sister. It comes down to Banjo, the yellow shorts wearing bear and his bird, Kazooie, to storm Gruntilda's evil lair to save her!
From that synopsis alone you can already tell this game has its share of wrinkles. The game's story doesn't transcend videogame archetypes or cliches, hell it lives in them, but it does do one thing slightly different, getting to the point. The only thing stopping you from going straight into Gruntilda's Lair is a brief optional movement tutorial and the walk. That's right, there is no menial quest for seven macguffins to open the door or break a magic seal, that only happens once you're inside.
That's right, the majority of this game is inside the lair of the antagonist, which for some convenient reason has doorways to nine varied worlds which you need to enter. Ready for a paradoxical conundrum? There are magic doors and jigsaw puzzles you need to open and solve to get deeper into the lair, the tools of which are in these different worlds. Yeah, in order to save your sister, you are to collect Golden Jigsaw pieces (aka Jiggies aka Stars) and Musical Notes (aka Coins) in order to break a bunch of defenses found in an evil witch's lair which are found in various world that you access through the lair. Apparantly not only did Super Mario 64 set the groundwork, it unknowingly started a trend.
Alright, enough of punching in the degrading muscles of the story, lets get right to the firm skeleton of Gameplay. As I said before, Banjo Kazooie feels like a game that took what made Super Mario 64 good at the time and kicked it up a notch. Banjo and Kazooie aren't necessarily as nimble as Mario with all of the long jumping and wall kicking, but they more than make up for it with style. Throughout the nine worlds, ten if you include the Lair itself, the furry duo acquire aid from Bottles, a goggled mole who teaches new movement abilities and techniques as long as you have X amount of Coi- I mean Notes, and the skull-faced shaman, Mumbo Jumbo, who can transform the pair into something unique to the world for a one time charge of X amount of special Tokens. As you can tell, this game isn't above the arbitrary scavenger hunt but it's not done to pad out the game.
The one thing the game doesn't take from Super Mario 64 is the "World Menu" screen where it shows you how many Stars are in the world and a big fat clue as to how to get it just so you'll have to be thrown out of the world to do it again. When you enter a world in Banjo Kazooie it pretty much says, "there is a lot of stuff here, go find it yourself and have fun!" giving every world an almost childlike charm of exploration. Of course in a game today that would be something a Sandbox game can get away with alone and call it a day but Banjo Kazooie keeps its players on a firm leash. Instead of the Lair turning into a large mission hub, it actually becomes affected by certain things you find in the worlds. Hit a switch in one world and a gate opens, or learn a new move so you can find this hidden area, etc. Hell, not only does the game encourage exploration, it demands it to the point that before you can fight the Wicked Witch at the end she puts you through the cartoon equivalant of a quiz show designed by the writers of SAW where the questions can range from "who makes this sound?" to "how many bricks were in the first house to the left of world 5?" and if you mess up... ehh you'll find out.
The graphics show a bit if you examine too closely, but every area oozes personality to the point that the game felt like a Disney/Dreamworks/Looney Toons collaboration. The music is jaunty, quirky and fits the mood well. The only depressing bit about this game is that by today's standards, the worlds feel small and a little static, but the good news is it still is a fun time to be had.
Now for the sequel, aptly named Banjo-Tooie
The story takes place two years after the events of the first game and, Spoiler Alert, you saved Tooty and put Gruntilda six feet under, literally. Bad news is Gruntilda's sisters decide to show up, reanimate her, blow apart your house and kill a character, then they head off to hatch a plan that involves zombifying everyone to obtain immortality. The stakes have been raised, the duo is furious, and they resolve to stop the witches again.
Now allow me to blow your mind when I say this is one of those good kinds of sequels. The scope is larger in almost every way. Every single one of your moves from the first game are back, a whole ton of new ones are added, the worlds are larger and have more exploration appeal, the story is a little more compelling than the last game's "save the girl" premise, and is just plain damn good. Outside it being just better than the original though, not much else can be said about it. The light humor, the platforming, the puzzle solving, everything is still there.
What the first game did, this sequel took it and bumped it up another level. Instead of the worlds being self-contained, they became interconnected. Actions in one world that might seem harmless, like breaking a large ice cube, could have repercussions in another world, like make a bridge over some lava or make an anthro anteater a slushie. The worlds became so big that each of them, the overworld included, had a fast travel system to stop any backtracking from being too much of a chore and I'm starting to gush a little bit.
The one thing I can say against Banjo Tooie is that there might a little too much lightness to some of the worlds. The game opens with a murder and property damage and then expects us to play bumper cars in another world for a while? Just seems a bit weird but not game breaking. The game also takes a small dip in Rare's other games, such as Jet Force Gemini in terms of mild self-promotion and Perfect Dark's FPS action when it runs out of clever puzzles or platforming bits, and has a bit of a fascination with boss battles to make 100% completion a little tougher.
Bottom Line with these two games is for you Xbox owners that want something a bit different that doesn't involve space marines or if you need to download a game your seven year old sibling can play without coming off like a dick, then the XBLA re-release of both Banjo Kazooie and Tooie at 1600 Microsoft points each is more than enough to keep them occupied for a while. As for those who can excuse the aim at kids, it is an entertaining old school platformer that should help pass the time.
Unfortunately, Banjo Tooie bounced a check it couldn't cash with teasing for a third game that never got made. Ten years later, after Rare pretty much became Microsoft's pet, decided to get down to making a third Banjo Kazooie but since they either lost their balls in the divorce settlement with Nintendo or could care less at the time, they decided to make it a driving game because they thought they couldn't compete with other major platformers at the time. The result was the personally tragic Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts. The lesson to be learned with this is play to your strengths and don't do what you think will sell, or you'll wind up not pleasing the investors, or the fans. Sorry, Rare, but that's what happens.
<img src=http://mktplassets.xbox.com/NR/rdonlyres/ABB0A44F-5054-4BA7-A769-A4605A136B98/0/cboxbanjokazooie.jpg>
Personally, I still like the old case
Banjo Kazooie was one those weird gambles that paid off in the long run. Back in the day when the N64 was the "must have" console because of all the polygons, Super Mario 64 set the groundwork for what a 3D Platformer should be, even though it has not aged well. Rare took a look at the formula and had the blasphemous thought, "what if we made it better?" Thankfully the people behind the project didn't have their heads explode at the thought of one-upping Nintendo, probably because they were on their payroll at the time, and got to work. How does the result hold up twelve years from now? Not too bad.
The story takes place in the almost Disney-esque land of Spiral Mountain, home to animated vegetables with big pairs of eyes, friendly talking animals and a wicked witch... you heard me. The evil green skinned, wart nosed, pointy hat wearing witch called Gruntilda who pretty much fit the criteria at the time for evil villain. She looks evil, casts magic spells that can turn you into a frog that's on fire, has a hideout carved out of a mountainside in her image, and she kidnaps a little girl named Tooty in order to steal her youth because she's no spring chicken. What's so important about the little girl, you ask? Well, she's your sister. It comes down to Banjo, the yellow shorts wearing bear and his bird, Kazooie, to storm Gruntilda's evil lair to save her!
From that synopsis alone you can already tell this game has its share of wrinkles. The game's story doesn't transcend videogame archetypes or cliches, hell it lives in them, but it does do one thing slightly different, getting to the point. The only thing stopping you from going straight into Gruntilda's Lair is a brief optional movement tutorial and the walk. That's right, there is no menial quest for seven macguffins to open the door or break a magic seal, that only happens once you're inside.
<img src=http://www.mooki.com.mx/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/n64_banjo_kazooie.jpg>
I don't know what to ask. How did he get those eyes or how he got so big.
That's right, the majority of this game is inside the lair of the antagonist, which for some convenient reason has doorways to nine varied worlds which you need to enter. Ready for a paradoxical conundrum? There are magic doors and jigsaw puzzles you need to open and solve to get deeper into the lair, the tools of which are in these different worlds. Yeah, in order to save your sister, you are to collect Golden Jigsaw pieces (aka Jiggies aka Stars) and Musical Notes (aka Coins) in order to break a bunch of defenses found in an evil witch's lair which are found in various world that you access through the lair. Apparantly not only did Super Mario 64 set the groundwork, it unknowingly started a trend.
Alright, enough of punching in the degrading muscles of the story, lets get right to the firm skeleton of Gameplay. As I said before, Banjo Kazooie feels like a game that took what made Super Mario 64 good at the time and kicked it up a notch. Banjo and Kazooie aren't necessarily as nimble as Mario with all of the long jumping and wall kicking, but they more than make up for it with style. Throughout the nine worlds, ten if you include the Lair itself, the furry duo acquire aid from Bottles, a goggled mole who teaches new movement abilities and techniques as long as you have X amount of Coi- I mean Notes, and the skull-faced shaman, Mumbo Jumbo, who can transform the pair into something unique to the world for a one time charge of X amount of special Tokens. As you can tell, this game isn't above the arbitrary scavenger hunt but it's not done to pad out the game.
The one thing the game doesn't take from Super Mario 64 is the "World Menu" screen where it shows you how many Stars are in the world and a big fat clue as to how to get it just so you'll have to be thrown out of the world to do it again. When you enter a world in Banjo Kazooie it pretty much says, "there is a lot of stuff here, go find it yourself and have fun!" giving every world an almost childlike charm of exploration. Of course in a game today that would be something a Sandbox game can get away with alone and call it a day but Banjo Kazooie keeps its players on a firm leash. Instead of the Lair turning into a large mission hub, it actually becomes affected by certain things you find in the worlds. Hit a switch in one world and a gate opens, or learn a new move so you can find this hidden area, etc. Hell, not only does the game encourage exploration, it demands it to the point that before you can fight the Wicked Witch at the end she puts you through the cartoon equivalant of a quiz show designed by the writers of SAW where the questions can range from "who makes this sound?" to "how many bricks were in the first house to the left of world 5?" and if you mess up... ehh you'll find out.
The graphics show a bit if you examine too closely, but every area oozes personality to the point that the game felt like a Disney/Dreamworks/Looney Toons collaboration. The music is jaunty, quirky and fits the mood well. The only depressing bit about this game is that by today's standards, the worlds feel small and a little static, but the good news is it still is a fun time to be had.
Now for the sequel, aptly named Banjo-Tooie
<img src=http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100426164954/banjokazooie/images/thumb/c/cc/BT_XBLA.jpg/170px-BT_XBLA.jpg>
we're back baby!!
The story takes place two years after the events of the first game and, Spoiler Alert, you saved Tooty and put Gruntilda six feet under, literally. Bad news is Gruntilda's sisters decide to show up, reanimate her, blow apart your house and kill a character, then they head off to hatch a plan that involves zombifying everyone to obtain immortality. The stakes have been raised, the duo is furious, and they resolve to stop the witches again.
Now allow me to blow your mind when I say this is one of those good kinds of sequels. The scope is larger in almost every way. Every single one of your moves from the first game are back, a whole ton of new ones are added, the worlds are larger and have more exploration appeal, the story is a little more compelling than the last game's "save the girl" premise, and is just plain damn good. Outside it being just better than the original though, not much else can be said about it. The light humor, the platforming, the puzzle solving, everything is still there.
<img src=http://www.juegomania.org/Banjo-Tooie/foto/n64/0/35/600496.jpg/Foto+Banjo-Tooie.jpg>
Hey, when I say bigger, I mean bigger!
What the first game did, this sequel took it and bumped it up another level. Instead of the worlds being self-contained, they became interconnected. Actions in one world that might seem harmless, like breaking a large ice cube, could have repercussions in another world, like make a bridge over some lava or make an anthro anteater a slushie. The worlds became so big that each of them, the overworld included, had a fast travel system to stop any backtracking from being too much of a chore and I'm starting to gush a little bit.
The one thing I can say against Banjo Tooie is that there might a little too much lightness to some of the worlds. The game opens with a murder and property damage and then expects us to play bumper cars in another world for a while? Just seems a bit weird but not game breaking. The game also takes a small dip in Rare's other games, such as Jet Force Gemini in terms of mild self-promotion and Perfect Dark's FPS action when it runs out of clever puzzles or platforming bits, and has a bit of a fascination with boss battles to make 100% completion a little tougher.
Bottom Line with these two games is for you Xbox owners that want something a bit different that doesn't involve space marines or if you need to download a game your seven year old sibling can play without coming off like a dick, then the XBLA re-release of both Banjo Kazooie and Tooie at 1600 Microsoft points each is more than enough to keep them occupied for a while. As for those who can excuse the aim at kids, it is an entertaining old school platformer that should help pass the time.
Unfortunately, Banjo Tooie bounced a check it couldn't cash with teasing for a third game that never got made. Ten years later, after Rare pretty much became Microsoft's pet, decided to get down to making a third Banjo Kazooie but since they either lost their balls in the divorce settlement with Nintendo or could care less at the time, they decided to make it a driving game because they thought they couldn't compete with other major platformers at the time. The result was the personally tragic Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts. The lesson to be learned with this is play to your strengths and don't do what you think will sell, or you'll wind up not pleasing the investors, or the fans. Sorry, Rare, but that's what happens.
