Banjo-Kazooie
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 The epitome of classic collect-a-tons.
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Banjo-Kazooie is a platform game released in 1998 for the Nintendo 64. It was developed by Rare and published by Nintendo. Microsoft Game Studios published it when it was released as a downloadable title in the Xbox 360's Live Arcade and it was included in the Rare Replay compilation.
Plot
Gruntilda (Grunty for short), a fat, evil and ugly witch learns that Banjo's sister Tootie is more beautiful than her. Enraged, Gruntilda kidnaps Tootie in an attempt to steal her youth and beauty. While the machine prepares itself, Banjo and his smart mouthed companion, Kazooie, must explore Gruntilda's lair and the worlds it inhabits to obtain the Jigsaw pieces (Jiggies) and face Gruntilda.
Why It Deserves All of Its Jiggies Put Together
- Very humorous story with many colorful characters.
- Non-linear gameplay with large open ended levels to explore and clear objectives at your own pace. At the same time, the levels aren't that huge that you could get lost easily.
- The nine worlds all have a different theme (Mountain, Beach, Sewer, Swamp, Christmas, Desert, Halloween, Abandoned Ship, and Four Seasons). Each world has 100 notes and 10 Jiggies to find.
- Goofy (in a good way) and Cartoony or Unrealistic (Also in a good way) soundtrack that fits the different levels and the overall tone of the game very well. It would make you want to try to get it to your head or play the levels longer to listen to the music, or even go to YouTube and download the music on your computer, phone or tablet.
- Obtaining Jiggies requires puzzle solving, defeating big enemies, helping NPCs, discovering secrets, ect.
- Tons of different collectibles. While the game is a collect-a-ton, it is built around the concept so it remains fun to explore the levels gathering items. Besides the Jiggies, there are also:
- Red and Gold Feathers. Red Feathers will be needed to help Kazooie fly, while Gold Feathers will make Banjo invincible, but he can only carry 10 of them.
- Mumbo Skulls, which Banjo and Kazooie will need to collect for Mumbo to transform Banjo into different creatures.
- Honeycombs, which refills Banjo and Kazooie's health meter,
- Extra Honeycomb Pieces; when six are collected, another Honeycomb is added to Banjo's health meter.
- Bottles the mole teaches Banjo and Kazooie lots of moves and abilities.
- Finding enough Mumbo Tokens will help transform Banjo and Kazooie into different creatures and moving inanimate objects, courtesy of the shaman, Mumbo Jumbo.
- The transformations look very funny and ridiculous and cute. Although most of them only have a minor purpose, the Crocodile transformation is unique (in a good way) as it is the only one that can attack foes. These transformations are also sometimes needed to obtain a Jiggy.
- Impressive boss battles, in particular the final battle with Gruntilda which can prove to be rather tough.
- Every world has a Jiggy obtained by finding five Jinjos within the world. The Jinjos help in the final battle with Gruntilda.
- Very impressive graphics for its time, to the point that this game is often considered one of the best looking games of its generation. The game doesn't even need to use "distance fog". You would even want to look at them for so long by just playing the game for a long hours, or even watching videos and stopping them on YouTube just to look at them. They’re also even better in the Xbox 360, Xbox One and Xbox Series X versions.
- Finding pages of the book, Cheato, will grant permanent upgrades to Banjo and Kazooie's stack of power-ups.
- Before the final battle with Gruntilda, you must play a gameshow to test your knowledge of the game. The questions include memorizing a sound from an item, an area from one of the 9 worlds, and obviously, a question about Gruntilda herself.
- Brentilda, Gruntilda's nicer fairy godmother-like sister frequently reveals Grunty's gross and disgusting secrets, which later turn out to be answers for several of questions Gruntilda asks during the gameshow.
- While obtaining all the Jiggies is not necessary to beat the game, a special ending can occur if you collect them all.
- Gruntilda pesters you through the whole game with her constant taunts and annoying rhymes, which makes it more rewarding and satisfactory when you defeat her and finally get her to shut up.
- Large cast of NPCs that Banjo and Kazooie can assist in exchange for Jiggies. Such NPCs include:
- Cap'n Blubber, a pirate hippo who lost his gold, which the duo find in exchange for a Jiggy. He can't swim, despite being a hippo.
- Vile the red crocodile, who challenges Crocodile Banjo to three rounds of an eating contest, which get harder to farther he gets.
- Gobi the Camel, who the duo have to Beak Bust to get random items from. He also returns in Banjo-Tooie.
- Clanker, Grunty's personal garbage grinder. He dislikes eating garbage and living in polluted water, since it rots two of his teeth.
- Boggy the Polar Bear, who Banjo must race first as a Walrus, and later as himself using the Turbo Trainers.
- Wozza, who likes Banjo's Walrus form, but fears Banjo as himself.
- Loggo, a talking toilet inside Mad Monster Mansion who Pumpkin Banjo must go inside for a Jiggy.
- Eyrie the Eagle. He starts off as a cute baby eagle in Spring, then Banjo must feed him a number of caterpillars in Summer (5) and Autumn (10), and finally he grows up into an adult eagle in Winter, after which he finally gives you a Jiggy.
- If you 100% complete the game you're told about the game's sequel.
Bad Qualities
- Like most early 3D platformers, the camera's very uncomfortable and often ends up at a slightly awkward angle.
- Using the Talon Trot (even though it's a great move) makes Kazooie rather slippery to control.
- Terrible swimming controls.
- Banjo, on his own, moves slowly and doesn't have many useful abilities.
- If you die in a stage, you lose all your notes and have to collect them all over again. It is especially a problem in the Click Clock Wood level, which has a total of four season levels. This was solved in the Xbox Live Arcade port.
- The level Rusty Bucket Bay is infamous for having a room where it's notoriously easy to die due to the abundance of narrow rotating platforms over a bottomless pit, and the oily water which drains your oxygen meter quicker.
- Due to hardware limitations on the Nintendo 64, the Stop 'n' Swop feature can't be used in the original version of the game. This was fixed in the Xbox Live Arcade port.
- The Banjo-Kazooie Xbox Live Trial can be broken by using some glitches, meaning you can complete the game in the free trial!
- Despite her comical nature, the final boss fight against Gruntilda is very long and difficult.
Reception
Banjo-Kazooie recieved critical acclaim, with critics praising it's graphics, sense of humor, clever level design and mechanics. The game sold over 1.8 million copies in the U.S. and over 405,000 copies in Japan. It has a rating of 4.33 out of five on GameFAQs and obtained a sequel, Banjo-Tooie.
Banjo-Kazooie went on to become a classic and one of the most well remembered games from the Nintendo 64 and Rare, and it is generally considered to be superior to Super Mario 64 and is often placed as one of the best games in the entire Nintendo 64 library.
A spiritual successor Yooka-Laylee was developed by Playtonic Games 18 years after the game's original release.
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