Madcap's Game Reviews - "Banjo-Kazooie"

Nintendo 64 Box Art

There comes a time in every reviewer’s life when a game comes along that changes the fundamental way they see gaming and alters their entire perception of what gaming is for the rest of their life.  For me, that game is Banjo-Kazooie, an action-adventure, platformer developed by Rare (before they totally sold out to Microsoft and made the atrocity of a second sequel to this game), makers of such classics as Donkey Kong Country and Conker’s Bad Fur Day, and published by Nintendo when the word “Wii” was nothing more than a euphemism for a bodily fluid.  That’s right, 1998, when Metallica put out the astounding Garage, Inc. and Pokemon was taking off like mad on the brand new Game Boy Color. So, before you ask, this is going to be a retro review.

I can hear you now, “Madcap, you cunning hound of the gaming circuit! You brilliant, brilliant man whom we love and adore unrequitedly! How could you review a game so far removed from cultural relevance? So far back in a console generation that most of us don’t even remember it?” Well, prepare to have your minds blown when I tell you that this is perfectly acceptable as a relevant review topic, due to it being available for download on Xbox Live for 1,200 Gamer Points. Once I had discovered this, I had to ask myself, would the game that was so beloved in my childhood hold up to my lanky, awkward, twenty year old self? Would the cartoonish depictions of colorful characters and the whacky and whimsical locales appeal to me as much as they did to my lanky, seven year old self?

XBLA "Box Art"

Well, let’s begin with the plot.  Short version, a witch kidnaps a bear, causing her brother to pursue her through several worlds of various flavors of crazy in order to save her.  Long version, a hideous witch by the name of Gruntilda rips off the Queen’s shtick from Snow White, demanding to know who is the fairest one of all from her cauldron.  When the cauldron mentions someone else, Gruntilda decides to swoop down on her broomstick and go snatch up the offending person.  The princess to be in another castle for the day is Tooty, a short, spunky bear who loves adventure and is supposed to be beautiful beyond compare. Meeting with her close friend Bottles, a goggle-clad mole, Tooty is kidnapped by Gruntilda, thus waking up the princess saver for the day.  Well, rather, both of our protagonists for the day are awoken, being Banjo the bear and Kazooie the bird.

Banjo is the older brother of Tooty and a rather apathetic bear who would rather take a nap than go off for mad adventures.  However, he is pulled into action by Kazooie, an impulsive, mouthy breegull that Banjo keeps in a blue backpack that he carries with him everywhere (don’t think about it too much, it’s one of the least screwed up things in this game, I swear). Leaving the house, they are introduced to Bottles (apparently Tooty never bothered to introduce her brother to the strange, bespectacled men she frequented with), who agrees to help the duo by teaching them moves in order to get into Gruntilda’s castle and defeat her.  And thus begins a journey through eight worlds in order to save the Princess Peach from the evil Bowser…oh, wait a minute. All joking aside, the hub world of Grunty’s Lair is not dissimilar to say, Princess Peach’s Bowser-ridden castle from Super Mario 64, not that it takes that much from that game, but they could definitely see each other in a carnival mirror if you see what I mean.  After learning the basic moveset around Spiral Mountain (or not, Bottles will actually give the duo the moves and let them go on their way, presumably due to “mole mind magic”), the duo climb the titular mountain and enter the Witch’s castle.

Within, the bear and bird discover that Grunty has sealed nine worlds with magical portraits and taken out jigsaw pieces from them, which must be recovered in order to open them and retrieve ten jigsaw pieces from each world. Ideally (including the ten that are scattered through the Hub world) this means the player should have collected one hundred “Jiggies” by the end of the game. Of course, the game doesn’t make you get them all and I believe the bare minimum you can scoot by with is eighty, so it’s still quite a bit of work.  Also blocking the paths through Gruntilda’s Lair are a series of doors that can only been opened when Banjo and Kazooie collect a number of notes that either matches or is more than the number written on the door. And so begins an epic quest to collect the shiny golden objects that open doors to lead to the top of the tower and confront the questionably evil witch.  Along the way, the bear and bird duo encounter allies in the strangest of places, gaining the aid of the mysterious witch doctor Mumbo Jumbo and the whimsical Jinjos (a race of midget dudes with pointy ears. Five of them are in each world and they give a Jiggy upon their release), as well as meeting an all-star cast of characters along the way.

Gameplay-wise, you’re given a lengthy tutorial with each new move you learn, so I won’t both going into detail. Being that this is a port, however, the tutorials had to be changed somewhat to fit in with the Xbox 360 controller, rather than the traditional N64 controller of its origins. And, of course, thanks to Bottles’ mole hills being the source of all knowledge within the game, it is easy to return to them in their respective locations for a quick refresher on any move you might have forgotten.  It’s also like most platformers in that Banjo only jumps about half as high as you think he does, so Kazooie can help him out with a double jump flap of her wings as well as an even higher jump when Banjo crouches (leaving him prone to enemy attacks).  The basic attacks are such lovely ones as a forward claw swipe, a bear-al roll (“Can’t let you do that, Banjo!”), and a leaping up forward peck from Kazooie known as the “Rat-ta-tat-tap”.  Enemies come in several different varieties, though most can be taken out with the most basic attacks and those that can’t be taken out in such a way are clearly unable to be taken out (some “scenery monsters” in the later levels qualify for this) or can be completely wrecked by the Wonderwing ability (limited invulnerability!!!).

However, the game does have a difficult curve like Michael J. Fox sketched it out. In some places (such as the first world “Mumbo’s Mountain”) the enemies are relatively easy fights and can be taken down easily, with easy Jiggies to breeze through getting once you find your feat. Cut to the very next world (“Treasure Trove Cove”) and even attempting to skinny dip in the waters around the island will have you accosted by a serious scary shark (total Jaws rip-off…with music to match his approach) that’s almost impossible to avoid (and gave me nightmares in my youth), to skipping through a swamp without protective footwear (though you get that later in the beginning of the appropriate level, so it’s excusable), to playing the Floor is Lava in a land of snake-filled sand, to swimming in an area where you can drown above the water.  Up until the end where, even if you search through the entire game from back to front to find every extra power up that can help you, the final boss fight is ridiculously hard. Playing as my eight year old self, I found it so hair pulling out-ish frustrating that I would throw my controller at the screen when Gruntilda’s spells finally overtook the bear and bird duo and (sometimes literally) jumped for joy when I emerged victorious over the wise-cracking witch.

This brings me round to the characters themselves, a paragraph that would have been right after the plot had I come up with a brilliant way to segue it.  All the characters in the game are voiced by grunts, growls, and other strange sound effects, never actually sounding like anything remotely human. This means, of course, that all the dialogue is done by text, and it is of course filled with plenty of humor for both kids and adults (with many, many examples of Rare trying to get crap past the radar) therein.  The dynamic between Banjo and Kazooie is particularly of note (not at all because they are the title characters, clearly). The two are one of the most mismatched pairs I’ve ever seen in any form of fiction, much less just games.  Personality-wise, Banjo is a very laid back, apathetic and all around polite and courteous type.  Kazooie is fiery, passionate and not remotely apathetic whilst being snarky to literally every NPC that she and Banjo have dialogue with (degrading into the rude and crude that Banjo will often cut her off before she can say something that would have made the ESRB hesitant to give the game an “E” rating) and generally egging on her live-in partner to adventure.  Several NPCs that the duo run into also make liberal use of stealth puns and some outright witticisms, including Bottles, who has several snarky rapports with Kazooie throughout the game.  This is, of course, not even mentioning Gruntilda herself, who apparently can magically project her voice throughout her lair to deliver rhyming insults to the bear and bird.

So, in the end, what are we left with? A quirky platformer with an easy to learn moveset that gets used early and often so that it’s difficult to forget, with some wit sprinkled in to boot. And while its difficulty curve that would drive most people nuts for what is oft-called an “easy” game, it’s fun. And this may come as a shock to most of you, but I enjoy fun. If a game has a storyline I can get behind and can keep me entertained, I find it fun. And what is Banjo-Kazooie, in a nut shell? Fun! So, if you’ve got an Xbox 360 and 1,200 Gamer Points kicking around and you like playing quirky, humorous platformers that are a perfect example of what the genre should be striving to be, then go ahead and download it. 

Banjo-Kazooie is available for download from the Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA).