MadCap's Game Reviews - "Banjo-Tooie"

When I spoke of Banjo-Kazooie nearly four years ago, I spoke of it as a game that changed the fundamental way I saw gaming and altered my entire perception of what gaming was for the rest of my life. If I can be frank, this is just more of that, because Banjo-Tooie is just more of the same, and I mean that in the best way.  Some people tend to look down on a movie or game sequel as a desperate money grab by the studio or developer to wring every last penny they can out of the property. While that is the case all too often, it's not in the case of Banjo-Tooie.

No, they waited for the third game to do that...

But enough about games that we'll be getting to later, now is the time for a game I genuinely enjoy.  Banjo-Tooie is a continuation of the story of loveable bird and bear duo Banjo and Kazooie. Riding high two years after they rescued Banjo's sister Tooty (not appearing in this game...sort of) and defeated Gruntilda the Witch and trapped her under a rock - spoiler alert - the two have the shaman Mumbo Jumbo and Bottles the Mole over for a game of poker, unaware of trouble being very much afoot in idyllic Spiral Mountain.

Drilling through the wall that cordons off Spiral Mountain from the rest of the Nintendo world (well, not anymore, I guess) in a giant tank come Gruntilda's other sisters - Mingella and Blobbelda - who use a magic spell to destroy the rock that has imprisoned Gruntilda for two years to reveal that she'll have to bone up on a few things - now apparently having become a lich in her spare time.  Because she's feeling particularly spiteful, Grunty whips up a nasty spell to turn Banjo's house into a big pile of rubble and succeeds...killing Bottles the Mole in the process.

Wait wait wait wait wait, what?!

This may not seem like a big thing, but considering how death is so often shied away from for good guys in Nintendo products, this was a big shock as a kid. Especially to later see the halo-clad ghost of Bottles rise up from his own corpse later on.  After all, the mooks we kill off are a dime a dozen but for something like this to happen to a main character? It was unsettling to my nine year old mind and still, even now that I know the ending, is.

"Honey...you got real ugly..."

Not to be dismayed, and vowing to avenge the Root Muncher, Banjo and Kazooie set off to follow the witches and find the "Isle o' Hags" is where they call home.  Finding the Jinjo Village, they make the acquaintance of King Jingaling (Songaling? Dingaling? Wringaling?), setting up the need to collect Jinjos once more in the game and to show off Grunty and her sister's new weapon the "B.O.B." which can apparently drain the lifeforce completely from any target. This ends up with Jingaling becoming hideous zombie, and anyone within range of the "Big Ol' Blaster" being in danger of the same fate.

So, we've got one hell of a set up and a massive threat that needs to be taken out. Even more so than before.

Mechanically, the game runs almost identically to its predecessor.  Banjo and Kazooie run, jump, peck, and so many other ways to move their way through the worlds collecting Jiggies, Musical Notes, and other memorabilia to be sold in their old age as souvenirs (from the resort "Banjo-Casino"). This time, musical notes are used for Jam Jars - the militaristic brother of Bottles - to teach the bear and bird duo brand new moves - such as how to split up the duo into two separate controllable characters, new varieties of eggs to shoot, and how Banjo can use Kazooie as a gun to fire said eggs in certain areas.

On the magical end of the spectrum, we have a new ally in Humba Wumba - a Native American shaman who uses her magic to transform Banjo and Kazooie into various creatures (including a motherfluckin' T-Rex) to aid them in their quest.  But what purpose, you may ask, does Mumbo Jumbo serve in this game, if not to do as he did in the previous one?

You play as him.

I'm not kidding, you give him a Glowbo (little pink things that can be found in various places in the worlds) and Mumbo will jump up from his chair and go out to perform his magic at specially marked pads within the game worlds, things ranging from making a massive, golden, indestructible statue come to life for a brief time to putting a train back on its tracks and beyond.  Really, I'm very much underselling it.  For all he has to do, to set it up, it's pretty cool.  Also, he has the magical bug zapper he calls a wand, which is always funny to hit enemies with.

"We have a T-Rex..."

Puzzles to open worlds are a little bit different this time around.  Instead of using Jiggies to fill in portraits with pieces missing, Banjo and Kazooie have to collect a certain amount to be allowed to play a puzzle game not dissimilar to those that one could play in Banjo-Kazooie by standing on Banjo's rug in his house and looking at the picture of Bottles at the right angle.  Once the player has completed a puzzle, the mighty Jiggywiggy will open up the door to another world to them.  This does come with the unfortunate time waster of having to go back to Jiggywiggy's place every time you want to open a world up, but with the addition of Jam Jars's silos, this does cut down on time a fair bit.

In fact, the Silo system allows the duo to go to anywhere in the Isle o' Hags that they've visited previously. As I stated above, this saves a lot of time, since the Isle o' Hags is massive and getting around can be a real pain if you haven't found the Silo entrances.  It serves as the Hub world, and is a great deal more varied than Gruntilda's lair with forests, cliffs, and swamps.  The worlds themselves are also varied. From a Mayan temple to a massive underwater world to a world of ice and fire (no, really, and no cutting off of penises, either!) to an entire world that's an amusement park, this game has quite a lot to offer and expands on the first quite well.

And that's the idea - expansion. This game offers more, but without changing what made the original awesome.  Some people may take issue with it being so similar, but I'm not one of them.  Some changes have occurred - such as a few of the moves and the addition of boss fights among others, but not enough to completely detract from what was one of the greatest platformers of N64, but what is still one of the greatest platformers of all time. Even to this day, I can put it in my N64 and still have a grand old time, just like the first one.

...and unlike the one that follows. But as I'm not ready to deal with the atrocity known as Nuts & Bolts quite yet, so I'll sum up. Great game, should have reviewed it earlier, you can get it on Xbox Live if you don't have it on N64. Really, nothing that I can say here is remotely adequate. Go check it out!

Banjo-Tooie is available from Rare and Nintendo (Nintendo 64) and 4J Studios and Microsoft Game Studios (Xbox Live Arcade version).

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...Many trials make manifest...