Banjo-Tooie Review – Kowbrainz
Kowbrainz, 25th October ’07
It was only a matter of days after Banjo-Kazooie’s hit release on the Nintendo 64 before hardcore gamers began clocking it in and finishing the game off. Some of whom would get Grunty snug into her new grave whilst picking up all 100 jiggies on the way. These people were treated with a different ending to the game, but most notable were the promises made by both Gruntilda and Mumbo Jumbo the shaman – promises of a sequel titled: “Banjo-Tooie”. Mumbo even went as far to say that the game would make Banjo-Kazooie look like a joke.
One question remained on gamers’ tongues – was Mumbo speaking the truth? Was Banjo-Tooie going to upturn the platformer gaming community as gamers knew it, or was it just a whole lot of meaningless hype created to get gamers to buy more? Two years later, the answer was revealed. However, as gamers soon found out, it was a mixed bag; Banjo-Tooie delivered where Banjo-Kazooie had not – it was full of great platforming gameplay and many hours of collectable goodies, but there were some parts of the game where Banjo-Tooie had not improved too greatly over its predecessor.
Up again after two years in the grave
Banjo-Tooie picks up again right where the story left off in the previous game. During a ‘friendly’ game of cards on a stormy night, Banjo, Kazooie, Bottles and Mumbo realise something isn’t quite right when Banjo’s entire house begins to shake. Upon checking outside, Mumbo finds that Grunty’s sisters have come to her resque after two years of being trapped under a boulder at the bottom of Spiral Mountain. They use a powerful spell to levitate the rock up and over their heads, blasting it to pieces. When Gruntilda crawls out of her part-time grave, she is but a mere collection of bones. As her eye falls out of its rotting socket, her plan becomes clear: to find a brand new body.
Mumbo begins to run off back towards Banjo’s house to warn the others of Grunty and her sisters, but is spotted by the witches on the way. Mumbo tries to evacuate the house, but Bottles thinks it is all a joke, and is blasted by one of Grunty’s powerful spells. The following morning, Banjo and Kazooie realise that the witches have wrecked not only Spiral Mountain, but have killed their friend Bottles, too. They decide that there’s only one thing to do – set out again after Gruntilda in order to defeat her once and for all.
As you trek on through the Isle O’ Hags in search of the witches and their new lair, you’ll be constantly reminded of their devilish deeds by the scenery around you. Everywhere you go, you’ll find the tracks of the giant digging machine you witnessed earlier in the game, reminding you of the heartless souls which will be waiting for you at the top of the isle. Although a few more cutscenes detailing the witches’ progress could have really helped the story’s development, Rare have kept the character of the antagonists alive by designing the worlds in this way. It really changes your view on the places you move through, too – even the most boring of areas can be given character and a bit of background through this.
Get Jiggy with it
When it comes back to that collecting aspect of the game, Banjo-Tooie really shines in comparison to Banjo-Kazooie. Jigsaw pieces are just that much harder to collect in Banjo-Tooie, and you’ll find yourself spending a heck of a lot more time trying to obtain them this time around. Gone are the days where jiggies stood out in the open areas awaiting to be picked up by Banjo – this time around, almost all of the jiggies has a particular story behind it, or a list of objectives which must be carried out before it can be obtained. Although some jigsaws may be found by simply shooting a few targets, others require backtracking from one world to the next in order to fill out all the requirements. You may have to travel across several worlds before obtaining a jiggy from a character in Banjo-Tooie. Whilst this certainly adds to the challenge of BT, it acts as a double-edged sword at the same time. Often you may find yourself feeling that certain jiggies are like chores – putting you through a great deal of pain for a small, seemingly-insignificant prize. Even Banjo’s trademark jiggy-dance is gone, so when you finally nab that jiggy you worked ever so hard for, the game pops it straight into your backpack and forces you onward once more. Although at times it spurs you on, making you want to keep playing for ‘just that one more’ jiggy, at other times it can feel like you aren’t motivated enough to keep playing, as it’s just too challenging with not nearly enough rewards.
Jiggies aren’t the only collectible to make a return in Banjo-Tooie, though. Jinjos are back, and in great number, too. You’ll find several Jinjos on every level waiting for you to save them, but unlike Banjo-Kazooie, you don’t need to find all five within one trip of the level – instead, you must fill up the different coloured houses of Jinjo Village. Find all of the Jinjos for a given family and earn yourself a jiggy.
Jinjos have changed to become a one-time item – once you pick them up, you’ve saved them. They’re also in harder places this time around, much like the jigsaw pieces of Banjo-Kazooie in terms of difficulty, it adds a much more rewarding feeling when you pick them up. The only gripe is that each of the families have a different amount of members, so some of them will take ages to fill up, whereas some will be finished within no time.
New moves? Double check.
It’s no surprise that when the bear and bird came back, they’d be back with a couple dozen new moves to add to their already expansive arsenal. Bottles the mole taught you over twenty techniques in Banjo-Kazooie, but the boys at Rare obviously thought this wasn’t enough. Enter Jamjars: Bottles’ older, tougher military-sergeant brother. Jamjars camps out in his silos in each level, and in exchange for notes, will teach you a brand new supply of moves for you to use to tackle the bony hag. Some are very useful and you’ll find them as great additions to the techniques you learned from Bottles. However, others aren’t so good.
Some moves you’ll find, whilst very innovative and cool, can be used to bypass areas they weren’t meant for. Other moves you’ll use once, but never again in the whole game. It’s great that Rare wanted to add so much innovation in Tooie, but sadly a lot of it just doesn’t work. Although new moves like the split-up work, it’s the unnecessary additions (such as some of Banjo’s pack moves and Kazooie’s glide) which break the game at some points so it can be played in ways it wasn’t intended to be.
Another good example is the addition of different types of eggs. Whilst some work and are great for solving puzzles, such as the new fire, ice and grenade eggs; the last type, the clockwork kazooie egg, breaks up Banjo-Tooie’s gameplay and lets the player achieve things they weren’t meant to or obtain items in ways they shouldn’t be.
Although it is nice to see some of the gameplay from Banjo-Kazooie expanded on, it does serve as a form of frustration at times when things just don’t work as they should.
Eekum Bokum!
Like any sequel should, Banjo-Tooie sees the return of many characters you learned to love in the original title. You’ll spot a heap of familiar faces as you trek across its eight huge worlds. Some characters have more expansive roles than others, who will appear as a quick cameo for a puzzle.
Mumbo Jumbo the shaman is among the returning characters, and as you might expect after seeing his face with Banjo and Kazooie on the front of the box, his role is quite a bit larger in Tooie. You’ll be able to take control of the shaman and use his spells to play around in the levels; helping certain characters or changing things to help Banjo and Kazooie along on their journey. It was a great addition to the game, however there isn’t a whole lot to do with Mumbo once you’ve used his magic for the one or two things it’s needed for within a level. We would’ve loved to see him learn some new moves or spells… or even fight off against some other characters. More on that later.
You may be wondering what Mumbo’s doing wandering about when he should be staying in his skull to transform the bear and bird. Have no fear, for the Isle’s resident American-Indian magic lady is here. Humba Wumba will be able to transform Banjo and Kazooie into a large variety of beings – ranging from a monsterous T-rex to a road-raging van. Whilst some of the transformation ideas may seem a little weird, perhaps less imaginative than those of Banjo-Kazooie, they still add hours of extra gameplay to Banjo-Tooie and are great for escaping from the control of the bear and bird for some fun.
Replay Value
After beating Banjo-Kazooie, there wasn’t much for any gamer to do, unless they wanted to play through the game again. Rare realized this when designing Banjo-Tooie, and thus decided to give the player the freedom of experiencing minigames and extras from the game once more, either on their own or with friends.
Banjo-Tooie’s replay mode allows the player to replay any minigame, boss or cinematic that they have unlocked from the game already without having to play through the whole game again. Liked playing against a particular boss? Have a go against him again in the replay mode. This was great for those gamers who wanted to beat Gruntilda over and over again – it was a shame you couldn’t do so with Grunty in Banjo-Kazooie.
Banjo-Tooie didn’t stop with its replay mode, though. It allowed up to 4 players to go head-to-head in some of the game’s minigames for fun. Whilst some of these aren’t too fun, our favourites included the mini-submarine shootout, the Zubba’s hive shootout and, of course, the Breegull Blaster shootout modes: ie a first-person, 007 style shootout using birds and eggs. This was great for those who wished to relive the action of Goldeneye with their favourite B-K characters, and provided hours of extra fun, too.
A brand new world…
Banjo-Tooie is startlingly big. After a few hours of playing the game, you’ll realize it yourself. Beating the game is one thing, but collecting every puzzle piece, every honeycomb and cheato page – it’ll take you hours. If there was one word to describe how Rare was feeling when designing Banjo-Tooie, it would be epic.
Every level just has that much depth to it, and there is just so much to explore. You won’t come across two identical rooms in the whole game. Each is textured beautifully just like they were in Banjo-Kazooie, with plenty of great detail everywhere you look.
The boss fights are wonderful, too. You can’t help wondering about how much Ocarina of Time influenced Banjo-Tooie; the way each world just has so much depth within it, so much to explore. Rare even decided to add in boss fights of epic proportions, with humorous titles such as “Mr Patch: Strange Wobbly Inflatable Thing”. There’s a whole handful of new features in Tooie which will keep you coming back for more.
There’s only one real problem with all this, and that’s fitting it all into the one cartridge. Rare got far ahead of themselves when designing Banjo-Tooie, and it shows during the game. It isn’t uncommon for the frame rate to drop drastically down to 20 FPS at times, or to jump between multiple frame rates to get you annoyed. Often when you come out of a doorway into the main part of the level, the rate will be reduced to a crawl for a good few seconds. Although it doesn’t interfere in the difficulty of tasks, it can be frustrating to have to play with the game moving at the speed of a snail.
Twice the fun as before?
Yes and no. Mumbo wasn’t spot on when he said Banjo-Tooie would make it’s predecessor look like a joke, however that isn’t to say Tooie looks like one either. Banjo-Tooie still contains the great gameplay of Banjo-Kazooie. The levels are large and innovative, the graphics and texturing is wonderful and the game contains another catchy soundtrack. Tooie does keep some replay value with its multiplayer modes, however the game doesn’t really feel like one you would want to replay right away – in a way it’s too large and tedious to go through, and this is further proved by the jumpy frame rate. Rare may have jumped ahead of themselves when trying to one-up an almost perfect game, but in the end the Nintendo 64 just couldn’t keep up. Banjo-Tooie is a huge title which is great to play through, however it just can’t quite live up to the original.
Overall: 4/5