Banjo-Tooie XBLA Rare Retrospective

In a relatively uncommon example of Rare leaping from one game straight into production on its sequel, Banjo-Tooie first saw the light of day on N64 consoles in late 2000. The plan was to carry over the fundamental gameplay and trademark sense of humour from Banjo-Kazooie, and make everything else bigger, bolder and better.
Which was just as well, as with nemesis Gruntilda exhumed by her coven (now back up to its full three members) and hellbent on a new and even more destructive scheme, Banjo and Kazooie were going to need a substantial kick up the arsenal and plenty of help from debutantes such as Jamjars, Honey B and Humba Wumba. Established mole sidekick Bottles was sadly out of the running for reasons including his temporary jaunt into the afterlife.
This timely sequel went down a storm with an audience already won over by its predecessor. The team’s determination to expand the Banjo experience resulted in eight vast interconnected worlds, momentous boss battles, a sweeping parade of characters and transformations, all-new minigames and multiplayer modes, and of course the ability for bear and bird to split up and tackle challenges individually. Not to mention playable Mumbo. Oh yes, playable Mumbo.
For Banjo-Tooie’s return in 2009, the responsibility of porting the game to Xbox LIVE Arcade once again fell to 4J Studios. This meant that players could expect the same level of audiovisual gloss applied to Banjo-Kazooie in 2008 – and Tooie was already several steps above Kazooie on the technological ladder even back in the day with its interactive soundtrack, overhauled camera system and ramped-up textures and lighting effects.
The original Tooie dev team also got involved and suggested some updates of their own, mainly UI tweaks that they felt were right to introduce given the benefit of hindsight. The framerate was given a boost, the addition of leaderboards and Achievements went without saying, and extra Stop ‘n’ Swop connectivity was also promised for the XBLA version to soothe the anxieties of those still haunted by the mystery eight-and-a-half years on.
Banjo-Tooie ultimately landed on Xbox Live Arcade on April 29th, 2009. So if your interest is piqued by this tale of Banjo and Kazooie’s last major clash with Grunty before the events of Nuts & Bolts, amble over to XBLA now to join the bear and bird in their encore outing. After all, nobody wants to go up against a fat skeletal witch, her sisters and her giant suction machine without proper backup.