Banjo-Kazooie

Banjo-Kazooie A great game, but…

Plot:
You’re the star as Banjo the bear a fun loving down to earth bear and Kazooie his mostly overworked inseparable co-op partner a bird. All is well in Banjo land when an evil which named Gruntilda swoops down and bearnaps Banjos little sister Tooty. Why Gruntilda, why??! Well apparently ol Grunty is tired of looking like a big green ugly hag, so she has devised a machine that will steal the pretty Tooty’s looks and give them to her and that folks just ain’t gonna happen on Banjo and Kazooies watch.

Gameplay:
Banjo-Kazooie is an old school throw back semi open world platformer with a bunch of mostly original puzzles. It was originally released on the Nintendo 64. Think Super Mario 64 and change all the characters…you pretty much got Banjo-Kazooie.

Graphics and sound:
Graphically it’s obviously dated, being a port from so long ago. It’s been mildly touched up, but still for the type of graphics it has even for then it still stands as a very great looking game.

The games music is actually very well done sound is crisp with mostly original songs for almost every are of the game. Each character and object has it own distinct animations and sound, but if you really listen you’ll hear echo’s of a very heavy Marioesq influence.

Playability:
This is where my major grip comes in. Not that it’s bad… I’ve defenatly played worse but you have to realize your talking older game… Mostly it is smooth going the controls are fluid and respond to what you want to do and surprisingly the clipping issues are almost non existent. It does however run off a on the fly camera system which you can control most of the time, but there are instances that the camera is fixed or will “right” it self and this can be somewhat confusing, especially in timed challenges.

My biggest grip of this game is that for these timed challenges you have to be pretty much perfect, there is no real leeway for error. Although this is a kid friendly game and most of the timed challenges are pretty easy, there are a few that will frustrate you to the very core of your being. I’m looking at you Rust Bucket Bay….Be prepared to walk away and take a break, they are still doable, but you’ll probably end up doing them over and over and over again until you get the nuances of the challenge down to an absolute perfection and even then sometimes you’ll have to re do them again for a different challenge.

Achievements:
Time required to complete this game, depending of your hardcoreness is anywhere between 8 hours and that’s being nice, to about 20 hours again being nice, one can really spend a lot of time on this. The first few achievements are the gimmies that you’ll get going thru the begging I hate to say tutorial but that’s just what it really is. Some of the achievements are out and out story related and cannot be missed. That being said there are some missables and a crap ton of collectibles in the game, like the 900 music notes. There is also an achievement that hinges on your paying attention to a certain in game character that pops up in the oddest places. Be for warned this game can be pretty tough at some points and the achievements are a bit stingy at times. Did I mention that one of the achievements that can be done early and if you choose to do so will make you loose out on another achievement.. don’t be puzzled by that statement. Do the Puzzle achievement last!!!


Rating:
Of all that I have said remember it’s an arcade game so there are only 12 achievements to get and on a scale of 1 – 10 where 1 is the easiest and 10 being the hardest I would say that this game is a hard 8. While it seems like a nice, fun and pretty easy completion don’t let that fool you. The latter levels will test your gaming mettle there is a ton of secret areas some of which you never even have to go but you’ll probably find them anyway.

Final:
Just remember this game has been out for a long time and it hold a special place in a lot of people’s harts and it can be fun. It’s been completed by plenty of gamers and beaten by many more. There are a ton of gaming guides out there with very detailed information to help the wayward gamer, just be sure to have a little patience and a lot of time and you to will be able to call this one completed.