I was jumping for joy when I first saw an article about this in a game magazine as a kid. I bought it as soon as I could and I wasn't disappointed when I played it. Although, I wouldn't say it was quite as good as the first one.
Two years after being defeated by Banjo and Kazooie, Gruntilda the witch is freed by her two sisters, Mingella and Blobbelda. The vengeful and skeletal witch then destroys Banjo's house and kills Bottles before escaping with her siblings, seeking to rebuild her body. Now the Bear and Bird duo must embark on another quest to stop Gruntilda and resurrect their fallen friend.
The game is much darker than the first one. Within the first half hour alone, Banjo's house is destroyed, Spiral Mountain is left in ruins, Bottles is killed, Gruntilda kills the Grey Jinjo family, turns King Jingaling into a zombie, and ultimately threatens the entire Isle O' Hags with certain destruction by blasting it with a lifeforce draining laser to rebuild her body. Luckily, I didn't find this deviation from the much brighter prequel to be unappealing. In fact, it made me even more determined to defeat Gruntilda again and beat the game.
The new levels were much larger and more exotic and diverse than ever before. The game was innovative with the brand new and advanced moves to learn from Drill Sergeant Jam Jars, Bottles older brother, especially the interesting opportunity for the duo to separate and go their own way with the Split Up move given in Witchyworld. You can even play Mumbo Jumbo and perform magic.
The graphics and sounds have been improved since the last game and were top-notch for the N64. The colors and textures are as bright and captivating as ever. The music, once again conducted by Grant Kirkhope, is excellent and atmospheric for each stage, like the lively banjo plucks and violin strokes in Glitter Gulch Mine, Witchyworlds eerie carnival theme with calliope notes, and Hail-Fire Peaks having a split-theme song for each side with similar notes but different instruments.
There were many fun mini games involved to play to obtain Jiggys and tougher bosses to defeat this time around. You can replay your favorite ones from the main menu. There's even an FPS multiplayer mode, though the controls for it are flawed.
Even so, the game has its downsides. While I've always enjoyed exploration in games, Tooies levels were much larger and easy to get lost in. Grunty Industries was especially infamous for this, since it has five separate floors and a myriad of small rooms and corridors everywhere. You can't even get inside without using Chuffy the train. Some of the games Jiggys or other items were very frustrating and time consuming to get and often required travelling from one world to the next via shortcuts, puzzle solving, hitting switches, or relying on Mumbo and Humbas magic. Luckily, though, there are warp pads and the aforementioned train that allow for fast travel. This made the game much more challenging, which isn't a bad thing unto itself, but it got nerve wracking at times. That's why I gave this an 8 instead of a 9 or 10.
But in the end, this was still a great game and one Rare's finest. Anyone who enjoyed the first game must play this one next.
