This is a timeless classic every adventure gamer should try. I consider it Rares greatest game and the peak of its history.
The story is simple but effective; like something from a Disney movie: Gruntilda the evil and ugly witch is jealous of the beauty of a young bear named Tooty. So, she abducts the bear to steal her beauty via a machine created by her henchman, Klungo. Now, it's up to Banjo Bear and his rude, foul-mouthed breegull companion, Kazooie, to rescue Tooty before it's too late. Assisting the duo are Bottles the short-sighted mole, who teaches them new techniques throughout the game, and Mumbo Jumbo, a skull-faced shaman who can perform transformative magic.
The game was heavily inspired by Super Mario 64 and you can see it in the games formula where you enter different worlds to collect items needed to proceed further, namely Jiggys. But Banjo-Kazooie uses a unique variant of this formula in which the player controls two characters at once, and each one has their own functions; while Banjo moves around, Kazooie resides in his backpack providing 90% of the moves that Bottles teaches them. Plus, the quirky and cartoonish setting made it highly endearing to players of all ages. I found myself drawn in the instant I started off in Spiral Mountain.
You'll travel across 8 huge platformer-style levels in search of Jiggys to unlock new worlds. You'll acquire the Jiggys by exploring, defeating enemies, solving puzzles, and completing other tasks. You'll also collect golden notes that are necessary to break spells on doors throughout Gruntilda's lair, the massive hub world.
The game is an intricate and rewarding collectathon since there's plenty to discover in the levels besides Jiggys and notes, like eggs, Mumbo tokens, feathers, and extra honeycombs to increase your health. Fully exploring the worlds ultimately pays off, since collecting every Jiggy in the game gets you a highly valuable health upgrade that makes defeating Gruntilda easier. Plus, Bottles new moves are both necessary to beat the game and help strengthen the duo and develop them into true and seasoned heroes by the games end.
The graphics were stunning for the time and have aged beautifully. The character models are well-designed, and their movements were smooth. The sheer variety of colors and textures is amazing, making all of the levels seem so lifelike and engrossing. The lack of distance fog beautifully displays the landscape and size of the levels.
The soundtrack contains some of Rares best music and consists of many bright and catchy tunes from composer Grant Kirkhope that perfectly fit each level, like Rusty Bucket Bays nautical theme with sounds like foghorns and whistles and Mad Monster Mansion with spooky organ notes accompanied by wolves howling and owls hooting. The characters and items emit little voice blips instead of actual voice acting which still successfully brought them to life and enhanced the games' cartoonish charm along with the hilarious and cleverly written dialogue.
The number of characters is much more extensive than in Mario 64 and you can interact with them more. The sheer variety of kooky characters and enemies you encounter really help make the game more dynamic, like Captain Blubber the pirate Hippo, Gobi the beleaguered thirsty camel, Loggo the sentient toilet (yes, you read that right lol), and many others.
I had only a few complaints. First of all, as typical for early 3D games, the camera was a pain at times and would sometimes be blocked by walls or other objects when trying to adjust it. There was a bit of backtracking involving certain moves, such as the Beak Bomb and Turbo Talon Trot shoes, which were required to obtain certain Jiggys or other items. But other than that, no serious flaws.
This was, and still is, a spectacular game that gave Super Mario 64 a run for its money and is definitely playable almost thirty years later.
