Banjo-Kazooie

Banjo-Kazooie is a platform game released in 1998 for the Nintendo 64 by the British developers Rareware, who at the time made games exclusively for Nintendo. Banjo-Kazooie follows the same formula as Super Mario 64, someone has been captured, in this case it's Banjo's sister Tooty, and it's up to Banjo and his best friend Kazooie to save her. Banjo and Kazooie are an odd pair to put it politely; Banjo is a lazy bear that doesn't like hard work and who sleeps all day, and Kazooie, well she is a loud mouth bird who lives in Banjo's backpack and she isn't afraid to speak her mind. You might think they are like chalk and cheese, but they have been best friends for years.

The main protagonist in Banjo-Kazooie is an evil, ugly old witch called Gruntilda. The evil old witch, who looks like Michael Jacksons love child, kidnaps Banjo's sister Tooty and plans to suck her youth out of her and give it to herself to make her look younger and more beautiful. When Gruntilda sees Tooty, she swoops down on her broom and takes her away, while Tooty is screaming her head off. But during all this, Banjo is asleep, and would have had no idea where Tooty went if it wasn't for Kazooie, who heard her cries for help. So she wakes up Banjo and your quest starts.
Many people may say that Rareware copied Super Mario 64 in there quest to make this platform game and you can't blame them because Banjo-Kazooie plays just Like Super Mario 64. But Rareware added just about enough to Banjo-Kazooie that it's an individual game in its own right. For a start on Super Mario 64 you start the game with a basic set of moves and that's it you learn no more in the main adventure, but on Banjo-Kazooie you start the game with 8 basic moves which is already more than Mario starts with, and as your quests goes along you learn 8 more. There are a lot of abilities to learn on this game and you may think it will take away the gaming experience, but believe me it doesn't. While you do have 16 moves to perform, you can't do them all by just button bashing, on some moves you may be required to stand on special tiles on the floor and press the 'A' button while you're on them before you can use them, so this makes remembering the moves easier and stops you having to mess around trying button combinations. A lot of the moves in Banjo-Kazooie are done with Banjo and Kazooie working in tandem. For instance, you can double jump, but instead of Banjo doing both jumps, he just does the first initial jump, and the second jump comes from Kazooie flapping her wings. And another example is if you jump and then press the 'B' button, Banjo jumps and Kazooie performs an attack. Rareware hit the nail right on the head when they created this game, because the combination of Banjo and Kazooie could have gone horribly wrong, had they been a lesser company with little experience in developing. The only downside of the game is that you can't use Banjo and Kazooie individually, but this isn't too much of a problem.

On Super Mario 64 you have to collect golden Power Stars, which open the doors in the castle, but on Banjo-Kazooie you collect gold jigsaw pieces called Jiggies. The Jiggies are required to enter the next world you have to explore, but are used differently to the Power stars. You have to assemble jigsaws using the Jiggies before you can enter the world. The jigsaw puzzle you need to finish may require 6 Jiggies to complete it, and if you have 20 Jiggies you'll have no problem, but once you've used a Jiggies, you can't use them again, so you'll have to search the worlds extra hard to find as many as possible. There are 100 Jiggies in the game, there are 9 worlds with 10 on each, and there are 10 hidden throughout Gruntilda's castle. As well as having to collect Jiggies, you have to collect Golden Music notes. There are 100 in each world and you need them to open the doors which lead to the other parts of the castle. But it's not as simple to get them as you may think. If you get 90 on one world, they are added to your total, but if you go back in to the world and only get 80, for example, they aren't added to your total, to add more to your total, you'll have to get more than 90. So if you get 92, then only another 2 are added to your total, not another 92. I actually thought this was a good idea for Rareware to use in the game because it made you have to think more about what you have to do in a level, unlike on Super Mario 64. Another thing you can collect are Silver Skull tokens. You need these to make a Shaman called Mumbo Jumbo transform you into different creatures, and on certain worlds transforming is a must if you're to get certain Jiggies. Mumbo Jumbo isn't on every world, he is only on four of them, but if you see his hut on the level, you know you'll need to have some Skull tokens. Depending on what world you're on Mumbo Jumbo will either transform you in to a termite, a crocodile, a pumpkin, or a bumble bee. All the transformations work fantastically and they are brilliant to use. The only major problem with this game is that you have to collect a lot of things, and if you don't like collection games, I have to admit it can get a bit tedious, you'll want to give this game as miss, which is a real shame.
Once you get enough golden notes, you can enter the part of the castle where Gruntilda lurks. You actually don't have to battle her to rescue Tooty, when you enter the room where they both are, you play a board game called Grunty's Furnace Fun, and you are required to finish the board game to rescue Tooty. You can fight Gruntilda if you want to, but you have to collect all 100 Jiggies and get 820 of the 900 gold music notes before you can, so battling her is just an option and isn't a must.

Banjo-Kazooie is a brilliant achievement. It may never be as revolutionary as Super Mario 64, but it certainly follows in its footsteps and builds off it, two examples are that Banjo-Kazooie has better visuals and sound than Super Mario 64. Banjo-Kazooie is a game that all platform fans should get because it's just brilliant to play, and it's certainly a challenge.

Review by: James Widdowson