When I was young and still playing the Nintendo 64, my favourite series of the whole gaming era would have to be Banjo Kazooie, it offered a simple and witty storyline with better platforming gameplay then any other game, and whilst I was not in the majority that labeled The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time the best game of the generation, I was satisfied with the game and dedicated dozens of hours to max out both my Jiggys and Notes (Ending up at 899 notes due to one note never being found in Treasure Trove Cove). Regardless, I was hesitant when I first heard about this game and its alleged differentiation from the past two console games, and was still hesitant when I actually bought this game. So the question is, does it live up to my childhood gaming memories, or does it shatter them? Read on to find out!
Bulked up a bit, haven’t you? Especially around the midsection. It’s a shame you’ve gotten so soft, because Gruntilda has returned, and she’s up to no good. Unfortunately, the Lord of Games has stripped Kazooie of all her moves. On the plus side, he’s equipped her for the challenges ahead with the most sophisticated and powerful tool ever created: a wrench. This wrench can be used to build behicles, attack enemies, life heavy objects and activate various features throughout the world.
It seems L.O.G. is sick to his transistors of the endless bickering with your bony nemesis, and because he’s capricious, which is another way of saying… something… he has stepped in to settle the score with a series of watcky games. The victor’s prize? Nothing less than Spiral Mountain itself!
In other words, Grunty is once again your enemy and you have to collect Jiggy’s and Notes in order to defeat her and earn back Spiral Mountain. The first thing that must be noted, is that the storyline is basically the same as in previous games, basically just giving an underlying reason to collect the items in the first place, however this time the storyline doesn’t actually kick in until the end, so there is no plotting during the game or kidnappings or dead moles, just a beginning and conclusion. In its place, each world has a theme, with the characters taking different roles in that land, often humorous titles that often leave Banjo and Kazooie fixing the problem for them to earn themselves a Jiggy.
The only characters that really have prominence in the storyline besides Banjo and Kazooie are Mumbo and Humba, alongside several other characters such as Captain Blubber, Boggy Bear, Klungo and some new ones such as Trophy Thomas and Mr Fit. As you may have noticed, Grunty has been left off the list as she is basically non-existant in the game until you reach the final battle, not even being the host of her regular quiz show at the end of the game (That honor is taken up by another character). The regulars are there but besides that, there was nothing special in terms of characters within the game.
The one thing that really agitated me with the graphics, was that the design of Banjo was not what I was hoping or expecting. For those who have played the prior games, he was always a tall and thin bear, however this time he is much shorter and fatter and just looks plain different. Ignoring that, all the other character designs look appropriate for the game and designs for most characters changed per world. The world designs however were uninspired and generally consisted of areas usually in an inclosed area that had some themes such as Banjoland, which had redesigned concepts of the previous two games and Nutty Acres which focused on the generic greenland. Now, these might sound okay, but there was a grand total of 5 game worlds with the exception of the hub world and Spiral Mountain, which is significantly low no matter how you look at it. They should have broadened their minds to come up with more creative worlds then just 5! Despite this, the hub world was designed well and Spiral Mountain was a perfect remake of it from previous games.
The music of this game consists of new tracks and remixed tracks from the previous games. Overall, enjoyable however I would have to say the remixes of past games are vastly superior then the new tracks. As with previous games, there is no voice acting, instead the use of the normal grunts to represent talking is used and is the same as they have been, and is good since Banjo Kazooie would be strange if all the characters started talking.
The gameplay changes from the original, from pure platforming with a mixture of other genres to pure racing platforming, in the way that without a vehicle, there is no possible way to complete most levels. To complement this new genre, all the missions are now timed, and if you are too slow, you may end up with no Jiggy at all and just notes, even if you complete the mission. This is not as fun to play overall as the past games, and even my mother, who played through both of the games and enjoyed them dropped the controller after an hour stating that it just wasn’t as fun and would prefer something similar to the platforming games of past. I don’t blame them for trying this out, but to base the whole game around one vehicle system was a bit too risky.
I suppose the more creative system implemented is the allowance for you to create your own vehicles through the use of parts collected throughout the hub world. The system is semi-physics based so if your vehicle wouldn’t stand upright in real life, then it will just topple over and be useless, same as if you didn’t have a working engine, seat or fuel supply. You can also convert the vehicle into a transport, water, aircraft or a mixture vehicle which is fun in its own way as I did to start off with, but you soon learn to comprimise to get the most efficiency with the smallest weight load. Speed is important in this game, however I found the controls hard to master and therefore using the fastest speed possible in the earlier stages just leads to wall crashing. Still, whilst I disagree with the pure-vehicle based platforming, the vehicle creation system is fun and has endless possibilities.
Same as the previous games, there is no need to replay this game after its completion as there is no additional difficulty levels and all stages can be redone. So essentially, you can 100% complete the game within one playthrough. To offer further replayability, there is a multiplayer battle mode which I haven’t experienced yet due to lack of an additional controller and gold live membership however it seems to be overall interesting and should keep you interested for a few more hours.
Personally, I prefer the previous games, whilst this game doesn’t ruin the series and carries on some of the witty humour of the previous game, it just doesn’t do the series well when an entire new gameplay mechanic is thrust upon you with all previous control and skill systems abolished. However, it was a good experience and I can see it catering to others preferences, even if it didnt to mine.
Score
Storyline: 5
+ Has the same witty and humorous dialogue
+ A continuation of the previous games storyline at the very least.
+ Multiple worlds, multiple storylines
– Grunty not “just a head” from the last game.
– Storyline non-existent through the middle of the game.
Characters: 4
+ Most of the old characters are back, except a few characters such as Tooty and Jamjars.
+ The characters are implemented well into each world.
– Grunty not important in the most part.
Graphics: 5
+ The same colourful tone as the previous games.
+ Spiral Mountain is a nice HD remake from the previous games.
+ Most character designs are good.
– Design of Banjo is iffy.
– Worlds are few and uninspiring.
Music/Voice Acting: 8
+ Nice collection of new and old.
+ They kept the grunting instead of vocals.
Gameplay: 6
+ Vehicle creation is overall fun.
+ The vehicle system is well implemented into the game.
– The vehicle system as a primary gaming means is not a choice I would have chosen.
– Vehicle control is sometimes poor, especially at high speeds.
– Just not BK or BT.
Replayability: 7
+ Multiplayer mode with both local and online play.
– No alternate difficulties
– 1 Save Slot
Personal Opinion: 6
Total Score: 6
