Banjo and Kazooie had just defeated Gruntilda during their initial adventure when her sisters revived her to drain life energy from Isle O’Hags – leaving only Banjo and Kazooie standing between her sisters and another world catastrophe. Once more it is up to Banjo and his companion Kazooie to protect their world!
Banjo Tooie is larger than its predecessor and offers larger worlds to explore, more gameplay mechanics, and an abundance of Jiggies to collect. It provides an engaging gameplay experience without succumbing to “verisimilitude” or realism pitfalls.
Theme
Banjo-Tooie, developed by Rare for Nintendo 64, is the followup game to their classic title Banjo-Kazooie and began development before even its initial release date. Credited to the same team who worked on Banjo-Kazooie itself.
At the conclusion of Banjo-Kazooie, Gruntilda promised her revenge in an installment called Banjo-Threeie; however, series lead designer Gregg Mayles denied any direct sequel or expansion being planned; rather a series of updates and enhancements are currently under development.
Two years after the events of Banjo-Kazooie, Banjo and Kazooie find themselves playing poker with Mumbo Jumbo and Bottles outside their house on Spiral Mountain. Hearing about this, witch sisters Mingella and Blobbelda use their large HAG 1 digging machine to gain entry, only for Gruntilda to become trapped beneath her boulder and decay into a living skeleton underground despite Mumbo rushing inside to warn Banjo and Kazooie but Bottles completely disregards Mumbo’s advice and is destroyed by spell.
Banjo and Kazooie embark on a quest to retrieve their talisman from Gruntilda, only to encounter her most trusted follower Klungo along the way. Once they regain possession, Banjo and Kazooie confront Gruntilda at Cauldron Keep; although she attempts to humiliate them by conducting a trivia quiz against them, Banjo and Kazooie manage to survive and eventually defeat her and her sisters.
The player controls both of the title characters – Banjo the golden bear and Kazooie the red-crested breegull – to progress through the game. They must complete various challenges while collecting Jiggies as part of this pursuit; many characters from previous games return, with 90 Jiggies available in total across both versions of the game!
Soundtrack
Banjo-Tooie, created and published by Rare for Nintendo 64 console in 2000, is an action and platform video game featuring large open world environments with various challenges such as collecting items, solving puzzles, defeating opponents and collecting collectables. Furthermore, there is also an optional multiplayer mode allowing up to four players and multiple minigames within its realms.
Beginning of Game: Banjo, Kazooie and Mumbo Jumbo begin their adventure playing poker at Banjo’s house when Spiral Mountain experiences tremors due to Hag 1 drilling into its cliff face. Mumbo decides to investigate while Banjo and Kazooie continue losing spectacularly against Mumbo before eventually agreeing to join him and save Spiral Mountain from destruction.
On their journey, Banjo and Kazooie make new allies such as Bottles’ drill sergeant brother Jamjars and Native American shaman Humba Wumba who provides magical transformations for them. As they reach Cauldron Keep, Gruntilda’s castle, Banjo and Kazooie defeat her henchman Klungo, take part in her Tower of Tragedy quiz, reverse its effects upon Bottles and Jingaling under her spells, destroy her Hag 1 machine leaving her nothing more than an inanimate talking skull.
Bottles returns home, only to find that her celebration has concluded and vows her revenge in Banjo-Threeie, its sequel. Its soundtrack includes various types of music composed by Grant Kirkhope and performed by The Orchestra of the Air; additionally a CD soundtrack was also made available alongside it as an additional bonus feature on a Nintendo Power cover disc.
Graphics
Rare is continuing their impressive graphics development with Banjo Tooie, offering realistic worlds that feel like you are truly exploring them. The backgrounds look fantastic while character models have been refined over the previous game’s. Plus, its soundtrack provides both memorable tunes and incredible themes for boss battles!
Banjo Tooie is the sequel to Banjo-Kazooie and continues the story of Kazooie and Banjo meeting up again to stop Gruntilda and her sisters Mingella and Blobbelda from annihilating their homeland. It features 8 new levels and requires players to collect Jiggies in order to advance through them; additionally it offers more complex worlds than its predecessor, along with an online multiplayer mode where competitors compete against one another in minigames taken directly from its main campaign campaign campaign campaign mode.
Banjo Tooie also utilizes what have now become tired cliches of gaming culture; constantly asking players to find cheat book pages, musical notes, lost Jinjos, honeycombs and feathers can become tiresome and makes the whole experience frustrating rather than fun. This may make your playthrough of Banjo Tooie all that much harder!
Banjo-Tooie remains an entertaining game nearly ten years after its initial release, thanks to its fantastic visual upgrades. Graphical improvements make this download well worth your while; lack of backtracking in certain areas (trains, silos) provides a welcome change from what could otherwise become frustrating and ruinous back tracking in its predecessor game.
NTSC Xbox 360 versions may experience some loading zone lag, though not to the same degree as its PAL N64 copies. Furthermore, this version features a 30FPS frame rate while their counterparts must use an overly cautious distance calculation code to compensate for their lag issues.
Controls
Rare’s N64 game Banjo-Kazooie inspired Banjo-Tooie is an action platformer with similar gameplay but with some improvements and enhanced abilities. Controls remain similar, including using joy sticks for movement and A and C buttons for jumping respectively; C buttons serve a different purpose by allowing players to control both on land and underwater camera systems.
The A button can also be used for performing various special moves. Pressing it twice while jumping enables a triple jump, and pressing it while diving allows one to swim. Furthermore, pressing A can change camera position for easier navigation of difficult terrain or searching for hidden items.
As part of their game experience, players collect various items. Gold Feathers allow Kazooie to employ Wonderwing defense, while Mumbo Tokens allow communication with Mumbo for his magical powers. Furthermore, Jigsaw Pieces and Extra Honeycomb Pieces must also be collected to open worlds and increase health bar values respectively.
Although its graphics may not match those of Banjo-Kazooie, its characters are better animated and more recognisable. Furthermore, this game boasts a higher frame rate and full HD support – not to mention an improved soundtrack and wide array of effects!
This game’s primary objective is to help Banjo rescue his sister Tootie from Gruntilda through collecting various items found across each map – unlike Banjo-Kazooie where collected items vanish after being used up; unlike here they remain permanently and the player can return anytime he wants!
Gameplay
Gameplay in Jiggy is varied and challenging, requiring players to utilize skills such as jumping, swimming, flying and shooting to progress through its worlds. Each world features enemies and bosses; collection items include Jinjos (small creatures that appear throughout levels). Collecting all Jinjos will earn you a Jiggy that can unlock additional levels.
Banjo-Tooie follows in the tradition of its predecessor with expansive three dimensional worlds and various collectibles to discover across various themed environments. The key collectible is the golden Jiggy which can unlock additional worlds on Isle O’ Hags; additionally there are plenty of enemies and bosses along with various collectibles like Moorsels and Nerdy Birds for players to unlock along their journey.
Banjo-Tooie not only expands the scope of worlds featured in its worlds but also incorporates many significant enhancements to gameplay mechanics, such as splitting control between Banjo and Kazooie to gain access to previously inaccessible areas, but it also features an impressive variety of items for players to unlock throughout each level.
Challenge yourself with timed puzzles or complex riddles; plus there’s even a multiplayer mode for two people playing together! This game offers something special!
Banjo-Tooie was both critically and commercially successful upon its initial release, and continues to be popular today. The game won numerous awards – such as the BAFTA Award for Best Game and Consolle Game of the Year awards – and often is considered to be a pioneer of “immersion” video gaming – though immersion doesn’t necessarily equate to verisimilitude or realism.