Banjo-Tooie (Nintendo 64, 2000)

Banjo-Kazooie was a terrific game, reviving interest in platformers long past the days of Mario 64 and making a tremendously innovative use of the Nintendo 64's capabilities, combining Rare's (at the time) fairly trademark usage of prerendered 3d graphics with an excellent use of the N64's limited texture space to create a dizzying, brightly coloured, ecstatic visual style with a strong basis in classic cartooning, using appealing cartoon characters and deftly executed, almost paint-like backdrops.

The gameplay was just as fun, considering that the fairly limited mechanic of item collection was expanded ten-fold in its replay value by bizarre environmental challenges and imaginative mini-games, and plotted out with a simple yet satisfying story popularised by vivid characters. Banjo-Kazooie was, in my opinion, a classic in every way.

Banjo-Tooie, however, has actually managed to expand on this, almost doubling the scale of the game's new Overworld, Isle'o'Hags, and tripling the size of some of the individual levels themselves, from the extensive yet self-contained mazes of the derelict factory Grunty Industries to the serene chasms of a lost Atlantis, Banjo-Kazooie has extended the game world in every way possible. Adding a new foil for exploration in the form of intricate connections between the worlds, Banjo-Tooie has turned what was in its prequel a fairly standard exercise in level-hopping into a cross-world trek, on which the player can find hidden passages and new ways of solving puzzles that might not have been previously available, encouraging the player to go back and revisit earlier stages of the game.

And on the subject of new ways of solving puzzles, Banjo-Kazooie's hefty move-set has been tripled, much like everything else in the game, by the new-found ability for Banjo and Kazooie to split up, Kazooie leaving her back-pack behind to go exploring solo and leaving the two of them to each pick up a move-set of their own, which blend effortlessly in with the duo's combined moves without seeming overly repetative or mundane.

The puzzle-solving aspect of the game remains hugely prominent, and has been expanded again by the new ability for the characters to split up, resulting in multi-stage puzzles that require the player to toggle back and forth between the two. In addition to this, the transformation abilities of the characters still exist, supplemented this time by the (apparently, by the teepees and pocahontas costume) Native American sourceress Humba-Wumba, with just as much giddy irreverence attributed to the character as with the previous game's Mumjo-Jumbo, jobbing shaman and witch doctor who now serves as a third playable character, hurrying back and forth across the game's worlds, invoking huge mega-spells and altering the landscape to make accessing the still-precious golden puzzle pieces easier for the main duo.

The sound-quality is much the same as ever. The music is still top-notch, switching moods and tones across each world's theme as Banjo and Kazooie travel through the ever-changing landscape. The plot is a continuation of the first game's and suffers no huge, mind-bending twists, but is sufficiently new and different enough to keep the end-game interesting.

Pretty much everything has been expanded. From egg varieties to the jinjo quests, from intricate puzzles to arena-sized boss battles, Banjo-Tooie is the ultimate sequel. Buy it; I certainly have.

Banjo Tooie is easily the best Nintendo 64 sequel ever made. Banjo Tooie is super fun, it has a groundbreaking game dynamics, and is one of the highest ranked Nintendo 64 games of all time.

Banjo Tooie was released by RARE in 2000 as the sequel to Banjo Kazooie. It was one of the most highly anticipated sequels of Nintendo 64 history, and for good reason. Banjo Tooie is a platform action adventure game that used groundbreaking level dynamics.

In classic platform games before Banjo Tooie such as Mario, or Sonic, there would be a level that you would have to beat and then you would move on and forget about it. The classic game layout was a series of levels linked by an over-world. Well, with Banjo Tooie, things have really changed. In this great game you have to constantly revisit levels as you learn new skills in order to unlock new areas and solve new puzzles. There is no traveling through an over-world. Instead you have to trek back through levels you beat in order to accomplish your quest. An innovative solution to cutting down time spent running all over the map was that RARE implemented a train that would take Banjo through the world, cutting travel time down. Although we may take this game aspect for granted now, and have seen many trains for inter-world transportation, there was a time when this revisiting of the same level with new skills was fresh. That was the time of Banjo Tooie!

Banjo and Kazooie are back in "Banjo-Tooie" the slightly darker sequel to the ever-popular Banjo-Kazooie for the N64!

The word "sequel" typically has a bittersweet ring to it: it can either mean "more of a good thing" or "too bad it wasn't as good as the fist," and unfortunately the latter is far more common.

Banjo-Tooie, however, doesn't fall short of the first, but rather, exceeds it many areas. To make it easier to understand just how good this game is, I'll just break it down into categories.

Gameplay (5/5): This game is huge. In the original there were 10 levels, and in this game there are 9, but don't let that trick you into thinking this is any less of a game, or shorter for that matter. Each level is massive, and each jiggy is a challenge to get. Not only are there big (and I mean big), new levels to explore, but you start out on the original Spiral Mountain, and can even re-visit Grunty's Castle's lobby area (you can't go elswhere in the castle, but it's understandable, for memory reasons, and story-based reasons); revisiting old areas rarely occurs in other games, and was definately welcome in this one. Also, you start out with all of your original moves, including flying, using running shoes, wading boots, and invincibility. Many new moves have been added as well.

Sound/Music (5/5): Just as it was in Banjo-Kazooie, the music is very catchy; the original title screen and pause menu music were kept, but there is a new overworld theme and world music.

Replay value (5/5): A multiplayer has been added to this already awesome game, creating even more replay value than it already had. At certain points in the game, Banjo and Kazooie can also be played independantly of each other, and Mumbo Jumbo is also playable.

All in all this is a great game, a game that's tough to fit into a review. If you've played Banjo-Kazooie (and preferably beaten in, since this picks up where the first one left off; 2 years after, actually, but I don't want to give away any plot points), this is definately a necessary addition to your N64 library.

This was one of Rareware's best old games and probably one of the best Nintendo64 games out there. Banjo-Kazooie was a fun little game that featured a bear named Banjo and a bird (breegull) named Kazooie. Banjo had to save his sister,Tootie,from an evil (and ugly!) witch named Gruntilda (better known as Grunty) who wanted to steal Tootie's better looks. Sure the plot sounds used but it played out real well. After the climactic (and fun) battle, Grunty was sealed under a rock for two years.

In this game she is unleashed by her sisters and begins to get her revenge on everyone and everything. She ends up killing one of Banjo's friends and now you must go stop her again but this time for good. You are no longer stuck in a big castle, you actually go out to explore the island. The old characters are back and with a couple of new ones too. You have all the moves from Banjo-Kazooie but now it is time to learn even more cool moves. You now have a friendly and unexpected gun that you can shoot at monsters from afar. Don't worry, its comical. A new teamwork aspect is now employed with the characters. For one, you can now use Mumbo as a character to perform cool spells to collect goodies. Another thing is that now Banjo and Kazooie can split up to do things they can't do together. But then they can reunite to do things they can't do separetly.

The story isin't too different but it keeps you motivated since Grunty is wreaking havoc on your friends. Graphic-wise this game is a little better than the first and since the controls are the same, you shouldn't have much trouble with them. A thing I really love about this game is the soundtrack. I love some of the boss battle music. It just gets you into the fight. The only downsides I have seen on this game are that the way they talk can become anoying if heard too much, there can be some slow-down in some areas but it is not really noticeable because it never happens in a bad spot, and if you don't pay close attention you could have trouble handling some of the new moves. I never had trouble but my little brother a little trouble but not too much. I highly recommend this game because it isin't too hard yet it isin't too easy. You won't have a lot of trouble beating it, but you will still have fun. This game is also a little comical with all of Kazooie's smart remarks and with the dry humor here and there.

In my personal opinion, this game could have been more popular than the first, but it didn't receive the hype Banjo-Kazooie got. Not to mention a lot of people thought it was just a bigger, different remake of Super Mario64. I do agree they are similar, but they are definetly different.

So overall, I truly recommend you try it out. If you can handle a nintendo64 and don't mind the kiddy stuff, you'll enjoy it.

It is great to be able to purchase games no longer being made for machines no longer in production.
Banjo-Tooie is a very fun game with beautiful and colorful worlds to peruse while playing. N64 is a game console with several super good games for those liking less violence. Less than $20 for a game no longer being sold on the stores shelves for a few years is a great buy...I think it sold originally for near $50. BT is one of those games that anyone can play and it is by a very good game company named 'Rare'. I think they have the best game making staff of any company in the business.

Although I have a Gamecube by Nintendo I would never abandon my N64 though I have pretty much left behind the Nes (original) and Super Nes and my old Playstation 1. May have to list them on EBay with all my games for these machines for those with fond memories of those machines, games and days of fun.
Happy gaming!
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