A Banjo-Kazooie Retrospective

I love Platformers they are my bread and butter for video games and I've played plenty of Platformers my entire life Mario Donkey Kong Sonic Cur Mega Man Shovel Knight Crash Bandicoot Sly Cooper cloa Jack and Daxter RAR Rayman Celeste and many many more with their Titan satisfying controls brilliant level design and memorable characters Platformers are what made me love video games as a whole yet despite having played all of them not have ever left as much of an impact on me as Banjo Kazooie for the Nintendo 64 [Music] huh how do I write a video for my favorite platformer of all time considering how much of this game sticks out to me it's a tough question to answer I replay this game every year completing it to 100% all because of how much it influenced me hell when I discovered YouTube one of the First videos I watched on the website was The Flash animation banjo 3 so it's safe to say this is a game I hold near and dear to my heart and I know I'm not alone on that the fact that banjo and kazi's revealed trailer for Super Smash Brothers ultimate has 7 million views should tell you something but I've held off long enough what is it about bansuk kazui that has stuck with people for so long well let's find out my name is Aaron the wolf and this is a banjo kazui retrospective [Music] before we can talk about Bano kazui we first need to discuss rareware and what they were up to during the mid90s after rare success with Donkey Kong Country on the Super Nintendo they sought to make a fantasy RPG named dream lands of Giants or as is more famously known as project dream Dreamland of giants went through all sorts of different phases in its lifespan due to being too large of a project for an SNES cartridge they switched development to the Nintendo 64 while also changing the set from fantasy to Pirates developers then tried to make the game a 2.5d platformer before eventually scrapping the game entirely the team at rare felt that the project was too ambitious to be completed and returned to the drawing board however during development the protagonist of project dream was a boy named Edson before being cut and replaced with a side character they had already designed this side character was banjo the bear himself furthermore while this was all happening Nintendo released Super Mario 64 in 1996 after seeing its overwhelming success rare knew what they wanted to do rare saw that 3D Platformers would be the next big thing for Nintendo so they set out to create a 3D collectathon platformer in the same vein as Mario banjo kazui was first showcased at E3 1997 where it was admired for its Rich World textures and lighting the game also faced its share of criticisms mostly claiming it was a Mario 64 ripoff which being released only a year after that game was understandable at the time banjo kazui was initially scheduled for a November 1997 release but was delayed so the developers had more time to polish the game that left rare's holiday calendar Barren which Nintendo was not particularly happy about thankfully rareware was working on another kid-friendly game at the time which came to be known as Diddy Kong Racing what started as a followup to RC Pro aim on the Nintendo Entertainment System became a mascot cart racing game similar to Mario Kart 64 released earlier that year and yeah I will be talking about Diddy Kong Racing first not only because this is officially banjo's first video game appearance but also I mean when else am I ever going to talk about this game so with that said let's take a [Music] [Music] look I had Diddy Kong racing and Mario Kart 64 when I was a kid I played both games all the time back then still even as a kid I knew that Diddy Kong Racing was Superior to Mario Kart for several reasons firstly Diddy Kong Racing is a much better aging game in terms of its Graphics Mario Kart 64 used some techniques rare themselves used in Donkey Kong Country where the game's character sprites are based on 3D models not only to get the game to run well but also to give them more depth while driving this gives Mario Kart 64 it's iconic look we all know and love that said the actual 3D models used in the game are pretty dated to say the least in Diddy Kong Racing sure some things are Sprites like the trees balloons and the bananas you pick up but everything else was made as a 3D model making it one of the more graphically impressive games for the N64 at that time this design Choice also helps DKR standout from its older Mario Kart brother another area this game shines over Mario Kart 64 is the soundtrack Donkey Kong Country composer David Wise returns for this game bringing his signature catchy melodies for some very fun cart racing music again Mario Kart 64 has some iconic music in it for sure but this soundtrack is honestly just more memorable in every way David Wise in particular is known for making Dynamic music tracks that change as you progress through the racetracks with Boulder Canyon being stand out in that regard the majority of the song is this upbeat keyboard tune [Music] but as you reach the castle gate a flute takes over to convey a more ominous [Music] feeling then as you drive through the dark creepy sewers a hor takes the Forefront of the song giving it a much more creepy [Music] sound finally you exit the sewers and the upbeat keyboard returns as you finish the [Music] lap now I'm not an expert in how music is composed POS or anything like that so I could be wrong on the instruments used there but regardless Boulder kenyon's theme is arguably the best song in the entire game the fact that throughout its three Dynamic sections it still uses the same chords for each one really shows that David Wise was one of the best video game composers of the 9s I highly recommend watching this David Wise interview on the game for more information on the game's development as well as the Liam Triforce video on the music of dony Kong Country both are excellent videos if you're into discussing an analyzing video game soundtracks now let's talk about the actual gam play itself anyone who's played Mario Kart before knows the idea of what's going on you race on a track for three laps collecting powerups to use against enemy players to achieve first place but what makes Diddy Kong Racing stand out for Mario Kart to start didong racing has three different vehicles for you to control car hovercraft and plane all of these vehicles have their own means of control yet still remains similar enough so that going from one vehicle to other is as seamless as possible some of the courses also cannot be raced on with all three vehicles some can only be raced on with the hovercraft or playe making the races themselves a lot more interesting the biggest new addition to this game is the adventure mode campaign DKR lets you Traverse a hub world to collect golden balloons to win races eventually fight a boss and unlock the next area these themed areas consist of Dino domain sherbet Island snowflake mountain dragon forest and future fun land whenever you beat an area for the first time you then have to go back and complete the silver coin challenges these challenges require you to find eight hidden coins on each track and come in first place after that you fight a harder version of the world's boss this is admittedly one of my few criticisms of Diddy Kong Racing to get 100% in adventure mode you will need to replay the tracks a lot first the regular races second the silver coin challenges and one last time for the tournament trophies granted I love these tracks but having to replay them all three times can get pretty repetitive sometimes regardless Adventure Mode is still something I look forward to every time I revisit the game what about the actual racing mechanics themselves what makes it a more fun game than Mario Kart 64 simply put the rich mechanics of the races themselves firstly this game has a much better drifting mechanic than Mario Kart 64 making it actually fun to turn tight Corners in this game second unlike in Mario Kart where the powerups can only be used in one specific way DK's different colored balloons have different powerups inside them not only that but you can also stack the powerups three times each with a different level of power for example getting a red balloon will give you one missile getting two will give you a homing missile and getting three will give you 10 missiles total which you can use to barrage everything in front of you this simple Edition gives power up usage so much more depth in this game instead of just simply using a power up because you have it now you need to consider whether or not you want to use it right away or save it for later in case you level it up to become more powerful it's risk versus reward decision- making like this that makes me love cart racing games games like crash team racing would go on to build upon the mechanics of Diddy Kong Racing which shows just how much impact this game had on the cart racing genre that however doesn't even compare to my favorite part about this game's mechanics and what keeps me coming back to this game the speed boost Tech the speed boosts in this game work the same as most other car racers just use a boost power up or boost panel to go faster for a brief moment however if you let go of the gas right before you're about to boost you'll gain an even greater boost that's faster than anything else in the game this Tech is what truly separates the beginners from the pros like wave dashing and melee except more fun keep using this technique and you will start completely obliterating every CPU race because they'll be too far behind to catch you the Boost Tech is also essential if you are to beat the final boss of the game whiz Pig you can't beat [Music] me yeah I'll admit I was terrified of this godamn pig when I was a child His Giant stature thick eyebrows booming laugh and just him staring down at you with his yellow eyes he had yellow eyes so help me God yellow eyes and if that wasn't enough David wise's composition makes it feel like the fate of the world is in your hands and that whis pig is the Destroyer [Music] so yeah you need to use the Boost Tech in his boss battle to beat him as well as this other Tech where if you mash the gas button instead of holding it you'll somehow go faster than normal so yeah whisp pick is the ultimate test of your knowledge of this game's mechanics and it's honestly one of the best boss fights in any racing game for that reason the rematch of future Funland however isn't quite as good it's less about testing your knowledge of the game's mechanics and more so if you're not ahead of him by the end of the first lap you're probably not going to catch up in time to beat him also you race him in the air and if you bump into anything during the race whis Pig will fly right past you and you won't be able to speed back up in time this is what led to a lot of restarts of the boss for me nothing extremely difficult but not the best design in the world the last thing I want to mention is the battle mode where much like the rest of the game rare brings its own spin on there are multiple different objectives in battle mode depending on the area you're in you may be stealing dinosaur eggs and letting them hatch collecting bananas or just a good oldfashioned Mario Kart elimination as much as I love this game I feel as though Mario Kart's battle mode was better I don't know I just feel like the Simplicity of Mario Kart's items in battle mode made it more fun in the end though despite my few gripes Diddy Kong Racing is one of my favorite games on the Nintendo 64 and a contender from my favorite racing game of all time the sheer fun brought on by its adventure mode and mechanics is what would go on to inspire games like crash team racing which came out 2 years later on the PlayStation simply put I love this game and I always will that said this game was only the introduction of banjo we're still missing the other half of this titular Duo kazui and that's where we come into the true St of this franchise banjo kazui in 1998 oh boy where do I even start well with the very beginning [Music] [Applause] [Music] I honestly can't think of a better way to set the tone for this game than with this intro it shows us exactly what type of wacky Whimsical platformer we're getting ourselves into with its own brand of British humor all set to Grant Kirk H Hope's godl like composition yes sir I can't think of a better way to start a masterpiece of a [Music] game to reiterate my statement from earlier how do I write a video for my favorite platformer of all time well let's start off with the fact that even the file select screen is memorable the file select screen three different files each with banjo and kazui doing different things in the background and reacting differently whenever you select them I mean come on Modern games would be way less visually boring if they took the time to do stuff like this anyway I also love how simultaneously Petty yet threatening gruntilda as a villain is the whole plot happens because grantia gets jealous of banjo's sister Tooty for being prettier than her Petty so she decides to kidnap toy and use contra option to make grunty young and 2ti old threatening so that's our motivation for banjo and kazui to meet up with bottles the mole to go on this Quest and that leaves us with spiral Mountain one of the most iconic tutorial areas in all of gaming this place has it all it teaches the basic moves and attacks for new players and for veterans it has six hidden honeycomb pieces to upgrade your health bar right out of the gate all the while Grant Kirk Hop's composition sets the mood perfectly for this Whimsical adventure and the flute part can we listen to the flute part for a second because holy God damn I can't get enough of it all right all right I probably should in this video a little bit so what is it about this game itself that I love so much well I love the fact that the game rewards you for exploring every nook and cranny of the nine worlds and even the Hub World there are so many things to find everywhere that the game will keep you busy for hours whether it's Jiggies music notes jingos or honeycomb pieces you'll have plenty to search for in this game also I like learning all the different moves as you progress through the game and using those moves to find the Jiggies hidden in those respective worlds comparing this to Mario 64 that game only had three different caps you could unlock honestly considering how versatile Mario's different jumps and flips are in Mario 64 you could easily beat the game without those caps at all in beok kazui the moves you learned from bottles are essential to not just finishing the game but completing it the talent TRW and the Wonder Wing in particular are ones I can imagine Mano and kazui without also in case it wasn't obvious enough already this is my favorite video game soundtrack of all time I'm dead serious this soundtrack is filled with nothing but memorable Tunes to accompany you throughout your entire Adventure I don't want to talk about the music too much because well we be here all day that said here are some of my favorite tracks from the OST the main title spiral Mountain gruntilda's lir Treasure Trove Cove friezes Z Peak mad Monster Mansion every version of clicklock wood and the final boss theme it's all phenomenal either way which is what makes Grant Kirk my favorite video game composer of all time all right so for the sake of some sort of structure I'll just talk about each and every World in order because this is the only way I can write my thoughts in a coherent [Music] order a fairly solid first level for this game it's good at teaching you some more basic mechanics of the game as well as unlocking the most important moves of the game ground pound Talent Trot and firing eggs it also has some fairly memorable Jiggies as well like fighting the giant gorilla in the corner of the map giving an orange to the small monkey and climbing up to the top of the mountain as an ant to find what is usually for me the last Jiggy of the world this world also introduces the character of mumbo jumbo who will transform you into different creatures in exchange for some mumbo tokens as far as the First Transformation is concerned the ant is also a pretty solid one for the first level overall as good as MBL mountain is it's pretty damn short even for first timers me I can usually blow through this place with all collectibles in about 15 minutes which makes it one of the less impactful worlds for me I still love it but it's definitely a first level but then the game cranks up to 12 with now this is Peak banuk kazui this world is where the game really shows what it has to offer there's so much to it you learn the shock spring jump and the flight pad which allows you to take off to the skies and my God these flying controls blow Mario 64's flying controls out of the water I don't think there's anything that shows a major turning point in B kazi's design more than learning how to fly besides that we've got iconic moments like finding Nipper the hermit crab and collecting the Jiggy inside it Shell filling a sentip bucket with excrement to drain water to access a secret sand castle to solve a world floor puzzle and helping blubber the pirate find his missing gold so that he can spend spend spend there's also a giant game of x marks the spot looking for the pirate secret treasure and finally flying all the way to the top of the Cove to find the last Jiggy on top of the lighthouse meanwhile Grant Kirk H once again kicks ass with his composition with the best godamn beach theme my ears have ever heard [Music] I know I'm gushing a lot about the soundtrack but I will not apologize for it I love this [Music] game on the total opposite side of the spectrum clanker's Cavern is considered a lower point for me this dark disgusting toilet bowl of a world doesn't nearly have as many interesting set pieces as the previous World sure there's cler himself who is the most terrifying thing ever to a six-year-old and as a kid I could never actually free him because it required me to swim all the way down to the lock and has someone who feared drowning in video games that was one Jiggy I could never get as a kid but yeah cler himself is the best part about the world since we're exploring the inside of essentially a garbage shop everything else around him just isn't as interesting there was one honeycom beach I could not find for the longest time because I did not realized that this single pipe could be entered by swimming underneath it I mean there was nothing indicating something was there at all even the music isn't anything amazing I still know it by heart but I acknowledge that it's one of the weaker tracks in the OST overall it's probably the weakest world in the game so far [Music] bubble GL I just I just saw I have it typed it as bugle gloop swap what the bubble gloop swap okay okay marker and action bubble gloop swamp is a bit better than clanker's Cavern but it's still not my favorite banj kazui world I mean I'd at least argue that it's one of the better swamp levels in any video game so there's that the Jiggies themselves are mixed for me some are fun like cracking the egg defeating a gang of swamp frogs making a giant tortoise's legs less numb okay and feeding the many golden crocodiles eggs but then it has stuff like the tiptup choir where it's just Simon but if you get it wrong they take a chunk of your life bar like dude what the hell I'm trying to play your songs and you're punishing me for it the same thing happens with Mr vile's challenges this is also where mumbo's second transformation with the crocodile comes in and it's another solid choice if a bit slow but if you lose any of Mr vile's challenges he attacks you that on top of two separate timed Jiggies makes this quite the difficulty Spike giving newer players some trouble oh well at least the music is pretty solid though not necessarily the best but then then it leads [Music] to freesy damn Peak and to quote fau's minion for a moment Peak is right this world is a strong Contender for the best Banjo Kazooie world of all time for several reasons for one the setting kicks ass this isn't just your typical ice or snow level no this is a Christmas level whenever I think of Christmas this place is one of the first things that comes to mind not only that but nearly all of the Jiggies are designed around this setting protecting the Twinkies for the munchers so that they can light up the Christmas tree dive bombing the Laughing snowball throwing snowmen making friends with a friendly Wars as a warus riding a sled down a giant snowman's scarf to make a fat ass polar bear vomit the Jiggy and then later do a sled r with him once is the wars the second is Banjo it's great man and of course the godamn music accompanying you perfectly puts you in the mood for some holiday cheer [Music] damn Grant kirkup just doesn't miss this is unquestionably the best snow themed level in any game ever yeah I said [Music] it I have never really liked desert levels all that much I mean considering how much Mario alone does it it's understandable that the setting gets stale after a while I mean there's only so many times you can have sand mummies and pyramids before it just becomes overdone that's not to say that it can't be done well arbiter's grounds from Twilight Princess is one of my favorites Go's Valley is also fairly solid if not for the signature banjo charm a lot of floor and wall related puzzles in here complete with using crap eggs to give a snake a boner to collect one of the Jiggies that's honestly as interesting as it gets here other than that it's just a lot of traps mummies magic carpets and abused camel and a Spinx that sneezes and I won't lie Grant Kirk H hope score is part of the reason I still mostly enjoy going through some of the Lesser worlds in the game yeah overall Go's Valley is a pretty good take on a frankly tired platformer theme next [Music] now this is what I call a spooky good time mad Monster Mansion may be another generic concept but what elevates it over worlds like Go's Valley is just how much it Embraces the Halloween spirit since it's the only world in the game set at night it allows the world to stand out from everything else in the game along with its many Creepy Crawlers roaming the area navigating a hedge maze with ghosts sneaking up behind a giant ghost for the Jiggy it's guarding solving a Ouija board giving flowers to The Departed and playing music on a giant organ with a giant ghost hand among others you know your world is fantastic when every aspect of it is memorable even down to the haunted Cellar and do I really need to talk about Grant Kirk hov's music again well I'm going to anyway because it's once again phenomenal [Music] it's really no surprise that mad Monster mansion's music is phenomenal since the main inspiration for this game's soundtrack was Denny elfman's work but more specifically for this world Beetle juu and the 1989 Batman film so yeah safe to say Grant Kirk hope knows how to make a spooky scary soundtrack to a place like this [Music] oh I'm sorry did I say that bubble gloop swamp was a difficulty Spike nah this is a difficulty Spike these last two worlds are going to put your skills in the game to the test Rusty Bay especially I'm just going to get this out of the way the engine room is the worst point in this entire game between the rotating linear platforms and the deadly fan blades in your way which can only be slowed down by a switch in a different part of the level to the only Bottomless Pit in the entire game this is that part that I always dread whenever I replay this game and this room was even worse in the Nintendo 64 version because if you die to this part all of the music notes reset and you have to collect them all over again yeah there are music notes in the engine room so you better hope you don't die here because it's not going to be fun going back to it besides that one section though there's also the polluted water where Simply Swimming in it underwater or not will drown you damn this is definitely the second to last level all right I will say however that exploring the ship itself it's quite fun especially when you're breaking Windows to find different rooms to explore it's like I said before I love that this game rewards you for exploring every nook and cranny you can find everything else outside the ship can kiss my ass especially that that one Jiggy trapped behind some instakill rotors that can only be shut off in the engine room then you have to race to that spot with not a lot of time and make sure you don't go to the wrong end of the ship because if you do to be honest this place and clanker's Cavern are tied for my least favorite worlds in this game clanker's Cavern I simply don't remember much about and Rusty it Bay I remember but for very wrong reasons it's a chore revisiting these two worlds either [Music] way finally to finish this game off click clock wood this world is hard for sure but unlike Rusty this Bay it's hard for all the right reasons it's essentially one circular tall area that takes place over the Four Seasons it also brilliantly uses yearly cause and effect for a good portion of the Jiggy this is evident in growing the plant over the year along with bullying GOI one last time for some water then there's opening the entrance to naughty the beaver's cave in the summer and getting the Jiggy in the fall hatching eie the eagle in the spring and spending both summer and fall feeding him caterpillars until he finally becomes a mighty eagle in the winter also this is where you unlock the best transformation in the game via the Bumblebee sure it can't attack but it can fly around the world freely which I think makes it the best by default in this game that on top of finding NAB nuts nuts and fighting the zubas in their hive makes this place one of the most memorable worlds in all of banjuk kazui and that's saying a lot given this franchise and of course not only is Grant Kirk Hope's composition wonderful as always but the four different variants depending on what season you're in is what truly brings it all together for me what a fantastic world to end the game on but it doesn't actually end there because we got grunty's furnace to tackle first a quiz show board game that tests your knowledge of the game's characters world in music it even ask some questions regarding grunty herself occasionally in gruntilda's Lair you'll find her goody tou sister brentilda winky bunion yes that's her name who will feed you three random facts about gruntilda every time you find her and trust me you'll need to find her because the punishment for losing furnace is dying and having to start all over again now I could see how some people would be turned off by this so late in the game but I've always liked playing through this part using knowledge of the game for many many playthroughs to beat it is pretty damn satisfying but it's not over yet as we still have gruntilda herself to fight in the only boss fight in the game yeah this game doesn't really have bosses in it for the most part the only Jiggy missions that can be kind of considered bosses are Conga Nipper and boss boom box from Rusty Bucket Bay regardless grunty is a prime example of a good final boss fight having multiple phases that all require a different move or attack act complete also her RNG with her Fireballs is something that even speed Runners struggle with making her one of the most consistently challenging parts of the game even after playing it multiple times eventually you'll be able to wake up the guardian of the jingos the ging generator to deal the final blow and send Gren Tilda tumbling down to her Doom [Music] ch ch [Music] and that was Banjo Kazooie hopefully I've made some sense in expressing my love for this game its mechanics worlds characters and the sheer fun of collecting everything in this game is what makes this my second favorite game of all time second of course to a certain Zelda game on the same console as this I don't really know what else I can really say at this point it's a masterpiece in my opinion but of course the game leaves us with one final note regarding the infamous stop and swap Collectibles you could collect after completing the game 100% what do these Collectibles do well you'll have to wait until banjo Tui to find out speaking of which unsurprisingly banjo kazui was a smash hit on the Nintendo 64 praised for how much it not only takes inspiration from but expands on the concepts and ideas from Super Mario 64 it also currently sits at 92 on Metacritic which is nothing to scof at as such the world immediately wanted more of rare's beautiful Baron bird rare then took this opportunity to not only improve on some of the shortcomings of the first game but also to include ideas and game modes previously scrapped from banjo kazui into banjo tuille mainly the addition of the multiplayer mode with several different mini games to choose from the game was originally slated for a late 1999 release but was delayed a year for more time to work on the game just like its predecessor eventually the game game was unveiled at E3 2000 and released later that year in November as for me I grew up with the original game and I have since 100% the game at least five times at this point meanwhile I only just played bandic tuille for the first time in 2021 so it was interesting playing the sequel to one of my favorite games for the first time so let's take a dive at how much bigger Bolder and surprisingly darker the sequel got this is Banjo Tui it has been 2 years since the events of banjo kazui and since gruntilda fell to her death and was crushed by a boulder banjo and the Gang are just having a cheeky game of late night poker when suddenly a big ass drill comes in this machine is being driven by gruntilda's sisters mingela and blob belda who resurrect gruntilda from her grave but when she awakes they realize that grunty is nothing more than a skeleton and needs a new body but before that grunty sees mumbo jumbo and starts throwing balls of magic at him she then decides to get back at the people who led to her demise 2 years ago by obliterating banjo's house before retreating in their giant drill meanwhile banjo kazui and Mumbo managed to escape but bottles is dead so it's up to banjo kazui and even Mumbo to put a stop to grantia once again meanwhile grunty and her sisters plan to use the big old Blaster AKA Bob to suck the life force out of anything it touches to give gruntilda a new body now you may be asking wait where's toy in all this well uh as far as I'm able to tell from research rare hated toti in Banjo kazui as her only purpose was to be the motivation for banjo and kazui to go on their quest in the first place yeah she literally never appears in the series again after the first game she was and I quote arrested by the rubbish video game character police wow talk about a character being snapped out of existence but I'm getting off track in terms of tone and Stakes banjo tuille is much darker than that of the first game I mean when you start the game out killing off one of the main Hero characters you're setting the stakes pretty high and what's just as morbid is that you meet bottle's wife and children who have no idea what happened to him this darker tone applies not just to the plot but also to some of the characters as well worlds like Hailfire peaks in particular are incredibly cruel to the NPCs you meet there even the music is taken on a much darker Edge Grant kirkov returns for the sequel and he made the spiral Mountain theme sound like all the joy and upbeat nature of it was just sucked completely dry leaving only a shriveled miserable husk of what once was behind [Music] and the music that plays in the main Hub world is of hags doesn't get much happier I mean it's in a good way but the Hub World theme sounds dark and without the Whimsical nature of gruntilda's layer theme as if to say that things have officially gotten serious in this game now that's not to say the game is all doom and gloom far from it the game still has the same memorable characters and witty British humor as the first game What's even better is that a good portion of the characters you've met in banra Kazooie are still present in Bano tuille plus even though not all of the first game's characters return the game makes up for it by introducing a bunch of new characters to the mix some standout ones are jam jars bottle's brother who now teaches you the new moves to unlock in the game honey be who now upgrades your health once you have enough honeycomb pieces Master Jiggy Wiggy who will open up the next world for you with enough Jiggies and HBA WBA the Rival of mumbo jumbo who handles the Transformations this time around oh and of course can't forget to mention every everyone's favorite gay frog Jolly Roger God speed You Beautiful Bastard as for the soundtrack overall well I wouldn't say is as strong as the first game there are still a handful of tracks that I love just as much as the original games OST a handful of tracks that sand out include gingo Village glitter Gold Mine witchy World Mr Patch's boss theme Jolly Rogers Lagoon Lord wood fox fox boss theme and Cloud Cuckoo Land now all of that is great and all but in terms of the sequel you're probably wondering what makes banjo tuille different from banjo kazui well let's break it down a bit number one you keep every move you learned from banjuk kazui meaning that you can transition right into playing the sequel knowing all your moves are with you eat your heart out Metroid not to mention all the brand new moves you learn in this game these include spring shoes being able to grab and climb up Ledges and way more different eggs to fire including grenade fire ice and Clockwork eggs which are very useful for grabbing Collectibles and even the ability to separate banjo and kazui who also have moves the two can only do by themselves safe to say you'll have plenty of different abilities to work with in this game number two the worlds in this game are massive banjo kazui worlds were decently sized for the most part usually it took at most an hour to grab every collectible in them at least it does for me in Banjo tuille even the very first world has so many different areas to explore and in some cases the worlds can even Trump even click clock Woods size for those who like to collect everything in Platformers it will take you bare minimum an hour in every world to do it making Tui at least three times the length of kazui and number three actual boss battles as I said before banjo kazui didn't really have bosses at all aside from the final fight with gruntilda in Banjo tuille every World Has Its Own Boss complete with its own boss theme which gives each World much more meat on its bones sure most of them are pretty easy but they make up for it with some great character design some of my favorites include Old King Cole L Wu fakfak Terry the pterodactyl and mini jongo the robotic evil clone of mumbo jumbo it's it's great man now for some of the other changes made in this game in banjuk kazui you collected Mumbo tokens which you would give to Mumbo to transform you into different creatures in andouille the tokens are replaced with globos two of which are in each World giving HBA WBA a globo will give you the signature Transformations side note these Transformations for the most part are a vast improvement from the first game in kazui the Transformations were only ever used for one single Jiggy and only one of those Transformations could actually attack in Tui every transformation has a means of attacking and can be used for more than one Jiggy some of my favorites include the stone Golem in mayahem Temple the Invincible money truck in witchy world the submarine in Jolly Rogers Lagoon and even the Bee from banj kazui makes a return in the final world Cloud kouu land as for mumbo jumbo if you give him a globo he'll be able to perform certain tasks made specifically for him in each World finally as previously mentioned banju and kazui unlock the ability to separate themselves from one another which allows them to roam the worlds freely as well as complete missions that they can only do alone between that the Transformations and the new moves jam jars teaches you there are now many new ways to find and collect Jiggies in regards to the process of 100 pering the game for the most part it's still just as enjoyable as it was in Banjo kazui again I like that the game rewards you for exploring every nook and cranny of the many worlds that said the completion process does come with a few caveats you need to keep in mind to start with there is going to be a lot of backtracking in this game there is not one single world where you can collect everything on the the first visit there will usually be a few Jiggies that require a certain move from a different world to collect it so just keep that in mind in fact some Jiggies require a ton of prerequisites to collect them the absolute worst offender is this one Jiggy in grunty Industries a jiggy is hiding behind a giant fan but to get it you have to enter behind the fan but before you can do that you have to stop the spinning platforms but before you can do that you have to defeat the boss wellar but before you can fight him you have to press the button to lock the door but uh-oh you're not heavy enough you need to go to HBA WBA to transform into a washing machine to be heavy enough but uh-oh there's a magnet that prevents you from pressing it that can only be disabled by mumbo jumbo but that magnet can only be disabled for a short time so what this means is that you have to seek mumo jumbo disable the magnet run back to Momo's Hut to switch back to banjo then run to hba's Hut to transform into the wash machine and then race all the way to the button all in 90 seconds remember this is all for one single Jiggy God damn that's going to be the make or break deal with some people banj kazui was just short enough to the point where I could consistently 100% the game in a little over 7 hours banjo tuille on the other hand took me 22 hours total to 100% sure I am way more familiar with B kazui but even when cutting out the mistakes I made in my twoe playthrough it would still take me 15 hours to collect everything plus if I'm being honest there are some parts of this game I straight up do not like do you know how clanker's Cavern and Rusty Bucket Bay were my least favorite worlds in the original game well in Tui those titles belong to terod dactyl land and grunty industries Terry dactyl land has so much empty space in it that even while using the talent Trot it is a chore to Traverse this place it's like if click clock wood had twice the amount of space but half the places to explore also the T-Rex transformation really isn't as good as I'd hoped it be sure it's cool to play as a T-Rex but it's only useful for like three collectibles in the whole world as for grunty Industries good God man let's start with the fact that right out of the gate you can't enter through the main entrance you have to enter through the train system you unlock in Glitter Gulch mine before the the main entrance can even be opened secondly this place has five different floors each requiring a different method of reaching thirdly the amount of backtracking and prerequisites required to get most of the Jiggies in this world can be kind of nauseating at times I've already mentioned the Jiggy behind the fan but having to go to different floors and even the outside area as the washing machine to wash all the bunny workers clothes for one Jiggy is a lot to manage and what really made it hard to get through these worlds is that both of them were backto back sure cler's Cavern and Rusty Bucket Bay were low points but one was in the first third of the game while the other was in the last third terod dactyl land and grunty industries are worlds five and six I'll be honest playing through both of these worlds was such a chore that I honestly considered putting the game down at that point but once I learned to be patient and realized that this game is much longer than that of the first and that it can't be rushed it eventually got better when I reached the seventh World Hailfire peaks but those two worlds don't even compare to what is undoubtedly the worst Jiggy in the entire series and that Jiggy comes from the infamous Canary Mary so you first meet Canary Mary in the second world Glitter Gulch mine you rescue her from a toxic prison and later she challenges you to a race through the mindes this race requires some extreme button mashing to win and it is not fun oh yeah she makes you do this twice in the same world by the way once for a jiggy and another for a Cheeto page okay that was painful but whatever at least it's over now then the final world Cloud cucko land comes along and she's back and the rematch mission in this world oh my god this Jiggy requires inhumane button mashing to complete it as in faster than any reasonable adult let alone child can do I'm not even kidding I literally had to use a pen to Button Mash the out of the x button to beat this Mission yeah it was the most painful thing I have ever done in a platformer but I somehow did it both times for cloud cucko land so because of that I can easily say screw this Mission I hate it the last thing to mention is remember the stop it swap Collectibles from the first game yeah they must be for something really important given how they were set up in the first game right so the way that stop and swap was supposed to work was that once you collected the six different eggs in the ice key you were to remove the banjo kazui cartridge while it was still on then quickly insert the banjo Tui cartridge for the Collectibles to transfer over however by the time banjo Tui came out on Nintendo 6 4 Nintendo updated the hardware so that the intended method was an impossibility so that sucks however when kazui and Tui were remastered and ported to the Xbox 360 it was now possible to transfer the Collectibles over to Tui and unlock their secrets dear God what could it possibly be a brand new ninth World a secret playable character what is it um a cheat for homing eggs move called the Bal bash gingo is a multiplayer character and an Xbox 360 Gamer picking theme which if you're playing these games on the Xbox series s like I am you can't even use man talk about a disappointing conclusion to a mystery that kids in the '90s spent years wondering about sure you can't get one cool unlock with the ice key it unlocks a safe with a mega globo which if you bring it to HBA WBA in the is of hags will turn kazui into a freaking Dragon admittedly that's really cool but it still doesn't make up for how anticlimactic this conclusion is so judging from my ranting it may seem like I dislike banjo tuille and for a while I kind of did keep in mind I grew up with banjuk kazui and played it multiple times over the years meanwhile I only first played Bano tuille when I was barely 20 years old so I didn't have any Rose tinted glasses to hide behind but after completing the game 100% And dwelling on it for a bit I can say that despite some of the issues I had with it I still enjoy my time with banjo tuille even if I'll always love the original game more Tui is just so interesting to talk about as you defeat gruntilda once again leaving her nothing more than a skull missing an eye she ends the game by saying just must you wait until banjo 3 if only gruntilda so from what I was able to tell from research the line saying there was going to be a banjo 3 at least at first was nothing more than a joke since banjo Tui rare would go on to release one last game on the Nintendo 64 the mature rated classic conquers Bad Fur Day later on rare would show off some of their games like banjo conquer and Perfect Dark running on a Nintendo GameCube at space World 2000 this wasn't meant to imply that new games of the series were being developed it was solely to showcase the graphical power of the GameCube then as I'm sure a lot of you know in 2002 rareware was purchased in its entirety by Microsoft to develop games for their first ever video game console the Xbox this also meant that all Nintendo games rare was developing at the time were effectively cancelled including a Donkey Kong Racing game for the gameu Cube this is where the development of the banjo series would get incredibly messy from here on out but we'll talk about that later now a lot of people have negative feelings about this buyout and honestly I can't say I blame him that said there is some Nuance in understanding one has to consider given the circumstances firstly by the sixth generation of gaming games were becoming a lot more expensive to make and Nintendo was not willing to give rare more capital or purchase the company completely so when your main publisher isn't willing to give you more money to make your games what else could rare even do on Microsoft side it's important to note that Nintendo and Playstation were the two giants of gaming during the late '90s considering how successful the PlayStation 1 was and how well the PlayStation 2 was already doing if Microsoft wanted their console to even stand a chance they needed to stand out so the best solution was to buy whatever acclaimed game Studio they could get their hands on to to make games for their consoles I guess some things never change do they well that aged well um so this is being filmed on what is it Friday the 10th of May and uh just recently Xbox just shut down four different game studios uh Arcane Austin Tango Gameworks Alpha Dog Studios and roundhouse games I know this has nothing to do that this video has nothing to do with those Studios but um it kind of makes my point look bad the industry is so sure it may suck for some but considering what was going on for both parties this spy out makes perfect sense to me plus could have been worse it could have been bought out by Activision instead all that being said there was a silver lining in their agreement since Microsoft was not part of the handheld gaming Market rare was still able to develop games for the Nintendo Game Boy Advance rare and Microsoft then struck a deal with Publisher THQ to publish rare's Game Boy Advance titles this is where banuk kusui grunes revenge and B bjo pilot come in and I thought I'd take a look at them briefly to see if they're any good first up is Banjo kazui grunty's Revenge set in between kazui and Tui gruntilda's minion kungo is pushing the boulder that crushed grunty when he gets the idea to build a Mecca grunty and transfers her ghost into it the plan succeeds and afterward she heads to banjo's house and kidnaps kazui she then travels into the past to make sure that banjo and kazui never meet which then lead mumbo jumbo to say that he can send banso to the same time as grunty to make sure the timeline is unaltered hey wait a if gratia had the power to travel back in time all along why did she use it literally at any time in kazui and especially Tui and the same thing applies to mumo as well you're telling me instead of giving me one trick Transformations you could have sent me back to the past to stop gr Tilda from being born I know that this is just a handheld game but the story races so many question questions that will never get answered and that bothers me but I digress in terms of the game itself it's a top down collecton platformer just like the previous games where you Traverse five different worlds collecting Jiggies music notes jingos you know the drill oh no not the drill graphically speaking this is actually a pretty good looking game for the Game Boy Advance it's bright and colorful the Sprites themselves look good and it just gets the overall tone and aesthetic of the banjo kazui series quite well the music was not composed by Grant Kirk hope this time despite his work for spiral Mountain being pres in the game instead it was composed by one Jamie Hughes whose Music and Sound Department credits include Star Fox Adventures the remake of conquer bad Fay live and reloaded the composer of Viva Pinata trouble in Paradise and sound design for nuts and bolts via pinata and both connect sports games God damn it as far as his composition for grunty's revenge is concerned I'd say it's pretty all right nowhere near the timelessness of Grant Kirk Hope's work but for a handheld game in the banjo series it's perfectly serviceable I know I'm not giving much opinion on the music but when the bar has already been raised So High by just the first game serviceable by comparison isn't as impactful the worlds themselves also aren't much to write home about they can all basically be boiled down to Grass Beach swamp ship and Ice worlds like yeah we haven't seen those in Bano before when it comes to the ACT ual collectathon gameplay itself I'd say this is a solid translation to a handheld system it rewards you for exploring every area you can and it even has the mobo jumbo transformations in it unlike the previous games however you can choose between the different Transformations from every world and use them in any world you just have to bring each world's Mumbo token to unlock them this is honestly a great new addition to the formula and I would have loved to see this feature return to the series at some point despite those positive aspects though this is still a Game Boy advanced spin-off of a console game so it's going to come with a share of snacks it's very short only taking me 5 hours to complete it 100% the game also likes to blatantly reuse the mini games a lot no joke they use this same exact fishing mini game three different times which kind of makes it boring after a while finally the bosses are a major step down from the previous games they're all way too damn easy with predict mle patterns and only consist of repeat matches with Mecha grunty and kungo even the final boss which is admittedly the hardest boss in the game still mostly boils down to waiting for them to finish their attack and then you attack back do this 12 times and voila you beat the game so yeah even though it's a solid game in the series it's still just the obligatory handheld game regardless I would have loved it as a kid and I enjoy it well enough now on the other hand we have banjo pilot a racing game that was originally developed to be Dy Kong pilot before the Microsoft purchase there's no plot to speak of here it's simply a racing game with a banjo characters graphically speaking it's honestly one of the better looking racing games on the Game Boy Advance it's nothing amazing but compared to something like Shrek swap cart Speedway it's miles better as far as the music I mean I commend Jamie Hughes and Robert beIN for getting it done but this is one of the most forgettable racing sound tracks I've ever heard sure the music is fine when you're listening to it but after you listen to it none of it sticks at the very least the sound design is decent and doesn't assault your ears like Shrek swap cart Speedway anything is better than Shrek swap cart Speedway as for the game itself there's frankly not much to say despite it being plane racing and not carts this is very much your typical GBA racing game it has the same problems as games like Super Mario Kart where all the tracks are uninteresting from a layout standpoint it's all just incredibly flat and generic to race through but at the very least they're all based on worlds from banjak kazui Tui and even grunty's Revenge besides that there are four different cups to race through a lockable characters and even mirrored versions of the cups which to be honest I didn't even bother with I mean the game is perfectly serviceable but that's all it is I don't really have much else to say it's the most mid Banjo Kazooie game ever played so let's just move on with our lives I said before that banjo 3 was originally just a joke but the truth was rare was throwing around ideas for a third entry the first idea they came up with was a remake of the first game on the Xbox titled banjo X it wasn't just going to be a straight remake however as the characters would progressively become more self-aware that they were in a remake the story would then drastically change from the original because of it that would have honestly been hilarious ious given the Remake climate the gaming industry is currently in a remake that becomes self-aware and changes the story comedically would have been a great idea unfortunately though that idea was scrapped another idea they considered was a racing game cod named banjo Kazumi where characters from we's Library would cross over and compete in races together but once again it was scrapped before it got anywhere they kept coming up with ideas including a competitive game where banjo and kazui would try to complete objectives while gulda tried to stop them but nothing was sticking finally they came up with the idea to make a game with customizable Vehicles which was the idea that finally stuck as the game was in development for 2 years until its release in 2008 we'll talk about why they chose this kind of game in just a little bit and that is what leads us to banjo kazui nuts and bolts oh boy the game starts with a brief summary of banjuk kazui and Tui because I guess grunty's Revenge never happened before flashing forward to 10 years later banju and kazui are all fat and washed up and they soon come across the sentient skull that is gruntilda they're about to fight when the game breaks the fourth wall and pauses in comic Sands before a new character named log shows up log wants to settle the two differences by wait a minute now then in line with banjo tradition your challenge will consist of collecting as many pointless objects as possible uh [Music] what no no no it's too painful to watch Gamers today don't want all this they just want to shoot things but as we're broadening the demographic I'll have to think of something original so let me get this straight you made us wait eight whole years for our new Mainline console Banjo Kazooie game and the first thing you do is spit in our faces and tell us nobody likes collect the THS anymore okay so assuming you didn't just throw out the game by this point log makes both banjo and clda get in vehicles and transports them to Showdown town so in Bano Kazooie nuts and bolts you drive around empty world completing missions to earn Jiggies to unlock the next World along the way you earn more parts for your vehicle which can change your stats depending on what the mission is you may need it to be fast heavy or be able to carry an objective to the Finish Line This is the whole game no I'm dead serious for the entirety of the game you just drive around completing objectives and collecting things to move on to the next part and this goes on for 15 hours yeah I'm sorry I genuinely gave this game the benefit of the doubt I could even forgive the awful opening if the game was at the very least fun but it's so boring you just drive around completing objectives that are not fun or challenging ironically collecting as many pointless objects as possible all the while these worlds feel even more empty than Terry dactyl land how how did this happen there's a popular theory that Microsoft made them design the game this way but Microsoft had no creative control over the final product rare made this game the way it is because they felt that people didn't like collectons anymore considering that first-person shooters and racing games dominated the gaming Market they felt that they should make a game for a broader audience and that perfectly Subs up how I feel about this game I don't feel any or inflated Os from this game I just feel the complete apathy of a team that didn't care about making the kind of game people actually wanted and instead just made a game that tries to please everybody ironically pleasing nobody oh sure critics liked it but critics also give every Call of Duty game a n out of 10 so their opinion doesn't really mean much and all of that sucks to say because graphically it's not bad at all I mean I'm not the big biggest fan of the character designs but the graphics are great for an early Xbox 360 game they even brought back Grant Kirk hope to compose the music and it still sounds just as good as ever I mean the songs themselves are pretty forgettable but the actual composition itself is excellent at the end of the day though none of that matters the game itself is still incredibly boring sure you're generally doing the same thing in all the other games but the difference is that the way you earn Jiggies is different each time which keeps it interesting and fun to play through in nuts and bolts it's just race here race there deliver this person here deliver this person there etc etc there are no surprises here it's just doing the exact same boring missions repeated over and over again and the vehicles themselves don't even feel that good to drive anyway after 2 hours I genuinely couldn't stomach it anymore I realized very quickly that this game had almost nothing new or exciting to offer me regardless of how amazing rare thought this game would be it burned too many bridges and felt like they simply didn't care how fun the game would actually be I don't know what else to say this game sucks and so ever since nuts and bolts killed the franchise there has not been a single new game since the most that has happened in the last 16 years is that rare released rare Replay for the Xbox One a collection of rare's greatest hits that weren't Nintendo franchises including battle toads Perfect Dark Killer Instinct gold and of course banjo kazui banjo and kazui themselves also made a surprise appearance in Super Smash Brothers ultimate in 2019 which for me as a vvid banjo fan was a dream come true other than that basically nothing has happened it's been 16 years since nuts and bolts came out two new Xbox consoles have come out since and rare is a shell of what it used to be nowadays rare is known for developing the multiplayer hit CA of Thieves which I haven't played but I've heard good things about as far as plans to develop a new banjo game are concerned the future looks pretty bleak developers from rare have since come out and said they don't think the fan base for banok kazui even exists anymore and that statement really pisses me off look rare I get that in a market flooded with gritty realistic first-person shooters it could be tempting to try and follow with the trends to make the most profits but when you take a series well known for being a funny cartoony platformer and try to make it a boring ass driving game just because it's what's popular you completely misunderstand why people liked banjo kazui to begin with people loved banjo kazui for its characters the writing the Fun Worlds to explore and the sheer Joy of finding the next hidden collectible that's what made banjak kazui a series worth play the fans for banjak kazui are still here we haven't gone anywhere the problem here is that you don't care anymore rare you have become complacent with not trying with your games anymore you're more interested in chasing Trends than making good games rare you have lost your soul and that is just really sad but this is a new era for you rare Crash Bandicoot was dead in the water for 7even years before Activision green lit the Crash Bandicoot and sane Trilogy and that game took the industry by storm it made crash popular again this eventually led to a remake of Crash team racing with more content a brand new platformer crash bako 4 it's about time and even an experimental Battle Royale game not just that but crash's new fou success led to the return of Spyro many evil Tony Hawk Pro Skater and C the kangaroo hell the Indie scene alone has seen great success with games like ukulele and a hat in time ratchet and Cay reached the top five best-selling PlayStation 5 games list with Rift apart even Nintendo came back to the formula used in Mario 64 with Super Mario Odyssey the audience is still here where we're still here and the only thing that isn't here rare is you this is the perfect time to come back to the series to show that the rare we know and love has it dissolved completely I get it it's a risk but no great game has ever come without taking a chance it's simply a leap of faith until then my name is Aon the wolf and thank you all so much for watching this very long video about a game series that I love stay strong and live life [Music]

Channel: Arin The Wolf

Views: 21,544

Keywords: banjokazooie, microsoft, xbox, nintendo, nintendo64, grantkirkhope

Id: wmbqmprh-Gc

Length: 71min 21sec (4281 seconds)

Published: Wed May 15 2024