Banjo-Tooie might just be my favorite game
of all time. That's not going to shock you if you've been following me for any amount of time,
but that doesn't mean I'm blind to its issues. There are many common criticisms about Banjo-Tooie
that I've heard: it's too big, it's too dark, objectives take too long, etc. And one that
I've heard a lot is that the game has a ton of backtracking. You can find plenty of people
complaining about this and it got me wondering: just how much backtracking is there
in Banjo-Tooie, and more importantly, can you avoid it entirely? So I put my nose to the
grindstone, played through this game once again, accidentally entered the 90th spot on the Xbox
leaderboard which puts me roughly in the top 0.009 percent of Tooie players on the console
because why not, and determined the answer to the burning question: can you beat Banjo-Tooie
without any backtracking? Let’s find out.
First things first, let's establish
the rules of this challenge. Now, I don't have a good way to measure in-level
backtracking — that is, traveling from one area of a level to another and then back
again. Even if I avoided aimless wandering, finding a decent method of quantifying time
spent just walking around is difficult. I can, however, track how many items you can't
collect when visiting a world for the first time. For our purposes today, I will only be entering
each world once, grabbing everything I can in one trip, and never going back. It doesn't
matter which exit I leave the level from, whether it's the main entrance or a side exit
that leads to another world; once I'm out, I can't return. That means if I can't grab a
collectible until I've visited a later world, then I have to leave it behind. This is true for the
eight main worlds, but since Isle o' Hags requires you to leave and come back to it frequently,
that will operate differently. For each sub-area, I have to collect everything I can inside of it on
my first visit; afterwards, I can't touch anything should I return. I'm also only considering the
intended method of completing these objectives; no shortcuts, tricks, or glitches will be considered
until after the tally. With these rules, I wanted to make the strictest challenge possible to
see if we can eliminate backtracking entirely.
Now, you Banjo-Tooie fanatics might be
thinking that based on those parameters, this challenge is already impossible. In
order to explore Grunty Industries, you need to open up the train station inside the level,
leave the world and hop onto Chuffy the train, then finally enter through the station. This
left me with a dilemma; do I try to complete this challenge without ever visiting Grunty Industries,
or do I make an exception? Well, it turns out that you have to enter it at some point because
you need the Claw Clamber Boots, so to even get this challenge off the ground, I will allow
this ONE instance of backtracking since this is 100% required — well, kinda. I'll explain later.
I'm going to be tracking how many Jiggies, Jinjos, Notes, and Cheato Pages that we can grab under
this ruleset. I won't be covering Glowbos, Moves, or Extra Honeycomb Pieces because even under these
restrictions, we're still able to grab them all. And keep in mind, with all these
collectibles, the only thing that matters as far as beating the game is that
we need 70 Jiggies to enter the final boss.
So let's start with the Isle o' Hags which has
a smattering of collectibles that we're not able to get. Roysten the goldfish normally
gives you double air and faster swimming, but we need the Bill Drill to rescue him
which we don't get until Glitter Gulch Mine, so we can't get either of these upgrades.
We also can't collect either of the Banjo-Kazooie Game Paks in Spiral Mountain since one is locked
behind the Grip Grab and the other behind Grenade Eggs and Airborne Egg Aiming, but that's not a
huge loss since these are completely optional.
The third Banjo-Kazooie Game Pak in Jinjo
Village also requires the Grip Grab to get to, so that's off-limits as well.
Because we can't get the Ice Key (and because it violates the visit a level
once rule), that locks us out of getting the Dragon Kazooie transformation as well, but
again, that's bonus content so not a big deal.
Now let's get to the stuff that really matters:
back in Spiral Mountain, there's a Jinjo under the waterfall which requires the Talon Torpedo
from Jolly Roger's Lagoon, so we can't get that.
There's two other Jinjos we can't rescue either;
one in Plateau hidden under a boulder which also requires the Bill Drill and one in a high alcove
in Cliff Top which requires the Claw Clamber Boots. That leaves us with three unattainable
Jinjos and we're just getting started here.
Before we leave the hubworld, the Grip Grab
is also required to get this Treble Clef on top of the Red Jinjo House. This is the only note
pile that can't be accessed without backtracking, as the other 880 notes are easily attainable
— and that's more than enough to beat the game with. And since the only Jiggy we get here at
first comes from King Jingaling, let's start our Jiggy tally off at one and go from there.
Now onto the levels themselves, starting with Mayahem Temple. There's two Jiggies we can't get
here, one of which is atop these pillars in the Prison Compound. You have to get into the Pillars
Vault to knock the Jiggy down, but in order to open it, you (once again) need the Bill Drill.
Then there's recovering Targitzan's relic for Chief Bloatizan, and here's where we come to a
snag. Because you have to enter Terrydactyland one way or another to get the relic, then return
to Mayahem to deliver it, it technically counts as backtracking. But because you can enter it
from Mayahem Temple and grab the relic on your first visit while most of Terrydactyland is still
blocked off, I don't think anyone would reasonably call this an actual instance of backtracking.
Because it's against the rules I set out, I will call this uncollectible, but I'm going to
mark examples like this — where you enter another world but only a sectioned-off area that prohibits
any further exploration until you visit that world as intended — as detour collectibles, which
we'll be tallying during the breakdown as well. Anyway, that brings our total Jiggy count
up to 9 so far, a respectable start.
Moving on to Glitter Gulch Mine which gives you
an unattainable item right as you enter with this Cheato Page above the entrance sign which requires
the Springy Step Boots from Terrydactyland.
We also can't rescue this Jinjo from the Water
Storage tank because in order to access it, we have to come from Jolly Roger's
Lagoon — which we aren't allowed to do.
Back in Mayahem Temple, Dilberta the Rat is
trapped and we have to free her with the Bill Drill and since we can't do that, we thus
can't collect the Jiggy from Bullion Bill.
There's also the Jiggy inside the Power Hut
Basement which requires Banjo and Kazooie to Split Up, which they don't learn until Witchyworld.
Finally, there's the Jiggy behind the waterfall which also requires the Springy Step
Shoes, and when adding everything up, we're now at 16 Jiggies with 3 more
Jiggies and another Jinjo unaccounted for.
Now let's head over to Witchyworld, and
thankfully, we can get nearly everything in here on the first trip. The only thing we can't
do is find all of Mrs. Boggy's kids since each one requires something different. Moggy and Soggy we
can deal with no problem, but Groggy here can't move after you feed him a burger and we can't get
him back to his mom without Banjo's Taxi Pack from Terrydactyland. But besides that, everything
else in this world is ours for the taking, bringing our total Jiggy count up to 25.
Jolly Roger's Lagoon has three Jiggies that can't be obtained on your first visit and weirdly
enough, they're all on the surface. We can't hatch Tiptup's egg without first learning Hatch
from Terrydactyland, so that's off the table.
We also can't reach this Jiggy in the
Smuggler's Cavern until Kazooie learns Glide in Hailfire Peaks, so we have
to just leave it there to tempt us.
Then there’s the pigs and their pool which
requires a lot of steps to complete. First, we'd need to clean the pool by entering the drain
pipe that's spewing garbage, but that takes us to a sectioned-off area of Grunty Industries.
There's nothing in here but the switch to turn it off which technically makes this part of the
Jiggy a detour, but warming the pool up requires far more effort. We first need to head to Cloud
Cuckooland to sacrifice George the Ice Cube, then head to Hailfire Peaks to open up the floodgates
for the water. That requires going back to a previously-explored level, and as such, it can't
count for this challenge. You might be wondering if we can enter Cloud Cuckooland first and knock
George down before ever entering Hailfire Peaks, and we certainly can. But doing that means
we're going to have to miss a ton of stuff in Cloud Cuckooland since we won't have the Shack
Pack and, by extension, the Sack Pack — so it's not worth it to make this Jiggy attainable.
Lastly, most of the underwater collectibles are good for the taking, but we can't grab
the Cheato Page in the Ancient Swimming Baths since that also requires Kazooie's Glide,
so once we leave, we're up to 32 Jiggies.
Terrydactland is up next, and first on
the agenda is Dippy's watering hole. Now, it's true that we can't get Dippy's
Jiggy until we go to Cloud Cuckooland as that's where the water Dippy needs is located.
But Dippy gives us this Jiggy automatically; we don't have to go back to get it so I'm ruling
this Jiggy as backtracking-free. There is, however, an unobtainable Cheato page inside
Dippy's pool which we can't grab until it's full, and that DOES require going back to this world.
Moving on, there's two Jiggies we actually can't obtain here and strangely enough, both involve
helping characters stricken with a problem. First, there's Scrotty's family of Styracosaurus
which each has an individual issue. We can rescue Scrut from Witchyworld on our
first pass there, then call the train from inside Terrydactyland, and we can help Scrit
by using Mumbo Jumbo inside the cave. However, while we can take Scrat from the cave, put him
in the train, head to the Cliff Top, and heal him with Mumbo's Magic... we can't take him back
to Terrydactyland as that's against the rules. Sorry, Scrotty, but two out of three ain’t bad!
Then there's the Oogle Boogles who are all cold and starving, so we have to bring them heat via
the Fire Eggs and food from Witchyworld. Normally, we can't smuggle food out from Witchyworld
because Grunty magically takes your food away when you exit the level, and the
only entrance where that doesn't happen is a direct link from the Oogle Boogles cave. We
can easily head to Witchyworld from this entrance, but again, that violates the rules, and
even still, we'd need the Claw Clamber Boots to get back to Terrydactyland. It IS possible to
get food out by leaving Witchyworld via the train and exiting the cab before Grunty has time to take
it all away, BUT there's no way for us to enter Terrydactyland via the train without opening the
station in the level first. The only station we could possibly use without backtracking is the
Isle o’ Hags station which we can’t even open until getting the Split Up move from Witchyworld
first, so this method unfortunately doesn't help us. With all that said, our total count at the
end of Terrydactyland gets us up to 40 Jiggies.
Now onto Grunty Industries which is certainly
dense and confusing and has a ton of in-level backtracking already, but again, we're focusing
on getting everything we can in one go. This Jinjo in the water tank is only accessible from
Jolly Roger's Lagoon and is completely sealed off otherwise. That makes this a detour Jinjo,
but for now, we do have to leave him behind.
We've also got three Jiggies that need to be
skipped, starting with the one awarded by beating the Tintops on the first floor. You're intended
to use the Glide to reach this even though it is very, VERY easy to reach this platform without
it. The Banjo-Tooie strategy guide by Nintendo Power says you need the Glide, though, so
I'm going with that as the intended method.
Then in the Waste Disposal Plant on the
Basement level, there's a Jiggy across this pool of toxic waste that Banjo can cross once
he has the Sack Pack from Cloud Cuckooland.
Also in the Basement behind the giant
fan room in the Air Conditioning Plant, you can find a Jiggy under the same toxic
waste which requires the Shack Pack from Hailfire Peaks. Without these objectives,
that leaves us with 47 Jiggies total now.
Onward to Hailfire Peaks, and right away, we have
a Jiggy that we could have collected earlier. Across the Stomping Plains in Terrydactyland,
there's a solo Banjo switch that opens the gate to an otherwise unreachable area in Hailfire
Peaks, but we need the Snooze Pack from Grunty Industries first. So even though this would
otherwise be a detour Jiggy, because we're not able to get there on our first trip through
Terrydactyland without violating the rules, we have to leave this one behind.
We also can't get the Colosseum Kickball Jiggy since we'd have to
travel back to Mayahem Temple to get the Stony transformation, which is a no-go.
And lastly, there's the oil drill and this one is a case of so close yet so far. Everything you need
to do for this Jiggy is done in Hailfire Peaks, but for some reason, the Jiggy appears in Grunty
Industries' basement even though it counts as a Hailfire Peaks Jiggy. It's an isolated
area so this does count as a detour Jiggy, but still, blech. Anyway, that gets us to
54 Jiggies and since the last world, Cloud Cuckooland, is designed to be reached with all
the moves collected and we can get easily Canary Mary to appear here (unfortunately), there's
no collectibles in here that we can't grab, so let's take stock of what we’ve got.
Without any backtracking, we’ve collected 64 out of 90 Jiggies, alongside 40 out of 45
Jinjos, 22 out of 25 Cheato Pages, and 880 out of 900 Notes. We’re six Jiggies shy of the
70 needed for the final boss, so does that mean we can't beat Banjo-Tooie without backtracking?
Well, before we answer that, let's talk about the Jinjos. Your goal with the Jinjos is to reunite
each colored family, and collecting all the Jinjos in a family grants you a Jiggy automatically.
The places where Jinjos are hidden are always the same but their colors are randomized, so each
time you play, each Jinjo will have a different color. There are 33 Jinjo patterns in the game,
randomly selected once you start a new file.
We're only interested in these five Jinjos right
here as they're the ones that can't be collected without backtracking. Each column represents a
pattern, and if there's even one instance of a color still remaining after removing the Jinjos
we can save, then we know that we can't save that Jinjo family and won't get their Jiggy.
Now, again, our Jiggy count so far is 64, meaning we'd need to rescue six Jinjo
families to reach the 70 Jiggy requirement. Taking all this into account, here's the number of
Jinjo families we save for each of these patterns, and you'll notice that not all of them reach
six. In fact, 12 out of the 33 patterns give us an insufficient number; most save five
families and one unlucky pattern only nets you four. That means there's about a 36.3% chance that
you won't save the required amount of families.
So taking all of that into consideration,
our final item tally without any backtracking is 22 Cheato Pages, 880 Notes, 40
Jinjos, and depending on your luck, between 68 and 71 Jiggies. With the fluctuating
Jiggy Count due to random chance, I have to conclude that it is NOT completely possible
to beat Banjo-Tooie without backtracking...
...unless you count the detour collectibles —
now remember, we were keeping track of those too. Let's start with that Jinjo in Grunty
Industries which can only be accessed from Jolly Roger's Lagoon. Again, depending on
your pattern, this could net you another Jiggy, so let's quickly head back to the chart. Even if
we just collect this Jinjo and nothing further, we can already reduce the number of unsuccessful
patterns from 12 to 2 — bringing our percentage of a bad seed down to 6.1%. And because that
unlucky four-family pattern gains a Jiggy when considering this swing, the minimum
number of saved families rises to five, meaning our minimum Jiggy total is now
69 — still one off from the coveted 70.
Thankfully, we can easily knock that out with
two detour Jiggies. First is the Sacred Relic in Mayahem Temple, which requires a quick trip
to the Unga Bunga's Cave in Terrydactyland.
Then we have the Oil Drill in Hailfire
Peaks which, again, inexplicably appears in Grunty Industries. Two easy Jiggies to
grab, and we've hit our required count.
Redoing our tally, we now have an additional
Jinjo and two more Jiggies, with a potential third Jiggy depending on the pattern. So we'll
have between 71 and 74 Jiggies. Given all that, I can say for real that it is completely possible
to beat Banjo-Tooie without backtracking...
...but let's see how far we can push it.
See, until now, I've only been going by what the game expects you to do in order
to complete tasks. So let's say we ignore that and take some sneaky shortcuts while
still abiding by the no backtracking rule.
First, we actually can grab that Treble Clef
in Jinjo Village without the Grip Grab with a somewhat precise Beak Buster off of this
window, meaning we can collect all 900 Notes. This move sends Banjo up slightly before
he slams down, and you can take advantage of that by moving towards the ledge which, with
Banjo's height boost, gets you up there easily.
This is a very useful little trick that makes a
lot of shortcuts possible, such as the next one in Mayahem Temple. That Jiggy atop the pillars
can be grabbed by jumping off the pillars with the Talon Trot, Feathery Flapping at the right
time, then using the Beak Buster to get an extra bit of height and extend the jump. The timing
is a little strict, but with some practice, this one's a cinch to grab.
We can also get that Cheato Page at the Glitter Gulch Mine entrance by just
jumping off the rope here and flapping onto the sign — something so incredibly easy to do
that I'm wondering why they even bothered to put the Springy Step Shoes there.
The Power Hut Jiggy is easy to get without Splitting Up to turn on the lights
by just carefully navigating the dark room, either by using Fire Eggs or cranking
up the brightness on your TV.
In Jolly Roger's Lagoon, once we have the Wing
Whack, we can become solo Kazooie, grab the Turbo Trainers inside Blubber's shop, head into
the Smuggler's Cavern through Jolly's basement, and with the right timing, jump as the timer for
the shoes wear off, Feathery Flap, then Wing Whack to get enough distance to get this Jiggy without
Gliding. Jump too early and you won't be able to flap before you end up beneath the platform.
Jump too late and you won't have enough speed to get over there. Another simple trick, if a
little hard to pull off with the tight timing.
In Terrydactyland, that Cheato Page inside
Dippy's Watering Hole can be nabbed with a precise Clockwork Kazooie Egg shot while the
pool is still drained; the positioning is pretty precise and otherwise, the Clockwork will miss or
explode on impact, but it's definitely possible.
As I said earlier, Banjo needed to grab the Snooze
Pack in Grunty Industries before he could trek through the Stomping Plains alone. However, if
you jump at just the right time and just the right angle, you can actually clip through Stomponadon's
foot and avoid its hitbox, letting solo Banjo get across unscathed. There's actually a pretty
neat setup for this trick that makes it pretty consistent; shoutouts to g0goTBC for detailing
this, their video on it is in the description. Now, again, this counts as a detour since it
leads to the Jiggy trapped behind the ice wall in Hailfire Peaks, but with this trick, we can just
grab it and go without going against the rules.
Finally, let’s do some shortcuts in Grunty
Industries, starting with getting in there in the first place. If we go to the Fire Exit door in the
back outside, you’ll notice that there's a small gap on the left hand side. By lining up a shot
there, we can launch a Clockwork Kazooie inside and use that to hit the switch to open up
the door, letting us enter without having to leave and come back — so that exception for
entering Grunty Industries is irrelevant.
Like I previously mentioned, it is super easy to
get across the gap to reach the Tintops fight just by jumping and Feathery Flapping as solo Kazooie,
meaning the Glide is really unnecessary here. Alternatively, we can also get up there by using
this Shock Jump Pad as solo Kazooie, which lets us clip through the railing and initiate the fight.
Lastly, we can cross the toxic waste in the basement without the Sack Pack by jumping in and
out of the toxic waste as quickly as possible, since the waste doesn't spit you out until
you've been in there for a little while.
If you do all of those tricks after getting all
the non-backtracking items, you bring your total Jiggy count up to between 74 and 77 Jiggies.
By factoring in the detour collectibles again, our actual final tally for everything
rests at 24 Cheato Pages, 41 Jinjos, 900 Notes, and between 77 and 80 Jiggies. And
that's not even the farthest you could go; I left out some tricks that are either only
possible on the Nintendo 64 version or that are way too difficult for me to pull off,
so this tally could be even higher. So if there was still any doubt left, we can
pretty definitively state that it IS completely possible to beat Banjo-Tooie without
backtracking. Okay, I really am done now.
Look, I didn't make this video to prove any kind
of point. I'm not trying to claim anything about the backtracking in Banjo-Tooie except that
the amount of necessary backtracking is zero. You can conclude from that that it isn't as
pervasive a problem as some make it out to be, or that even if the amount isn't that high, the
fact that there is any to begin with still turns you away. Either viewpoint is valid, and if
you still don't like the backtracking, that's perfectly alright. Really, I did this primarily
to satisfy a curiosity of mine, and hopefully, I've satisfied it for some of you as well.
With that said, if you enjoyed this video, then give it a like, leave a comment, and be
sure to subscribe and click that bell to be notified when new videos go live. This is a
new video format for me and a fun one to do; I don't know if I'll do another one soon, but
if I do, what other challenges would you like to see me tackle? Until next time,
this is CloudConnection signing off.
