Banjo-Tooie

Pros • can play as other characters • attractive graphics • many new moves • Excellent gameplay with lots of replay value • new multiplayer mini-games	Cons • steep learning curve • Frame rate and clipping issues • sound effects and speech are cheesy
Bottom Line Simply one of the best 3D platformers of our time. Rare and Nintendo do it again. You got to hand it to Nintendo. One of the smartest decisions it ever made was signing U.K. game makers Rare, resulting in a string of commercially and critically successful titles for its Nintendo 64 system: GoldenEye, Diddy Kong Racing, Banjo-Kazooie, Jet Force Gemini, Donkey Kong 64 and Perfect Dark, just to name a few. Fortunately for us Nintendo 64 owners looking for something to sink our teeth into over these cold winter months, the guys at Rare are back on the scene in one of their most ambitious and enjoyable titles to date: Banjo-Tooie.

This epic adventure is of course the sequel to 1998's aforementioned and equally as ambitious Banjo-Kazooie, staring the antics of Banjo the Bear and Kazooie, a red-breasted "bregall". The game continues exactly where it last left off--Gruntilda the evil witch is still trapped underground by a giant boulder. Her devoted assistant, Klungo, and Gruntilda's two sisters manage to free her and of course she vows revenge on Banjo and Kazooie. She also needs a body to live in since she's nothing but bones! Shortly after returning to the surface, Gruntilda disrupts a poker game between Banjo, Kazooie, Mumbo and Bottles the Mole and destroys their house, and zapping poor Bottles who didn't make it out in time...

Before tackling Banjo-Tooie’s huge worlds, players must learn all the different moves, such as jumping, shooting eggs, climbing, gliding and so forth. This is similar to the mandatory training level found in the first game.

Players must also collect the all-important "jiggys" (jigsaw pieces) in order to travel between worlds and open new ones by solving many puzzles strewn throughout the lands. The jiggys also result in new moves to learn, with 40 new ones in this game. Examples include Kazooie's "wing whack" attack, the "breegall blaster" super egg-firer and "claw clamber" boots which you can use to walk up walls.

And unlike its predecessor, this time gamers can play as Banjo or Kazooie separately, and many of these new moves learned throughout the game are played as separate creatures.

Also new to this series is the ability to play as other characters and objects in given levels. This includes the spellcasting shaman Mumbo, a powerful Tyrannosaurus Rex, a submarine, a stone statue, a van, a washing machine, and a few others.

As if this didn't deepen and lengthen the gameplay, Rare has also added something many Banjo-Kazooie fans had asked for to begin with: multiplayer play. Banjo-Tooie supports up to four-players on the same screen (split-screen) in a number of mini-games such as bumper cars, hoop-jumping, a "lite" first-person shooter (my personal fave) and so forth. In total, there are fourteen game and game variances to choose from.

Visually speaking, Banjo-Tooie is probably one of the best-looking titles for the platform to date. All the characters, objects and environments (eight in total) are beautifully rendered, and with painstaking detail. Greatly improved over the first game is the draw distances so backgrounds look good from afar with very little "popping" when approaching, and the real-time lighting effects are quite impressive, as well. And for those interested, the game also supports 16:9 enhanced wide-screen mode.

Unfortunately, the frame rate suffers as a result. This was noticeable right at the beginning of the game when I approached the fine-looking waterfall, and it’s even more sluggish in a four-player Deathmatch mode. Fortunately, it didn't detract from the gameplay much at all. The only other beef is that the "camera" angles were a little confusing at times... I found the view didn't allow for looking ahead very far so I would've preferred it to be a bit lower and tilted more behind the playable character to expose a greater line of sight.

There's not much to write about on the audio front; while the sounds are marginally improved, and now with Dolby Surround support, the Nintendo 64 is still years behind CD and DVD-based games. After four years of the N64, I can't stand to hear noises to accompany text instead of true speech. Sheesh...
Overall, however, Banjo-Tooie offers boatloads of fun gameplay, and for many different kinds of gamers be they young or old, male or female, experienced player or newcomer to these kinds of games. Its cute cartoon-like graphics and deep gameplay ensures many, many hours in front of the tube to play solo or alongside friends or family members.

All I can say after playing this game is that I can't wait for Dinosaur Planet and Conker's Bad Fur Day...and of course...whatever Rare has up its sleeve for the Nintendo GameCube. Bring it on, guys, bring it on...

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