Banjo-Kazooie - Nintendo 64

Product description ------------------- Trouble is brewing on Spiral ain! Gruntilda the witch, wildly jealous of Tooty the Honey Bear's good looks; is determined to steal them for herself! But even as she whisks the helpless youngster off to her tower, Tooty's big brother Banjo and his loud-mouthed partner Kazooie are hot on the trail to rescue her...Aided by the mystical shaman Mumbo Jumbo, Banjo and Kazooie must tackle gloomy swamps, scorching deserts, towering ain ranges and spooky haunted houses on their way to the final confrontation at the summit of Gruntilda's Lair. .com ---- Banjo-Kazooie mimics the look and feel of Mario 64, a truly innovative and visually stunning game that belongs in any Nintendo 64 collection. But don't brush off this 3-D action-adventure as an uninspired clone. On the contrary, Banjo-Kazooie introduces more than enough originality to warrant a spot next to its famous mentor. The game introduces two of the most charming virtual heroes in recent years--the goofy, floppy honey bear, Banjo, and his faithful, feathered sidekick Kazooie. In the game's introduction, we discover that the sinister witch Gruntilda not only nabbed Banjo's sister Tooty, but stole her beauty as well. Naturally, it's up to the bear-bird team to retrieve Tooty and rid the world of one darned inconsiderate witch. In this beautifully-rendered and massive game world, players run, jump, swim, climb, and flip over obstacles, defeat all sorts of "baddies," and find and collect numerous items and clues that help the quest to progress. Playing as both Banjo and Kazooie, players hone their characters' actions, learning nearly two dozen special moves that help players expertly defeat foes and successfully tread through the nine worlds. Banjo-Kazooie is one of those games that can demand hours upon hours of perseverance, patience, and learning of skills to complete. But don't let that discourage you. This epic game is so much fun that reaching the end will be an afterthought. --Eric Twelker Pros: * Nicely-paced game world filled with well-designed challenges * Excellent character control with numerous special moves * Gorgeous graphics Cons:* Numerous--often complex--special moves may discourage some casual gamers P.when('A').execute(function(A) { A.on('a:expander:toggle_description:toggle:collapse', function(data) { window.scroll(0, data.expander.$expander[0].offsetTop-100); }); }); Review ------ A lot of people are writing off Banjo-Kazooie as a Super Mario 64 clone. Now let's think about this for a bit. Mario 64 was a revolutionary game. It redefined what people expected from a platform game. Banjo-Kazooie follows in the footsteps of Mario 64. It doesn't stray too far from the formula, but it makes the logical progressions you would expect Nintendo to make. The storyline is fairly typical. Banjo's sister, Tooty, has been kipped by the evil witch, Gruntilda. Gruntilda is hoping to use some wacky contraption to steal Tooty's youth. It's up to Banjo and Kazooie, the grumpy bird that lives in his backpack, to venture into Gruntilda's lair and stop the witch before it's too late. Once inside, you'll find an insanely huge overworld and nine levels to contend with. Mario's stars have been replaced by jigsaw puzzle pieces. These "jiggys" are used to open each level. Coins have been replaced by notes. You'll need to have a certain number of notes to proceed throughout the overworld. The red coins have been replaced by birds. Collecting all the birds in a level will give you a jiggy. Each level contains ten jiggys, 100 notes, and five birds. The first thing you'll notice about B-K is its size. The game is much, much bigger than Mario 64. The overworld is huge, and the levels are spread pretty far apart. Usually, the puzzle that opens up a level isn't even near the level's entrance. The gameplay in Banjo-Kazooie follows Mario, but Banjo and his bird have a lot more moves than Mario ever had. Luckily, there are some great tutorials in the beginning that teach you the basic punching, jumping, and swimming maneuvers. You'll learn the rest (flying, how to use certain items, etc.) as you need them. While Banjo has several different attack moves, I found that his basic roll is usually more than enough to take out all the run-of-the-mill enemies. Graphically, Banjo-Kazooie takes it to another level. The game maintains the look and feel of Mario 64, but instead of flat, shaded polygons, BK uses a lot of textures. You would think that the a of texturing and the size of the levels would slow the game down a lot, but it runs nice and smoothly. The camera control has remained the same, but due to BK's many tight, enclosed areas, the camera sometimes fails to show the action from a playable perspective. Expect to miss some things that would normally be incredibly obvious, due to a bad angle. Also, you'll have to control the camera a bit more than you should have to, as it doesn't track perfectly. The sound and music are really well done. The soundtrack is infectious, and the character voices are very cool. All the "speech" is done in a Charlie Brown's teacher sort of way. If you were a fan of Mario 64, then it's pretty apparent that you're going to like Banjo-Kazooie as well. BK may be a Mario clone, but that isn't exactly a bad thing. In fact, it's a pretty good thing. In a world filled with mediocre N64 games, it's nice to see another truly great game on the system. -- Jeff Gerstmann --Copyright ©1999 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of GameSpot is prohibited. GameSpot and the GameSpot logo are trademarks of GameSpot Inc. -- GameSpot Review See more ( javascript:void(0) )

• Trouble is brewing on Spiral ain! Gruntilda the witch, wildly jealous of Tooty the Honey Bear's good looks; is determined to steal them for herself! But even as she whisks the helpless youngster off to her tower, Tooty's big brother Banjo and his loud-mouthed partner Kazooie are hot on the trail to rescue her...Aided by the mystical shaman Mumbo Jumbo, Banjo and Kazooie must tackle gloomy swamps, scorching deserts, towering ain ranges and spooky haunted houses on their way to the final.