Back in 2000, Rare was on top of the gaming world. Hot off the heels of their wildly-successful 007: Goldeneye game, they developed a new series, Banjo-Kazooie, about a loveable bumbling bear, Banjo, and his sassy bird sidekick, Kazooie. This series, too, enjoyed great success, and Rare published a sequel: Banjo-Tooie.

Now here we are nine years later and Rare has largely fallen from grace. Their recent games have scored solidly with critics and consumers, but are not the sensations of the past. Possibly in an attempt to remind gamers of their former glory, Rare has started a mild reinvention of the Banjo-Kazooie series. It began with a sequel, Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts, which took the series in a new direction that some loved, and others hated. Next came a re-release of the original Banjo-Kazooie exclusively on Xbox LIVE Arcade, and now Banjo-Tooie has arrived, virtually the same as it was all the way back at the turn of the century.

Gameplay

Banjo-Tooie is set two years after the events of the first game. Gruntilda the Witch remains buried under a rock and Banjo, Kazooie, and all their associates remain alive and well. At least, they do until one stormy night when Grunty’s two evil sisters, Mingella and Blobellda, show up in an armoured digging-machine and save her. Unfortunately, in her two years of imprisonment Gruntilda’s body has rotted away to nothing, and after blowing up Banjo’s house and killing Bubbles, the three witches flee to their hideout and begin brainstorming ways to get Grunty’s body back. Banjo and Kazooie set off in hot pursuit, and the game begins. Along the way, Banjo and Kazooie meet plenty of friends old and new, encounter a multitude of puzzles, battle many villains, and come across lots of laughs.

Fortunately, it all holds up almost as well as it did nearly a decade ago, especially the humour which will still make you laugh-out-loud. The game is hilariously satirical, and frequently pokes fun at itself and video games in general.

If only the gameplay had aged as well as the humour. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Playing Banjo-Tooie, it is apparent just how far gaming has come in the last decade. The level design, controls, and physics are outdated and the camera is not exactly intuitive, and this greatly affects one’s enjoyment while playing the game. When compared to modern-day platformers, Banjo-Tooie just can’t compete.

The game is a third-person platformer. The player controls Banjo most of the time, although occasionally the player’s control will shift to Kazooie or any other number of characters. Banjo can jump, run, and even hover with a little help from Kazooie, who rides shotgun in a backpack. The controls are uncomfortably translated from the original N64 ones to the 360 controller, and are a bit stiff at times. It’s not horrible, but annoying nonetheless. Banjo and Kazooie will also encounter plenty of enemies through the course of the adventure, and they can incapacitate them in a number of ways. Rolling into them, pecking at them, shooting eggs, or even bum-dropping right onto their heads; all effective ways of destroying your foe.

The game is a platformer, though, and so you will be doing less fighting and more leaping from ledges and navigating narrow walkways. This part of the game is largely good, but there are some poor details throughout it, including some crummy level design. Many of the levels are laid out in a way that is pleasing aesthetically but confusing to navigate. Having a large mountain with a temple placed on top in the middle of a level might look neat, but when it obscures the player’s vision and he can’t see his objective on the other side, alarm bells should go off.

Due equally in part to the poor level design and a lack of direction, a player can often spend far too long aimlessly wandering around a level, hoping to stumble upon the next switch or find a hidden door. It is incredibly frustrating to not know what the heck you are supposed to be doing, and unfortunately that often surfaces in Banjo-Tooie. For example, on the aforementioned mountain-with-a-pyramid-on-top level, I spent a whole hour wandering around before I found that I was supposed to go through a door hidden behind the mountain, not the all-too-conveniently placed door first seen from the level entry. It’s simply bad design choices like this that bring Banjo-Tooie down significantly.

Another problem is the camera, which often swings wildly around. This, as you can imagine, is hugely frustrating when trying to make a precarious jump or fight a dangerous enemy. It is yet another problem that stacks upon others, and the resulting tower of minor design and control issues results in a major issue.

Problems aside, the core platforming is still functional and fun, and made more so by the many different actions players perform. Powerups are scattered throughout levels, and they affect Banjo in a variety of ways. Several will cause Banjo and Kazooie to reverse roles; Kazooie flips Banjo over and takes the reins. Sometimes, Kazooie will run extra fast, or jump higher. In addition, at certain spots on the map, Kazooie can take flight and soar through the air, taking Banjo with her. The powerups provide an extra layer of depth to the gameplay, and although they are not always necessary to complete a level, they almost always enable the player to uncover tantalizing secrets.

Often one of those secrets is one of the many collectable items hidden in the world. Jiggies, jingos, treble clefs, music notes, and pages from the book Cheato; all vary in effects and concentration. Book pages unlock cheat codes and jiggies unlock new worlds to visit, for example. This ensures replay value, as players will often find themselves returning to previous worlds to hunt down the last few scattered items.

Banjo-Tooie was a very impressive game a decade ago, but now other games have built upon its concepts, and the result is a very dated experience. The way games play has changed; controls have become more intuitive, unruly cameras have been, for the most part, reigned in, and physics engines are far more realistic. Banjo-Tooie has none of these improvements, and the game suffers for it.

As aforementioned, Banjo-Tooie doesn’t take itself too seriously, and this feeling is reflected in its audio-visual style. A huge colour palette and cartoon-inspired environments place you inside an interactive comic strips (and the characters, story and dialogue enhance that feeling). Unfortunately, the age shows in the graphics. Jagged edges and ugly textures detract considerably from the otherwise pretty visuals. Contrastingly, the character models are surprisingly good. Overall, though, Banjo-Tooie’s visuals, like many of its other aspects, are just too dated to compete with other games currently available.

The audio is a lot of fun. A quirky soundtrack is a treat for the ears. There is no voice acting to speak of, but each character has a unique sound, for lack of a better word, that plays when they speak. Kazooie’s is high and nasally, matching her sarcastic personality. Banjo’s is low and grumbling, like his carefree goodwill. And so on, and so on for all the game’s major characters. Other sound effects are acceptable, but, once again, this game is nine years old, and the audio quality is relatively poor.

For 1200 MS Points ($15), you can buy some pretty impressive games on the XBLA. Braid, Castle Crashers, and Peggle, for example, have scored high with consumers and critics alike. For this reason, it would not seem unreasonable to expect more than a simple port of an N64 game with only minimally updated graphics and gameplay. Unfortunately, this is basically what we are getting with Banjo-Tooie. Granted, Rare has made some slight changes, the most notable of which is Stop N’ Swop. This allows you to unlock special rewards in Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts. There are also some minor presentation tweaks, but nothing that would significantly impact the gamers ultimate decision: to buy or not to buy.

When all is said and done, gamers wishing to relive the glory days of wholesome, 64-bit goodness will want to download and enjoy Banjo-Tooie; in reality, most will already have done so. On the flip side, the modern gamer wishing to see what all the fuss about Banjo and his pal Kazooie is will be disappointed, as they will go in expecting something that is amazing and get something that was amazing… back at the turn of the century. Games today are very focused on technical performance--that is, incredible graphics, innovations in gameplay, immersive sound, and the like--and Banjo-Tooie just can’t compete. It was released nine years ago; this is only to be expected. But in such a competitive market, Rare should have made a greater effort in updating Banjo-Tooie, in graphics and gameplay alike. That or not priced it at a full 1200 MS Points.