Ah, Banjo-Kazooie, one of many amazing titles developed and released by Rare(ware) on Nintendo consoles before they slipped into the Dark Ages. The aforementioned company, Rare,are well known for their timeless and great video games, such as the Donkey Kong series, Star Fox, Conkers Bad Fur Day, Perfect Dark, and Goldeneye 007. All of these games impressed the public-and Banjo-Kazooie wan't any different. Released in the summer of '98, this game was immediately met with positive reception from gamers and critics alike-and with good reason. The game was successful enough to spawn a great sequel-Banjo Tooie-but we'll talk about that another time. I shall highlight the reasons for its success below-so, please, sit back, relax and enjoy the review.

Firstly, the Graphics.

The graphics in this game were-and still are today-constantly praised for their outstanding and appealing appearance. And so they should-they are eye catching right from the start, as the game opens with a colorful and cheerful cutscene, in which we see some of our main characters-the titular characters Banjo and Kazooie, Tootie and Mumbo-play an array of musical instruments. All of these mentioned characters have clear and clean models, and are nicely presented. Most of the enemies in this game share the same trait. The worlds are all highly detailed, and this really does add to the atmosphere in the levels. You are almost always surrounded with an array of colors-in contrast to Super Mario 64, where the walls just seemed to be shaded and not actually colored in. The animations in this game are all great, and there are only a couple of setbacks I can think of.
The first setback would probably be some of the enemies. A prime example would be Bawl the Turnip, an enemy encountered in first area of the game. He just looks like he has no texture(which is ironic, considering he is an garlic bulb) and another example would be the skeleton enemy in Mad Monster Mansion. I think he looks unfinished, in a way. Another setback would be the appearance of water in this game. I think it looks almost like a solid. That might just be me, actually.
Nonetheless, this game really did push the system to its limits, and the graphics may be on par-if not superior- to other N64 blockbusters, such as Donkey Kong 64 and Super Mario 64. And with only a few setbacks, and a whole lot of pros, I rate the graphics a 10 out of 10.

Secondly, the Sound.

The sound in this game is another contributing factor to this games success. Many of the musical scores in this game are beautifully composed, and all of the muscial themes fit their respective worlds perfectly. Items which are commonly associated with the worlds actual theme are used in the worlds music, such as an organ in Mad Monster Mansion(an organ is typically associated with horror, and MMM's theme is horror) and the foghorns in Rusty Bucket Bay(RBB is set on a ship, and foghorns are found on ships). I found this technique to be very clever.
There is also a wide variety of music in the game. This game contains music which is mellow, music which is frantic, music that makes you panic...and I can't point out any mishaps with the music. The sound effects in this game aren't as good in my opinion, however. Sure, there are some great sounds, such as the evil cackle of Gruntilda or the carefree, goofy laughter of Banjo. But then there are the nasty ones, which make my ears hurt. Examples include the humming of bees and the attack sound of the pipe enemies in Rusty Bucket Bay. As with the Graphics, however, these are only minor mistakes, and overall, the sounds rival those of Super Mario 64 and even-to a certain extent- Ocarina of Time. I am rating it a 9.

Next up, Addictiveness.

This is just one of those games that I find myself coming back to time after time, mainly because I am trying to beat my fastest time or doing something stupid like playing through the game without losing a life. This is a game which you can play time and time again because of the sheer amount of collectibles there are to find, including Mumbo Tokens, Jinjos, Jiggies and Notes. Collecting everything 100% would be a proud accomplishment and to beat it with loads of time to spare? Awesome! Everyone would wanna do that, right? But after a while, it does become pretty boring. It isn't like Super Mario 64, where you can try different techniques over and over again, because it goes through one world at a time. I am rating this a 6 out of 10.

Now, the Story.

The story for this game is just like many other N64 games-short, but detailed cutscene at the start informing the player of the current events. The cutscene explains that Gruntilda, the evil and haggardly witch, is sick and tired of looking ugly. She becomes envious of Tooty's (Banjo's younger sister) looks, and, as any other normal person would do, flies out into Spiral Mountain, snatches Tooty on her Broomstick and flies back into her mountainous lair. When Banjo hears the commotion outside, he goes out to investigate, but is too late to help Tooty, and Bottles the Mole tells Banjo about the kidnapping.

Unlike other N64 games, the story is kept fresh in your mind as you travel through Gruntilda's lair-she repeatedly taunts you as you proceed through her lair, and once you finally reach the top, a trivia game-with Tooty as the main prize-is organised by Grunty. Once you save Tooty from the clutches of the evil witch, Tooty reminds Banjo that the witch had escaped from him, and he climbs to the spire.

 But, I can't tell you how she is defeated. Anyways, this story is one that has been used over and over again, but because it is brought to life in this amazing game, I'll rate it a 8/10.

Penultimate factor: Depth.

This game is one of those which seems huge for first time players, and then feels like it decreases in size the more you play it. The actual worlds themselves aren't too big, with a few exceptions. Mumbo's Mountain is small, probably two thirds the size of Bob-Omb Battlefield from Super Mario 64, but then you get worlds like Click Clock Wood, which must have at least 10 accessible areas inside of it depending on the season. Some are small, some are huge.

But the size of this game is not, in my opinion, determined by the size of the worlds alone, but also the sheer amount of collectibles waiting to be picked up. The game offers a lot of choices to be made, such as the order of the jiggies which you collect, unlike SM64, which follows a set course. The game has an awful lot of mumbo tokens, notes, jiggies and jinjos to collect in every world, and collecting every single one of them would be a proud achievement. I have already noted these reasons down somewhere else in the review, so I won't go into too much detail. But the amount of time taken to complete this game 110% would probably be a long time, unless you're going for a speedrun. I'm rating Depth an 8/10.

Finally, the difficulty.

The contorls in this game are easy to learn, and most of the movements in this game are expertly executed. Every button is used for a different function and none are wasted. All of the moves that Bottles teaches you are taught in a clear and easy to understand way, and are easy and effective. I don't really have much to say about controls...

Oh wait, the camera. The camera-while not the worst one in video gaming-is exceptionally tedious to use. To get it into the right place takes effort, and angles can often change abruptly, lkeading to the player messing up an important jump. And because you can't really change the sensitivity, you are stuck like that. I would go on to say that it is actually rage inducing in some cases. 

The actual game itself, however, is probably among the easiest platforming games on the system. It can be easily completed, even with mediocre skill, because the movements of Banjo are so perfectly executed and worlds themselves pose no real threat. I feel that if it was a more challenging game, then it would be on par with SM64's difficulty. Because of the easiness, I am rating the difficulty a 6/10.

Well, that was it-my first ever review. I hope that you enjoyed it, and thanks for sparing your time to read my review. The overall score for this video game will be...a great 8!

 

This is a pretty dang good review my man. When I see reviews from newer members, a good amount of the time they are out 100 words if that. I was expecting to see that but I was very wrong! Your review had a pretty good amount of detail, is was spaced out well, everything was where it should be, and you seemed to know what you are talking about. Good work man and keep it up.

GenesisJunkie : Thanks for the feedback, much appreciated!

Wow. How is this your first review!? My reviews right now are not as good as this. I really think you did an outstanding job on this review.

I'll be blunt: I've never played this game. deapite having an n64. I do want to try it, it's one of the classic n64 games after all.