Review: Banjo-Tooie

After their first adventure in Banjo-Kazooie, Banjo and Kazooie promised a sequel that would allow you to connect the two games together using a little thing called Stop n' Swop. Alright so we didn't exactly get Stop n' Swop but what we did get was yet another amazing game even bigger then the last in the form of Banjo-Tooie.

On the box for the game it read, the bear and bird are back, and wasn't it the truth as this time they would be back in an even bigger and more complex adventure. Banjo and Kazooie are once again facing off against that evil with, Gruntilda who's been trapped under the rock where she was left at the end of Banjo-Kazooie for two years now. Now that is a long time to be trapped and just as you would expect it's taken a toll on her as she is now nothing more then a skeleton of her former self. This time however she's not along as she's accepted the help of her two sisters, Mingella and Blobbelda. Of course Gruntilda's right hand servant Klungo will be making a return appearance through out the game as you'll actually get to face off against him in several boss battles throughout the game.

Moving forward lets talk about the storyline of the game. The majority of the main storyline is Gruntilda and her sisters trying to restore her to her original body. Of course they're not going to take any sort of nice approach to his as they plan to drain the life from those in the new over world, the Isle o' Hags, and transfer them on to none other then Gruntilda. Banjo and Kazooie have problems with not only that but the fact that the trio of witches destroyed their home and killed their mentor from the previous game, Bottles.

Just as I mentioned Bottles is out meaning he can't teach you any new moves so it'll now be up to his slightly more strict brother Sergeant Jamjars. To make things even more exciting you start off with every single move you learned in the previous game meaning that things could only go up from here with all new moves most of which are completely different then anything from the other game. This time around you won't be using music notes to open doors but you will need a certain amount of them in order to learn each new move. Also the music notes work much different from the previous game as the record system is thrown out the window allowing you to collect notes and leave the level and come back and collect the rest whenever you feel like it.

Next up is the worlds in the game and boy are there a lot of them this time around and you know what? They're even better, they may be a little bigger and size and harder to navigate them but they are a hell of a lot more detailed. the over world is also much more detailed this time around as it feels much more unique as in the previous games you at times felt trapped as you were only exploring Gruntilda's lair where no you have an entire continent to explore. The method of unlocking each level in this game is different as well as in Banjo-Tooie you'll need to actually solve the puzzle before you can unlock the world but it also keeps all the puzzles in one place instead of scattering them out. What I mean by having to solve them is that you will have a time limit in which you will have to place all the pieces into their appropriate place in the moving picture in order to open the next world. Of course you will still need a certain amount of jigsaw pieces which are collected very much the same as in the last game.

Of course Banjo and Kazooie won't be able to pull of a huge adventure on their own as their good friend Mumbo makes a return with a completely different role this time as you'll actually get a chance to play as him in order to help the duo reach some of the out of reach jigsaw pieces with his magic. When playing as Mumbo you can use his magic to affect the surrounding whenever he's standing on one of the pads with his face on it. However Mumbo's not alone this time around as yet another shaman, a female shaman named Humba Wumba, joins in as well as she takes up Mumbo's old job of transforming Banjo and Kazooie into all sorts of things, most of which are completely different from the previous game. Of course since Mumbo isn't the only magic user in the game they could no longer go with Mumbo tokens but this time the changed it up adding a magical creature know as the Glowbo into the mix. Another change is that you'll actually only need one Glowbo to activate each of Mumbo and Wumba's magics in each of the worlds and all the Glowbo's seem to be place in stupidly obvious locations right near Mumbo and Wumba's homes.

Another thing within the game that has changed ever so slightly is how the ever so lovable Jinjo's work as now you don't have to collect five in each world but you'll be trying to collect all of one color which the amount of each color in that family differs by color. Other then that they remain mostly the same as they still have their famous catch phase as they'll yell help whenever you get close to them. Once you collect all of one family you will be awarded with, of course, a jigsaw piece. Beware of the evil Jinjo's which will instantly try and kill you whenever you get near.

The stories in each of the separate world remain separated just like in the previous game where they seem to have a storyline of their own. However a few of the worlds are actually connected by tunnel systems which will make it possible for you to travel between one world to the other in certain cases which will allow you to collect a few extra Jigsaw pieces.

The controls in the game really stay more or less the same as in the first game and the same really goes for much of the other features in the game including the graphics and music in the game. Some of the music in Tooie is also heard in the original. Of course the mumbling returned oonce again as it gave all of the returning character their exact same voice making it feel like an extremely similar game from the last.

Overall Banjo-Tooie sticks to a close to identical system from Banjo-Kazooie except for a few game play mechanics that changed in the production. As for the things that stayed the same, as they say if it ain't broke don't fix it and both Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie were never broken and are two of the greats on the N64 system.