Banjo Kazooie has recently come back in the form of a new game for the Xbox360 known as Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts. Even though it has been well endowed with positive reviews, it has been under fire for the lone reason that it strays far away from the original formula of a typical Banjo Kazooie game. In my opinion, they should hold their arms wide open for something different. I mean, look at Shadow of the Colossus and how different it was, and it was a success. Let’s step back about 8 years before this game came out, and get down to the sequel to the hit N64 game, Banjo Tooie. Is this sequel just as good or better then the last? Or does it suffer from most sequels becoming bargain bin trash or just not as good? Let’s just sit down and pick up the game. Before I start though, I want to thank my parents for buying me this game when I was young.
The story of this game takes place about two years after the first game. Gruntilda is still in the same hole and is covered by the same rock as she was at the end of Banjo Kazooie. Banjo and his friends are enjoying a game of poker, since nothing bad has been happening. The witch is dead, and her henchman from the last game, Klungo, is still trying to remove the boulder from on top of her. A few minutes later, a giant drill machine appears, and it reveals that the two people who piloted it were Gruntilda’s two sisters, Mingella and Blobbelda. They decide to bring her back to life and remove the boulder that covered the hole. Gruntilda is now back, and is ready to get revenge on the bear and bird. Mumbo finds this out, and is then chased and shot at by Gruntilda. He tells Banjo about what’s happening, and three of the four characters leave Banjo’s house, leaving Bottles inside, who thinks it’s just a joke. The next morning, Banjo’s house is now destroyed, and Bottles is now dead. Banjo is now going to beat Gruntilda yet again, and save Spiral Mountain.
The gameplay is still the same. It’s an action adventure plat-former where you go to multiple worlds to find jigsaw pieces, and use them to unlock other worlds. Though this time it’s alittle different. First off, instead of collecting tokens for the shaman Mumbo, you collect two Yobos. You give one to Mumbo, and then you can play as him, and do other stuff that Banjo and Kazooie can’t do. The other one you give to a new character named Humba Wumba, a Native American shaman, who takes over Mumbo’s job to transform you into different things on each level, depending on which level you are on. Bottles’ job is also taken over by a new mole who is Bottle’s cousin. His name is Jamjar, and he takes over the job of giving you new abilities like a drill move, and even separating Banjo and Kazooie from each other. This time, the worlds are about ten times bigger then the worlds in the last game. Now, this game is a little more challenging since you won’t be able to get every single jigsaw piece in every level. This time, you will have to backtrack to the levels, kind of like a Castlevania game, though Castlevania didn’t make you feel like a rat in the maze. The characters are even zanier then the last game. You have stuff like aliens, mutated pigs, a weasel, and a rhino running food stands and the list goes on. It’s just so amazing! The boss fights are also interesting this time around, providing an extra challenge to fighting them, like flying to pop a giant balloon boss, destroying a giant coal monster, etc. The different forms you take are also funny, like you become a submarine, a bee, a washing machine, and even a security van. It’s full of hilarious humor, just like in the last game. They even admit that they are a video game, and I like that humor. The msuic is also nicely done, and I couldn’t choose between the two games as to which is better.
Now, it’s time to pick up the controller and find the bad parts of the game. The only complaints I have are just small gripes, like the camera is a little awkward, and sometimes the game slows down, but I’m just going to gripe about it for a paragraph.
My final conclusion is that this is the best N64 game ever! I already put it down as the number 1 Nintendo 64 game, and I just think it’s true. I would say, go out and buy it for the N64, or get it off of Xbox Live. Now, I think I am more tempted to get a Xbox360 and some games for it, and maybe get Banjo Kazooie Nuts and Bolts, but that’s for another time.
This game gets a 9 out of 10.
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