A video game review written by: Lee Sonogan
(1998) N64/Adventure, comedy, family
Many tricks are up my sleeve, to save yourself, you’d better leave!
This game made on the Nintendo 64 is one of the best platform video games ever made. The game is about the witch Gruntilda capturing Banjo’s beloved sister, intending to leech the girl’s youth and beauty through black magic and mad science. Banjo and Kazooie set out across nine worlds to get her back. In modern times, its spiritual successor is the game Yooka-Laylee.. I have not played Yooka-Laylee before.
The game began development as an RPG for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System known as ‘Project Dream’ which was to feature a boy hero who’d have to fight pirates, one being Captain Black Eye The game quickly grew to be too expensive for the limits of the SNES system capabilities and production shifted focus to the upcoming Nintendo 64.
There are 100 Jiggy’s in the entire game but only 98 of them are used in Grunty’s Lair’s picture puzzles, leaving just 2 Jiggy’s. If less than 100 Jiggys are collected before finishing the final battle, Mumbo won’t reveal his secret. If you do collect all 100 Jiggys when you finish the game, Mumbo will give you a sneak peek of what to expect for the sequel ‘Banjo-Tooie in 2000’. Grunty’s last words also differ on what Jiggy amount was held by the end.
The voices in the game are not real speech, but rather a looping of voice-like sounds when text bubbles were displayed. This artistic choice was made due to memory limitations on the Nintendo 64 cartridges.
The soundtrack, consisting of music from the game composed by Grant Kirkhope, was released by Nintendo of America on a limited edition Compact Disc. This CD was sold exclusively at Best Buy stores and the Nintendo Power Catalog with two additional tracks. Nintendo styled music at its best.
One of the few video games I would play again. It is just so creative and fun to play. The puzzles and worlds are stacked with much great stuff. Music makes it even more fun. The ending is what you want. For its time it shattered what I called a good game. I recommend this video game to everyone of all ages.
8.35/10
Come to me, my little pretty. You’ll soon be ugly. What a pity!