BANJO-KAZOOIE (XBLA)  Posted by Dan Pearson on Dec 11, 2008 17:49 (Dec 11, 2008 17:49) |
||||||||||||||||
Once upon a time RARE used to program for Nintendo, their ideas and focus went perfectly with Nintendo’s own ethos of bringing out quality family titles. During the N64 age RARE could do no wrong, Killer Instinct, Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, Donkey Kong 64, Conker and both Banjo games were simply amazing at the time, however quality came at a price, the games took forever to make and in the end infuriated fanboys wanting more titles.
The Gamecube did not fare so well and following a huge payout RARE moved to Microsoft, but the magic didn’t seem to follow, Perfect Dark Zero was OK, Kameo was just one of those games that was brought over from the past gen, only Viva Pinata proved to have any sort of style that we associate with the RARE team. The most recent release Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts very nearly regained some of that, receiving a healthy 8.2 score in our review. Now to remind us all how good RARE used to be they have raided the back catalogue and given us the original Banjo for the Arcade.
Banjo is a laid back bear who’s world is torn apart when the evil Gruntilda (furious that she is no longer the most beautiful in the land) kidnaps his sister Tootie. Both Banjo and his annoying bird friend Kazooie set off to save her over a massive 3D platform romp that is quite similar to Mario’s first epic N64 adventure.
 The land is set up in 8 hubs that each have their own environments, to open new areas up you need to collect a certain amount of Jiggies (small pieces of a jigsaw puzzle). Aside from the usual classic platforming and killing enemies you also have the ability to morph into other animals like a bee and a termite with the help of a local shaman. Banjo is the main character however you can pull out Kazooie at any time and use one of his many moves such as firing eggs and flying to assist with defeating enemies and solve puzzles.
Banjo and Kazooie is a 3D platformer therefore the controls take the form of a classic setup that work fine on the Xbox controller. You do need to take into consideration that this game is over 10 years old and an awful lot has improved over time. The camera control is tough to keep it where you want and at times the controls feel sluggish, especially when flying and swimming, but when all is said and done it has achieved an awful lot and I any still enjoying replaying the whole game.
Banjo Kazooie comes at a price of 1200 points, which I feel is reasonable for a game that will take some time to complete 100%.
|
||||||||||||||||
 |
Comments |  |
