Hello everyone I'm Jack Red, I finally beaten the last Banjo-Kazooie game in Rare Replay. Now, I know this is one of the most hated games of theirs as well as being one of their most underrated. Well, it's got a lot of hate & love depending who played it. Yes, this is one of those widely mixed reception games. The real question is a lot of you are probably asking.
Is this game even worth playing? To be quite honest, I'm deeply surprised by this game. It technically broke a major sequel rule. Yet at the same time, it delivered in an unexpected way. Basically, it isn't like the first two games at all. Which is a major turn off for a lot of fans. But trust me when I say it this game greatly makes up for it.
I would even say as of right now, this is the best of their Xbox 360 games excluding the three N64 remastered versions. I notice the original had a life system. But in Banjo-Tooie, you no longer had that system. You still can die while in Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts removes dying altogether. You can still be defeated or fail completing challenges so don't let that go to your head.
I also noticed the first two games were more of an unique adventure style platformer games. This is more like racing & solving puzzles. Wait a minute why does that sound familiar? A few weeks ago, I reviewed another game from Rare Replay called Blast Corps. Yeah, you mostly destroy buildings. Yet you do need to solve the puzzles in the main stages.
A good amount of the bonus stages are races. Now can you blame me for comparing that to this Banjo-Kazooie game? The notes originally opened paths as well as levels. But in Banjo-Tooie, they are used to get moves. It differs in Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. You can use notes to build up your stats, part blue prints as well as parts, or bride the police.
What is this Grand Theft Banjo-Kazooie Auto lol. Actually it's more like Lego games you can build things. You may not have most of your moves from the first two games. However, over time you'll get parts & blue prints to help build to your heart's desire. You can save up a lot of custom vehicles. In a nut shell, this is what's replacing your moves.
You would be mind blown how truly fast you can go in the water or on land or in the air. It reminds me of Saints Row IV with super speed at it's highest. Maybe not as ridiculous but you still go very fast. There's plenty of trial & errors depending on each challenge as well as how you go about em. You got six worlds that are broken up into six sections.
Spiral Mountain is strangely where the game begins as well where it ends. I will get more into that later. Everyone knows the original Banjo-Kazooie was heavily inspired by Super Mario 64. It is funny with the third game it took broken up each world into six sections. Similar to Super Mario 64, except you can only do stuff meant for that section.
Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts is in fact the third game. Oh well technically it's the fourth overall due to the only game not present in Rare Replay that's on Game Boy Advance. I'm not talking about Banjo Pilot either. Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge is interquel taking place between the first two games. I meant this is essentially the sequel to Banjo-Tooie a lot of people were waiting for.
Another major difference I notice is each major entry made all the worlds notably bigger than ever. You thought the worlds in Banjo-Tooie was huge, you haven't fully seen these worlds lol. I should mention, Lord of Games whose likely a parody of Rare themselves forces a different kind of showdown. Banjo & Kazooie must complete challenges to beat the game while she opposes them.
Grunty also gets more ridiculous. She was clearly alive in the original game. In the GBA game due to her body trapped from a boulder. Her spirit got transferred into a robot body. Which later got destroyed forcing her to wait for her sisters. In Banjo-Tooie, she appears undead with more of a zombie look. Now in this game, her head is in a tank attached to her body.
Let's be honest, there isn't much to go on in terms of it's story. You won't see ridiculous stuff like in the previous two games. Yes, there's a couple boss fights this time around. Sadly, it's mostly Grunty & Mr. Patch. Which brings me to another major difference. In the first two games, you only face Grunty as the final boss.
You get to face Grunty a lot in this game. In majority of her boss fights, when you win. You'll gain new stuff for your default trolley. Kazooie wields a wrench that can lift things as well as place em onto your vehicle. I'm not trying to cause any problems but I didn't like Wumba's redesigned appearance. I do get why they chose to do it.
Banjoland has a picture of the classic Wumba as well. Banjoland is a world referencing the first two games. LOGBOX 720 is a parody of Xbox 360 itself. In fact, you can ride on a few discs. To clarify, only Grabbed by the Ghoulies was actually on Xbox. It's Mr. Pants wasn't a real Xbox game, Yes I looked it up.
They also have discs of the first two games based on their XBLA cover designs. Mumbo is mostly a mechanic this time around while Wumba sells pieces or blue prints. Although, some supporting characters including Klungo does often appear in these worlds. Speaking of Klungo, he has a mini game you can play.
It turns out, that mini game had a sequel in the DLC portion of this game. If you got Rare Replay, every dlc for the newer games is automatically included. I also liked you can use paint to change colors on your vehicles as well as go test them out. Some challenges aren't exactly clear. I would say there's a different curve you'll get use to.
Some of these challenges will force you to use whatever vehicle is meant for them. I do prefer challenges I can use my own creations. There's a lot of racing in this game especially for it's multiplayer portion. I do need to bring up, this game seems like giving you achievements. There's no question, creativity is here.
Some of it's humor might get a laugh from you. It's no Conker's Bad Fur Day though. The enemies are very predictable from the previous games. You can now go for notes being the least but you still pass to the trophies being the best. Jiggies are in the middle with some being more likely than the trophies. Honestly, just when you think you know the game something will come your way to challenge that.
I would say this is slightly longer than Banjo-Tooie but it's also more straight of a run as well. So times for everyone will differ here. This game is way better than Perfect Dark Zero, you knew it was coming. This is a great game that often getting more hate than love from it's very own fan base. Even if it is the black sheep of it's family, it's way better than other games with that label.
Once you banked 75 jiggies, Lord of Games will open up the final section of the game. Unlike most worlds, you have to do it in order. The previous worlds do differ the amount of challenges. You first must complete Lord of Games' series of challenges. Also unlike the previous games, Grunty isn't the one to ask you the questions this time.
If you somehow get this series of challenges done. You'll get six jiggies I'm not kidding. You now can challenge Grunty one last time to beat the game. Like the previous games, she goes through several phases. I have to be honest, even with the hardest parts this is the easiest final Grunty boss fight. Just the right set up, you can fly through some sections of it.
It makes the final boss of the original game much tougher in comparison lol. Among winning, Lord of Games delivers Grunty her punishment to work inside his factory. Banjo & Kazooie gets to celebrate their win. Oh it gets better, Banjo gets to keep on his tuxedo from the ending too. I would say this is the easiest set up hub world out of the three games.
I kinda wish they would've brought back how some paths led to other worlds like in Banjo-Tooie. These challenges at times will feel like a series of mini games. Honestly, you can do so much with customization for vehicles. There's no real way to get an game over unless you consider quitting. Overall, I do respect what it brought to the table.
You may not get an usual Banjo-Kazooie experience you may or may not grew up with. Rare later stated the reason why this change had to happen. The short version is if they were to make a newer entry based on the old ones, it mightn't do well. They figured to make it so different to help it stand out more on it's own.
There's people that doesn't even consider this as an official Banjo-Kazooie game wow right. The characters are there just not as helpful they once were. Platforming is strictly limited since Lord of Games wants majority of it to be played through vehicles. It's way better than Batman: Arkham Knight I'm not kidding.
This game may not feel like a real Banjo-Kazooie game. It doesn't mine it doesn't bring out creativity in other ways like they do. Also, it is incredibly inspiring in it's own way as well. I felt they did an amazing job refreshing the franchise while taking a major risk. Games like Duke 3D originally was a sidescroller series before becoming FPS series.
You will see Banjo's friends a lot more than you expected. Please don't take this the wrong way. I'm glad Kazooie looks more like a female bird. Let's be honest if you didn't know her gender while playing the first two games. Just going by her look, you could easily mistaken her as a male bird. I felt that needed to be pointed out.
There's a lot to see in these worlds. They don't let you see your stats the same as previous games. I mostly look at what comes up before entering a section of any world. Also, Jinjos are also done differently, same with their evil counterparts. Jinjos in the worlds have their own challenges. Among winning them, you'll get spots on a bingo chart.
You also find them imprison mistaken for the Minjos. The Minjos are moving around close by in several areas. You need to free the Jinjos then return them home. At some point, you need to bring the Minjos to those cells. Yeah remember how frustrating to take out an Minjo in Banjo-Tooie, this is child's play in comparison.
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