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Banjo Kazooie (Nintendo 64) discussion [game]
 
  NW Staff  
Banjo Kazooie on the Nintendo 64
9.08/10 from 63 user ratings

Welcome to the official discussion thread for Banjo Kazooie on the N64!

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So I had some Microsoft Points to burn, and instead of downloading some highly-acclaimed, new LIVE ARCADE game, I opted for an old N64 favorite from back in the day. Why? I dunno. I guess I was feelin' the nostalgia bug this weekend or something. Whatever.

I was honestly kind of expecting to have buyer's remorse... I mean, the game was great, but was it the kind of game that really stands the test of time? Well, after having put in several hours last night (and unlocking a handful of achievements) I can safely say that, YES, the game is still good. Great, even.

Now I think I want to try out the sequel, Banjo-Tooie, a game I regret to admit that I've never played. I can't remember exactly why I didn't play it, considering I like the original so much. I think at the time, I was a poor college student, so I had to really cut back on my expenses. (I remember wanting buy, but not being able to afford, games like Excitebike 64, Ogre Battle 64, Perfect Dark, Conker's Bad Fur Day and others as well)

So, for those that HAVE played the sequel, is it as good? Worth downloading? It's only like, $10, I think... so either way I guess it's worth checking out, at least. Right? Or should I not even bother, and just stick with the original game and pick up something else on LIVE?

B... Banjo-Kazooie fans.... unite?

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09/20/10, 21:12  
 
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  DrFinkelstein  
@PogueSquadron

I picked that up on the Steam Winter Sale. I'm looking forward to diving in some time soon.
01/07/15, 15:39   
  Mop it up  
I think it's more that Banjo-Kazooie has more forced collection. I find it a pain that I have to collect the musical notes just to progress through the game, whereas in Super Mario 64, I don't need to collect the 100-coin stars just to get access to the next world (and those are easier as there are more than 100 coins in each world). The minimum amount of stuff needed to complete BK is a little too much I feel.

@TriforceBun Many of them literally were floating islands in the sky! But to be fair, Super Mario 64 came first, and was one of the first 3D games. And, it also didn't end with a lava or castle world, as its final world was a sky theme, and the last Bowser level didn't have lava either. It's more recently that Mario games have overdone it with those themes.
01/07/15, 21:46   
  Hinph  
I just bought the Jak HD Collection on PS3, because I really wanted to play a new 3D platformer and never really got around to this trilogy. I'm only a few hours in, but... I still don't know how anybody could say that this game is better than a Nintendo or Rare 3D platformer with a straight face.

Seems to suffer from the same problem that so many platformers throughout the years have, 2D and 3D alike: They didn't bother making sure that the character was fun to control before going ahead and making an entire game out of it.
01/09/15, 03:00   
  Mop it up  
@Hinph Yeah, I think play control is an area where Nintendo don't always get quite enough credit. They have a good track record of having smooth, responsive control, no matter what kind of character or game it is. That and level design are two aspects of games that I don't think get enough focus and appreciation across the board these days.
01/09/15, 21:25   
  pokepal148  
Mop it up said:
in Super Mario 64, I don't need to collect the 100-coin stars just to get access to the next world (and those are easier as there are more than 100 coins in each world). The minimum amount of stuff needed to complete BK is a little too much I feel.

Jolly Roger bay has a total of 104 coins in the level, Dire Dire Docks has 106. Both of them also suffer from the N64's limited draw distance. Have fun!
01/09/15, 22:01   
  Hinph  
@Hero_Of_Hyrule

They aren't terrible, but they just feel... yeah, loose and sloppy. I know it uses the same engine as the Ratchet & Clank games did, and I love those, but it's the shooting mechanics that are more important in the case of those gamea. I'm going to keep going, because I just spent $25 on the trilogy, and hopefully I will come to enjoy the games beyond my first impression.

It would be awesome to see Naughty Dog try to return to a similar style 3D platformer at some point, because the controls in the previous generation of their games are excellent.
01/10/15, 03:04   
  Hinph  
@Hero_Of_Hyrule

I'll be sure to try them. I think the inclusion of combat in Ratchet & Clank in this engine made for a great experience. I do still want to give Jak and Daxter a bit more of a chance though.
01/10/15, 10:41   
  TriforceBun  
Time for a Mumbo bump. Eekum Bokum!

Played a little of this tonight in celebration of Yooka-Laylee. It's still good fun to explore the worlds and the game has a huge amount of character (especially for 1998). The music is as strong as ever.
05/02/15, 06:33   
  DrFinkelstein  
@TriforceBun

I should get this out on my N64 and 100% it all over again.
05/02/15, 15:07   
  V_s  
@Hero_Of_Hyrule

I've just started replaying DK64, and I feel like the collection element in there is a little overstated. Yeah, there are bananas, banana coins, fairies, blueprints, banana medals, crowns, keys, hidden coins, and Golden Bananas to collect. But when you really break all that down, it's not quite so daunting. For example, you can essentially discount the banana medals altogether since those are automatically given to you when you collect 75 bananas, and as far as I can tell right now, there's no benefit to collecting any bananas beyond those first 75. Keys aren't really a collectible; they're just items that signify you beat a boss battle and have unlocked the next area. Fairies and the hidden coins serve to give you alternate endings, if I remember correctly. So while there's still a lot to collect, it's not quite as bad as I remember it.
05/02/15, 17:24   
  Pokefreak911  
If my Xbox was working again I would probably download this and play it. The 360 version is perfection.
05/02/15, 21:27   
  PogueSquadron  
Yeah I wish Amanda has started playing that version but she was dead set on the n64 version. She can do most of the game by herself but can't really do the swimming.
05/03/15, 05:10   
  Mop it up  
@Hero_Of_Hyrule Ha ha, I have a bad memory so I know the feeling of forgetting my posts, happens all the time to me. Usually I try to do a quick search on topics and see if I already said anything. Sometimes when I discover my old stuff, I even wonder how I would have thought that at the time and feel differently now. And it can be worrisome when that old post is like, last week...
05/04/15, 23:08   
  TriforceBun  
Just got 100% in this for the first time ever. I got all the Jiggies in the past, but never all the notes. The 100% ending was super-enticing as a kid--made it seem like there was so much more to this game and this world. It's kinda sad you can't really have that sort of experience again, what with the prevalence of the internet these days.

B-K still holds up nicely as one of Rare's absolute best games.
05/10/15, 05:08   
  DrFinkelstein  
@TriforceBun

Wonderful! 100%ing that game is one of my favorite experiences ever. Well done!
05/10/15, 05:27   
  Anand  
I've thought about getting the HD version. I was more interested in Tooie, since I never had the cart. But the demo reminded me of how sloppy that game is.
05/10/15, 05:33   
  Mop it up  
I don't think I've ever gotten all of the jiggies or notes, though beating the game requires nearly all of them anyway. I think I just looked up the 100% ending on YouTube instead... or intended to. I think it was just a preview for the sequel anyway, which I already owned, though it might still be interesting to watch and see how it might differ from the final version.
05/10/15, 22:06   
  r_hjort  
@Mop it up
From what I remember it's some banter between the characters, and hints about where to unlock the stop n swap features that never were. Don't think there was anything that really connected to the actual Banjo-Tooie that we got.
05/10/15, 23:20   
  Shadowlink  
@Mop it up

That ending was a much bigger deal in the window between games . Confirmed the sequel and it addressed the niggling questions I had about why I couldn't figure out how to access that stupid door and that goddamn Ice Key. Kinda.

@r_hjort

Apparently that feature relied on actually swapping the cartridges in the N64 mid-game. There was some sort of buffer memory in the N64 hardware that gave you a 10 second window to do just that.

Unfortunately a hardware revision dropped that window to a fraction of a second, so the feature would no longer work on the newer N64 consoles.
05/10/15, 23:35   
  r_hjort  
@Shadowlink
Yeah, that's what it was. I didn't remeber the details, like how long you would have had to do the swapping, but I remember the basic idea. To be honest I don't feel like we missed out on a whole lot.
05/10/15, 23:41   
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