banjo-kazooie

Game Corner: Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty’s Revenge (Game Boy Advance)

Dr. K1 Comment

Released: 15 September 2003
Developer: Rare
Also Available For: Mobile

The Background:
After establishing themselves as one of the biggest UK-based videogame developers, Rare built a strong working relationship with Nintendo after revitalising their Donkey Kong franchise on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). Rare sought to capitalise on this success with “Project Dream”, a tumultuous concept that eventually evolved into Banjo-Kazooie (Rare, 1998), one of the greatest Nintendo 64 titles. Although we didn’t get a long-running franchise, a similarly successful sequel followed in 2000 and the quirky duo also appeared in this oft-forgotten mid-quel for the Game Boy Advance. When development started, Rare was still a third party developer for Nintendo and the game was initially planned to release on the Game Boy Color. Development continued even after Rare was purchased by Microsoft since Microsoft didn’t have a handheld competitor and the story was originally a bit different, revolving around Banjo curing Kazooie of a curse. It also would’ve been a sidescroller, with more levels than the final game, and there were plans to incorporate a multiplayer feature, though all of this was cut. Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty’s Revenge received mixed reviews that criticised a lack of innovation and a lacklustre experience while praising its gameplay and visuals.

The Plot:
Two months after defeating the evil Gruntilda “Grunty” Winkybunion, Banjo embarks on a time travel adventure to rescue his bird friend, Kazooie, when Grunty returns in a robotic body and tries to keep the bear and bird duo from meeting!

Gameplay and Power-Ups:
Unlike its predecessor and its sequel, Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty’s Revenge is a kind of pseudo-isometric platformer that uses an odd, almost top-down perspective to follow Banjo and Kazooie’s latest collectathon. Interestingly, the game has more in common with Banjo-Tooie (Rare, 2000) than Banjo-Kazooie, acting as a side story between the two games and an alternative sequel. Many of Banjo and Kazooie’s basic actions return from Banjo-Tooie, though flying has been removed and there are some restrictions due to the limited hardware. You begin as Banjo alone and learn the basics: B sees Banjo whack enemies with his backpack while A is used to jump and swim. You’ll tackle the game’s first world alone but soon rescue Kazooie in the second world, adding additional, familiar moves to your arsenal through Bottles’ ancestor, Bozzeyes (as long as you have enough Musical Notes). Kazooie adds a airtime to your standard jump if you press A in mid-air, allows Banjo to backflip to higher areas by holding the Left trigger and pressing A, and performs a roll if you press B when running. Tapping L sees Kazooie carry Banjo up steep hills, and holding L and pressing B sees Banjo hold Kazooie like a shotgun and fire eggs with B. You switch between the different eggs with the Right trigger and fire regular eggs, special eggs that power up generators, ice eggs that put out fires, and fire eggs that melt ice blocks. If you jump and press B, Kazooie attacks with her beak and pressing L in mid-air sees her drill into the ground to defeat enemies and knock Jinjos, Jiggies, and other objects loose when drilling into special cracked areas. When in water, you press R to dive, tapping A to swim to avoid obstacles and grab air bubbles, while Honeycombs restore your health. You can grab a single one, one that restores two, and a randomiser that you must stop to refill more health. Finally, if you find the two Extra Honeycombs hidden in each world, you can bring them to Honey B.’s hive to extend your health bar.

Many of the duo’s familiar moves and abilities return, now skewed by the odd perspective.

As in the Nintendo 64 games, players collect Musical Notes, though they’re used to learn new moves rather than unlock doors. There are 100 Notes in each world and your total carries over if you leave or die in the stage. Like in Banjo-Tooie, Grunty’s Revenge doesn’t use a life system. When you’re defeated, you can choose to continue, respawning at the last doorway you used, which takes a lot of the pressure off but can make trial and error aggravating. Players collect ammo from egg nests and nab Gold Feathers to become invincible for as long as your stock lasts if you press A on a Wonderwing pad, an arbitrary restriction that severely limits the ability. You can again use Shock Spring Pads to rocket higher, though landing can be tricky due to the game’s odd perspective. Every area hides ten Jiggies: some are out in the open, some are awarded after defeating bosses, and others are dislodged with the Bill Drill. You’ll clamber up ladders and vines, cross lava, ice-cold water, and poisonous mists, fire the eggs into toll booth holes to activate platforms, and race down more than a few spiral slides to collect Jiggies. You’ll also get a Jiggy if you find the five Jinjos scattered throughout each location, with the piece spawning by a large Jinjo statue that’ll also give you a tip for every Jinjo you find. Many are awarded by finding objects in the worlds, from blue shells to coins to pieces of gold to be smelted into a Jiggy or ice cream and other treats to reunite a mother with her wayward children. There are also a handful of timed challenges to test you. These see you whacking special pads to spawn Jiggies and/or Shock Jump Pads and give you a few seconds to race to the prize before they disappear. These are easily the game’s toughest challenge prior to the final boss as you barely have time to reach the pad or the Jiggy and the enemies, who respawn as soon as you scroll the screen, certainly don’t help. The game’s worlds are surprisingly large and tricky to navigate as, unlike in Banjo-Tooie, there’s no fast travel system (though some worlds have shortcuts for the duo’s temporary other forms).

Sadly, the transformations are painfully underutilised and the mini games are recycled.

Yes, players still transform into different forms by bringing Mumbo Tokens (here awarded by beating certain bosses) to Mumbo Jumbo. There are four forms to turn into, with players able to use any form in any world (though you’ll be warped back to Mumbo’s Pad if you stray too far and must manually transform back to exit the world). You’ll become a mouse to pass through small holes and chew on wires with B, a candle that lights up a dark cave and performs a flaming somersault with B to light other candles and a TNT barrel, a cute little octopus that passes through water without harm and spits water projectiles with B, and a tank that can’t jump but braves toxic environments and fires its cannon with B. The tank enters special doors and crosses dropping panels to spawn Jiggies while the octopus is washed away through sewer pipes to blast enemies and obstacle and reach yet more Jiggies. Though these are fun, there aren’t any opportunities to explore previous worlds with new transformations and only some worlds require multiple transformations to find all their Jiggies. Each world does contain a mini game that mixes up the gameplay, but there’s only a few and they simply get reskinned. The various slides see you grabbing a set number of collectibles or racing a non-playable character (NPC) using boost pads to speed up and avoiding sticky oil slicks to get a Jiggy. There’s also a fishing mini game (which you first play snagging sheep) that can be pretty tricky; you must move left and right and cast by holding or tapping B to snag a set number. You only have a short time to do this and, later, you can’t see what you’re hooking as they’re underwater and you run the risk of being hurt by Snippets (though you can immediately retry if you fail). There are also two top-down driving challenges, one where you’re in a motorboat and one where you’re on a sled. In the first, you must snag the treasure chest and be holding it when the timer runs out; in the second, you must collect Snowies before the enemies get them. In both, you accelerate with A and fire with R though the craft can be very slippery and you’ll spin out when hit, so these can be problematic. Finally, there are shooting sections where you move back and forth and fire eggs at the Ghost Pirate or Mecha-Grunty, taking advantage of the egg nests and lamenting the lack of Honeycombs.

Presentation:
I was hesitant about Grunty’s Revenge for years simply because of the odd, top-down/isometric perspective and pre-rendered graphics…and I’m still torn after playing it. At times, the game looks great; it’s bright and cartoony and has a lot of visual charm. Other times, jumps are incredibly tricky to judge because of the slanted perspective and it’s not always clear where a wall starts and the ground ends, meaning I often ended up running against cliffs. Banjo and Kazooie look decent, if understandably limited. Banjo simply sways when idle, but all the returning moves look and sound exactly like the Nintendo 64 games. Characters still talk in gibberish, communicating via speech bubbles, and Banjo makes the same grunts and noises as he jumps and gets hurt. Grunty still talks in rhyme and taunts you, though collectibles are no longer anthropomorphic so most of the exposition is related through Bozzeyes, which can interrupt the gameplay. Grunty’s Revenge does a decent job of recreating familiar tunes from its bigger cousin, with Jamie Hughes remixing and sampling Grant Kirkhope’s memorable Nintendo 64 tunes, though these are obviously limited by the hardware and at times sound grating as a result. Enemy sprites and animations are disappointingly limited, however, and the game doesn’t do much with its time travel plot. You journey to each world from Spiral Mountain, which is closer to Banjo-Tooie’s Wooded Hollow since it houses Jiggywiggy’s Temple, though the area doesn’t look that different to what you’re used to. Sure, Grunty’s lair appears to be under construction, but the giant witch’s head is still there, and the inside is still an ominous castle. It might’ve been nice to see the landscape more dramatically changed as I legitimately forgot I was supposed to be in the past as it barely has any relevance beyond it being mentioned in dialogue. Sure, Mumbo’s younger but he still fulfils the same role and Bottles might not be born yet or too young to help, but Bozzeyes isn’t that different. Perhaps if the game had been changed a bit to have the duo flung into the distant past, or numerous time periods, the visuals could’ve been changed more.

While the game tries to capture the franchise’s colourful spirit, the perspective makes gameplay tricky.

This extends to the game’s worlds, too. Cliff Farm was an interesting idea but…it’s still just a farm, which isn’t an interesting location. Sure, there are haybales to jump on, tractors to see, a big barn to venture into, and a mill to explore but you can’t expect much from such a bland setting. Things then venture into the overly familiar with Breegull Beach, which isn’t a million miles away from Treasure Trove Cove and Jolly Roger’s Lagoon, featuring a beach, a sandcastle, a quarry and cliffs. Considering it’s Kazooie’s birthplace, it definitely feels like a wasted opportunity not to do more with that, perhaps include her family or siblings or something. Bad Magic Bayou was like Bubblegloop Swamp, with its poisonous water, broken wooden bridges and platforms, and murky swamp that’ll choke you if you linger too long. You hop to tyres to reach isolated islands and climb a tree using log platforms (taking full advantage of the lack of fall damage if you slip). Spiller’s Harbor is essentially a downgraded Rusty Bucket Bay, featuring polluted water thanks to oil leaking from pipes, a lighthouse (that you never go inside), and a nearby village where you hop onto rooftops like in Jolly Roger’s Lagoon. Freezing Furnace isn’t too dissimilar from Hailfire Peaks in that it’s a wide, frozen landscape of slippery platforms, narrow walkways, and ice-cold water that saps your health (unless you’re an octopus). You must scale mountains, venture into igloos, and enter a cave to reach Grunty Industries. This is a lava-filled industrial factory full of pipes, boilers, and toxic gunk that decimates your health unless you return as a tank. When you collect enough Jiggies to enter Grunty’s lair, it’s simply two screens: a stone arena where her minions watch you battle the final gauntlet and a claustrophobic rooftop where an ominous storm rages in the background. Grunty’s Revenge definitely captures the spirit of the Nintendo 64 games but plays things a little too safe, seemingly afraid to think outside the box and barely utilising the Game Boy Advance’s power to the best of its ability with its fitting, if simplistic, 2.5D aesthetic.

Enemies and Bosses:
Anyone who’s played the Nintendo 64 Banjo games will recognise most of Grunty’s Revenge’s enemies. There two most common baddies are the various Gruntlings and the thrashing tentacles that appear everywhere, even on the overworld. Gruntlings simply lumber about, stomping after you if they spot you, and take more hits to defeat the further you progress and the more their colour scheme changes. They’re echoed in the Bogfoot and Biggyfoot enemies, who take even more hits to defeat and often patrol on narrow walkways and above you on cliffs, which can cause you to fall into hazardous water if you’re not careful. Beehives are soon protected by bee swarms that fly at you, Tee-Hees pass through walls and, like the multi-coloured Spookos, are invulnerable unless you use the Wonderwing or certain eggs, and Gruntweeds burst from the ground, camouflaged by the Game Boy Advance’s limited palette, to slam on you. Chombas leap from portraits to take a bite out of you, Boom Boxes bounce around and explode on contact, Stinglashes block the way or pop from the ground like weeds, and sentient mines often patrol the waters. Most of these enemies are merely a nuisance; they’re defeated in one or two hits and often drop Honeycombs. The drop rate lessens as you progress and they become more formidable, but their biggest threat is that they respawn once you scroll away, even if it’s just for a moment. Sometimes, you’ll battle waves of them for a Jiggy; other times, bosses spawn them in, or they swarm claustrophobic interiors. By far the worst enemies, for me anyway, are the Germuloids, who latch onto you and won’t let go until they’ve drained your health, or you’ve wiggled the directional pad enough to destroy them.

Sadly, there’s a painful lack of variety and innovation in the game’s handful of recycled boss battles.

Grunty’s Revenge is extremely limited with its boss battles, recycling the same encounters with Mecha-Grunty or her chief minion, Klungo, three times each and then forcing you into a gauntlet in the endgame. The Ghost Pirate offers as a unique battle, framed as a limited third-person shooter where you must dodge his cannonballs and fire at his grinning visage when it appears, but even this is recycled for a Mecha-Grunty battle. This is a bit tougher as you must target her hands, hat, and panels on her torso, but the strategy is still the same. Similarly, though the battles against Klungo and Mecha-Grunty get progressively difficult, what works the first time will work the last. Klungo tosses vials and stalks you, only being vulnerable when his shield’s down. He’ll add in temporary invisibility, minions, and a slippery arena as you progress, with the window to attack getting smaller each time. This is echoed in the Mecha-Grunty fights as she also hides behind a shield, though she fires a projectile spread and also tries to crush you. In the endgame, you battle Mecha-Grunty in her arena, watching for her aerial bombardment, then take on Klungo again, with a quiz appearing between each fight. Best these and you’ll face a multi-phase battle against Mecha-Grunty on the castle roof, one where your room to avoid her homing projectiles and other attacks is extremely limited. To make matters worse, you can’t just hit her mech in this final fight like in the others; instead, you must strike her robot body and also attack her spirit when it appears. Additionally, you’re very unlikely to get Honeycombs during these battles and there are no checkpoints between each fight so, if you die at any point, you must not only start all over again but also complete the time switch task to enter Grunty’s lair! This was a difficulty spike I wasn’t expecting; just replenishing your health and eggs for the quiz would’ve helped. Ideally, there would be a doorway in the first arena to return to the overworld, with the entrance remaining unlocked but, as is, this was a gruelling final challenge that I couldn’t get past.

Additional Features:
There are two Extra Honeycombs in every area of Grunty’s Revenge, requiring all your abilities to uncover them to fully extend your health bar, and 600 Musical Notes and ten Jiggies in each as well. You won’t need all of them to learn every move or unlock every world, but you will need at least fifty Jiggies to reach the final boss gauntlet. However, if you want to see the best ending, you’ll need 100% of these collectibles, something that’s a tall order thanks to Breegull Beach’s timed challenge, let alone the final boss. When you finish the game, you play one last sliding game as the credits roll, collecting gold coins as you go. These are spent at an arcade machine in Breegull Beach, where you can replay the mini games at will.

The Summary:
I’ve been on the fence about Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty’s Revenge for years. There was something about the odd, quasi-isometric perspective that always put me off but, in the end, the game isn’t too expensive, and I felt the itch for more of the bear and bird duo. The game makes a good first impression, emulating the bright, cartoony visuals and quirky humour of the Nintendo 64 games and doing a decent job of recreating the characters, locations, and music from its counterparts. It is, in many ways, a 2.5D demake of Banjo-Tooie, featuring relatively large worlds and some fun mechanics with the different forms. However, these transformations are painfully underutilised and the Jiggies were, by and large, easy to collect as long as you weren’t racing against a ridiculously limited timer. There’s nothing here in terms of moves and abilities that you won’t find in the superior Nintendo 64 games…in fact, there’s less since you can’t fly or use the Wonderwing at will. While I enjoyed the visual fidelity to the other games, the worlds and environments are horrible limited and lack innovation. Each world has similar tropes (find stuff, play a mini game, fight a boss, a platforming challenge, etc), with none of the nuance and interconnectivity (or, at times, challenge) of the Nintendo 64 games. These issues are only compounded by Grunty’s Revenge recycling the same mini games and boss battles, forcing you into an unfair final gauntlet, and completely wasting its time travel plot. There was an opportunity to present something a little different and, instead, the developers played things far too safe and tried to give Game Boy Advance players a truncated version of the Nintendo 64 games rather than something that takes advantage of the system’s strengths. As a big, lifelong fan of the franchise, I was left disappointed and, though I don’t regret buying Grunty’s Revenge, I’m not surprised it’s largely been forgotten to the mists of time.

My Rating:

Rating: 2 out of 5.

Could Be Better

What did you think to Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty’s Revenge? Were you impressed by how closely it emulated the Nintendo 64 games, or do you agree that it wasted its potential? What did you think to the semi-isometric perspective and the time travel plot? Which of the new worlds and transformations was your favourite? Were you also disappointed by the recycled mini games and bosses? Did you ever get the best ending, and would you like to see this game more widely available? Whatever you think about Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty’s Revenge, drop your thoughts in the comments, support me on Ko-Fi, and check out my other retrogaming content.

Game Corner: Banjo-Kazooie (Nintendo 64)

Dr. K5 Comments

Released: 29 June 1998
Developer: Rare
Also Available For: Nintendo Switch, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X

The Background:
Beginning life as Ultimate Play the Game and having established themselves as one of the biggest UK-based video game development companies, Rare built a strong working relationship with Nintendo after revitalising their Donkey Kong franchise on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). Eager to capitalise on this success, Rare began work on “Project Dream”, an ambitious adventure game starring first a sword-wielding boy and eventually a bear with a backpack. As the project grew, Rare switched development to the upcoming Nintendo 64, eventually retooling the concept into a 2.5D sidescroller and, ultimately, a 3D action/platformer collectathon heavily inspired by Super Mario 64 (Nintendo EAD, 1996). Rare’s staff ballooned and their work hours increased as they sought to refine the 3D camera system and encourage player exploration across multiple, colourful worlds, infusing the game with a quirky, British sense of humour. Unfortunately, a multiplayer mode was scrapped due to time constraints alongside an ambitious plan to swap data between cartridges to unlock extra content. Banjo-Kazooie was universally praised, with critics praising the gameplay and visuals and technical superiority over Super Mario 64, though the camera was criticised as being unwieldy at times. Although we’ve been denied a long-running series of sequels, we got a Game Boy Advance spin-off and an equally lauded sequel followed in 2000, the characters appeared in various spin-offs and limited merchandise, and Banjo-Kazooie is widely regarded as one of the best and most pivotal 3D platformers of all time.

The Plot:
When his sister is kidnapped by the vain Gruntilda “Grunty” Winkybunion, dim-witted Banjo and loud-mouthed Kazooie quest to retrieve the magical Notes and Jiggies in Grunty’s lair to rescue the terrified bear cub.

Gameplay and Power-Ups:
Banjo-Kazooie is a 3D action/platformer collectathon in which players guide the titular bear and bird duo across nine main worlds, accessed via a main hub world, searching for magical jigsaw pieces (“Jiggies”) and Musical Notes to unlock additional worlds and progress further up Grunty’s lair to rescue Banjo’s sister, Tooty. You begin outside on Spiral Mountain, a diverse area where players can choose to learn or practice the duo’s moves, which are taught by the short-sighted mole Bottles, whom you’ll encounter at various molehills. Banjo and Kazooie have various moves to take out enemies and traverse the game’s worlds, some of which are similar to Mario’s 3D abilities and others which are unique to them. Banjo takes the lead and swipes with his claws in a short combo with B or rolls into enemies when running and pressing B. A sees him jump and pressing it again in mid-air sees him get a boost from Kazooie to cross small gaps. Pressing B in mid-air performs the super useful Rat-a-Tat Rap, where Kazooie pecks at enemies, while holding Z and pressing B when standing still sees Kazooie charge with her peak. Pressing A when standing still sees the duo backflip to higher areas and you can hold either A or B when underwater to swim, though you must collect air bubbles or resurface to avoid drowning. Similarly, you restore your health by collecting Honeycombs, extend your life bar by hunting down Extra Honeycombs, and snag an extra life from the golden Banjo trophies dotted around, You have decent control over the camera, but it can be clunky and get stuck on the environment at times. Indeed, the unreliability of the camera and Banjo’s inability to grab ledges are the only gripes I have with the game, but they’re easily dealt with once you get into the swing of things.

The duo’s abilities are expanded with some fun moves and bizarre transformations.

Banjo and Kazooie’s move set expands as you explore the game’s worlds, constantly adding new abilities to your arsenal that are tested by the environments. Kazooie fires eggs from her mouth or butt by holding Z and pressing C-up or C-down, respectively. This can be unwieldy as it’s difficult to precisely aim at targets but it’s great for picking enemies off from a distance and solving certain puzzles, such as extending bridges. The duo perform a ground pound by pressing Z in mid-air to crush enemies or activate switches to open new areas, reveal Jiggies, or start timed challenges. Holding Z and pressing C-left sees Kazooie dash across the landscape, greatly improving your movement speed and allow you to traverse inclines, while pressing C-right sees Kazooie shield Banjo with her wings, effectively making them invincible. Like your egg attacks, this “Wonderwing” ability lasts as long as you have ammo on hand (specifically Gold Feathers). Similarly, you’ll need Red Feathers and a Flight Pad to take to the air, where you can rise higher with A or blast at enemies and targets with B as long as you have Red Feathers to expend. Kazooie can also spring the duo to higher levels using Shock Jump pads, they can climb pipes and trees just by jumping to them, and Kazooie uses special shoes to vastly (if temporarily) increase her running speed or carry the duo across brambles and red-hot quicksand. You’ll also find numerous Mumbo Tokens everywhere; collect enough and the mystical shaman, Mumbo Jumbo, transforms the duo into various forms. These include a termite, a bee, a tiny crocodile, and a stout little walrus, with the transformation automatically ending once you venture far enough from the world. These forms are both amusing and incredibly useful: Banjo’s pumpkin form, for example, squeezes him into small spaces while his walrus form allows him to compete in a sledge race against the lazy polar bear, Boggy. The bee form lets you fly indefinitely by tapping B (though it’s even more unwieldy than the regular flying) and the termite allows you to clamber up steep surfaces that even best the Talon Trot. The crocodile form is the only one that can attack, snapping its jaws with B and easily crossing piranha-infested water, but it’s very small and no match for the bigger, tougher Mister Vile.

You use all the duo’s abilities to complete various missions to acquire Jiggies.

Like Super Mario 64, each world contains numerous collectibles you need to open new areas. There are 100 Musical Notes in each world and, when you leave the world, the Notes reset, so you’re better off collecting them all on your first go-through (which is possible, even when some areas require additional abilities to access). There are also ten Jiggies in each world, with one awarded when you find the five colourful Jinjos hiding in each world. Some Jiggies are out in the open, sitting on ruins or reached with a bit of platforming or careful traversal over narrow platforms, and others are guarded by bosses, revealed by hitting switches, or earned by solving puzzles. You’ll be smashing huts, hitting targets, completing races and timed events (such as jumping through hoops), and fending off waves of enemies to earn Jiggies. You’ll also aid various non-playable characters (NPCs), such as finding Captain Blubber’s gold, finding Boggy’s kids’ lost Christmas presents, rescuing Snorkel from a weighty anchor, and collecting acorns so Nabnuts can hibernate. Unlike in Super Mario 64, you’re not booted from the world upon collecting a Jiggy and your progress is saved even if you lose a life, though your Notes won’t be. Like that game, Jiggies are also found in the hub world, spawning when you activate switches in the main worlds, and you’ll also play some fun mini games to collect them. You’ll perform with Tiptup’s choir, spell out the game’s title on a sandcastle floor and on a Ouija board, match tiles and race through mazes in ancient pyramids, fly through hexagonal rings, defend sentient Christmas lights, and brave a dangerous fan room all to claim a prize. Jiggies become especially obtuse in Click Clock Wood, a world split into four seasonal sub-sections. You must complete tasks in the spring and summer to earn Jiggies in autumn and winter and vice versa, sprouting and watering a plant and helping Gnwaty throughout the seasons. The difficulty can spike in Clanker’s Cavern and Rusty Bucket Bay, where drowning is a constant threat alongside bottomless pits and polluted water that, like its ice-cold variants, quickly saps your air and health.

Presentation:
Banjo-Kazooie is an absolutely gorgeous game that still holds up today. Obviously, the game looks and runs a lot smoother on the modern re-releases but even the Nintendo 64 original stands the test of time thanks to its colourful visuals and quirky, fairytale-like world. Everything is so full of life and it’s truly remarkable and amusing. Banjo and Kazooie play pranks on each other when left idle, making daft sounds when jumping and attacking, and even the enemies are lively and peculiar, reacting when they spot you (my favourite’s being the Seaman Grublins, who shout an enthusiastic “Hi!” before charging!) Banjo, Kazooie, and all their supporting cast (and even collectibles) chatter with a whimsical babbling, communicating through gibberish, text bubbles, and pantomime movements. Enemies and hazards taunt you, collectibles encourage you to grab them, Bottles and Kazooie bicker constantly, and Grunty taunts you relentlessly as you explore or fail challenges. There’s a little bit of fog and pop-up but I can forgive it considering how large and varied each world is, especially compared to Super Mario 64. Like in that game, players visit worlds via a hub world, but these are unlocked in a fun and interesting way. You may need to explore or activate a switch to reach the puzzle pad and unlock the world, or activate a switch within the worlds to affect the hub world, and utilise various coloured cauldrons to fast travel throughout Grunty’s lair. Grant Kirkhope brings every environment to life with his infectious and whimsical soundtrack, which changes as you explore, becoming muted when underwater or ominous when exploring more dangerous areas. Grunty’s lair is a prime example, with Kirkhope’s rendition of “The Teddy Bear’s Picnic” warping and changing in each area. The soundtrack is, honestly, one of the best parts of the game and immediately makes an impact with Mumbo’s Mountain and only improves from there. Freezeezy Peak has a Christmassy overture that perfectly matches its festive aesthetic, Mad Monster Mansion is suitably spooky, and Click Clock Wood’s music alters depending on the season.

The game’s quirky humour is matched by colourful visuals and an infectious soundtrack.

The worlds on offer are as unique as the game’s quirky humour, which is both snappy and witty and very British at times. While things start very tame in Mumbo’s Mountain, which has no bottomless spits or hazards to worry about (except maybe drowning or taking fall damage), drowning or being bitten by Snacker are constant threats in Treasure Trove Cove, which highlights how large and varied the game’s worlds are with its beach, open sea, lighthouse, and pirate ship. Clanker’s Cavern (essentially Grunty’s sewer) introduces air bubbles to keep you from drowning and centres around the enormous semi-cybernetic shark Clanker and the duo’s efforts to both scale and explore within him. Bubblegloop Swamp is a suitably murky and hazardous environment thanks to the narrow platforms over piranha-infested water, which test your platforming skills. The world branches off to a maze and a giant crocodile, and meeting Tiptup inside a giant turtle. Freezeezy Peak is comparatively smaller but has always been a favourite, despite the ice-cold water and the tricky flying challenges. The annoying Sir Slushes and NPCs like Boggy and his kids and the anxious Wozza the Walrus add a lot of depth to the area. I was never a fan of Gobi’s Valley, which is treacherous like Freezeezy Peak but trickier to traverse as you need to fly, run, ride magic carpets, and complete timed challenges to get inside its pyramids. You’ll brutalise poor Gobi to earn Jiggies, feed Rubee’s snake, and tackle ancient challenges to claim prizes. I’ve always enjoyed Mad Monster Mansion, another wide and varied world sporting a haunted hedge maze, mansion, and church. Tombstones spring to life, brambles prick your feet, pipes must be scaled and dropped down, and you must race into the church to play a giant organ and sneak past a cantankerous ghost. Rusty Bucket Bay can be very challenging with its polluted water and bottomless pits in the engine room; like Mad Monster Mansion, it can also be easy to get lost as there are so many areas to explore. Finally, Click Clock Wood is actually four worlds in one and changes with each season, introducing different enemies and hazards. You’ll run up piles of leaves and snow mounds, for example, or platform using blossoming leaf platforms, but also find the water dried up, frozen over, or some areas are inaccessible depending on the season.

Enemies and Bosses:
Banjo and Kazooie encounter some bizarre enemies on their quest. You can practice your moves against the anthropomorphic vegetables patrolling Spiral Mountain and battle territorial termites and the first of many Grublin variants in Mumbo’s Mountain. Most enemies aren’t much of a threat as, while Buzzbombs swoop at you, Bigbutts try to gore you and can only be stunned, and Chinkers duplicate when hit, but most are easily taken out with a few hits. As you progress further through Grunty’s lair, her Gruntling minions become more durable and the beehives that yield Honeycombs are protected by swarms of bees, adding some challenge to each encounter. Mum-mums and Tee-hees pose a problem as they can only be destroyed with the Wonderwing, while Boom Boxes and Sharpnel mines explode when defeated or they make contact with you. Various Chompas burst from pipes and portraits to deliver a jump scare or take a bite out of you, often knocking you from high places if you’re slow to Rat-a-Tat Rap. Life rings and pipes come to life, monsters burst from wooden panels, mutated and regular crabs must be tipped over to attack their vulnerable bellies, and thrashing tentacles clog up tunnels alongside many environmental hazards. These include fan blades, scorching hot lava, brambles, freezing cold water, unseen piranha, and stinging sandworms but one of your biggest obstacles will be fall damage and bottomless spits, especially by the end game. While you can mitigate fall damage by landing in water or using the Feathery Flap, you’re more likely to plummet to the ground and take considerable damage, so be sure to watch your step, especially in Click Clock Wood. You’ll also have to be mindful of the likes of Snacker and Chump (who are difficult to defeat as the duo have no swimming attacks), Slappas (mummified hands that try to squash you) and the snowballs tossed by the jeering Sir Slushes.

The few boss battles are fun challenges that perfectly match the game’s light-hearted tone.

Banjo-Kazooie is a little light on traditional boss battles. While there are larger or challenging enemies battled in each world to acquire Jiggies, I would only classify a few as being traditional bosses. In Mumbo’s Mountain, for example, you battle Conga atop a tree. You must trick him into tossing his oranges to hit three switches for a Jiggy, feed one of his fruits to a hungry monkey for another, and then head up top to fire eggs at him for a third, but he’s more of an obstacle than a boss. While a tougher crab enemy awaits inside Treasure Trove Cove’s sandcastle, the gigantic Nipper is the game’s first real boss. He tries to clip you with his massive claws but it’s easy to dodge them and Rat-a-Tat Rap his eyes; three hits and he’s done, allowing you to enter his shell for a Jiggy. The closest Clanker’s Cavern has to a boss are the mutated Snippets you fight in a radioactive chamber. Similarly, you battle a gauntlet of frog-like Flibbets in Bubblegloop Swamp and a swarm Zubbas in Clock Clock Wood when you venture into their hive. Bubblegloop Swamp kind of has a boss in Mr. Vile, a mean crocodile who challenges Banjo’s croc form to gobble coloured worms but who isn’t fought in the traditional sense. Similarly, Sir Slushes supplant a boss battle in Freezeezy Peak; you must charge into them when flying to take them out and smash a larger Chinker to earn a Jiggy. Boggy also challenges you to two sledge races, one against your walrus form and one where you’ll need Kazooie’s speed shoes to win, with both being tricky due to you having to pass through slalom gates and avoid the freezing cold water. The closest Gobi’s Valley comes to a boss is when you race to swipe a Jiggy from Grabba, while Mad Monster Mansion simply has you sneak up on Napper. Rusty Bucket Bay does feature a showdown with Boss Boom Box, but it’s essentially just a bigger version of fighting a regular Bomb Box. He’ll split into smaller forms, exploding on contact, so either use your eggs or the Wonderwing, if you have enough Gold Feathers.

The final showdown with Grunty rightfully tests all the skills you’ve learned throughout.

Even when you finally reach the top of Grunty’s lair and confront her, you must first endure Grunty’s Furnace Fun, a quiz show you must complete without dropping to the insta-death lava below. The quiz tests your knowledge of the game, asking you to name worlds and characters, identify music, and even battle previous bosses. As you explore Grunty’s lair, you’ll inevitably meet her kindly sister, Brentilda, who tells secrets about Grunty that’ll be answers in this quiz. Honeycombs and extra lives are strewn about the board and you can earn Joker cards to skip challenges, each of which is timed and deals damage if you fail. You can also take different paths to the end, where you’ll be treated to a roll call and what appears to be the ending before the duo realise that Grunty escaped! You then venture to the rooftop for the final showdown, stocking up on ammo if you have enough Magical Notes to open the doors. The battle against Grunty has multiple phases, each one ending with her tossing a homing shot that you must defend against with the Wonderwing. In the first phase, Grunty swoops down on her broomstick; you must Talon Trot out the way and hit her with a Rat-a-Tat Rap three times, dodging her explosive fireballs after each hit. Things get tricky in the second phase; not only do you have to avoid slipping to your doom but Grunty’s now out of reach. She tosses multiple fireballs from afar and you have a very small window to hop on the ledge and pelt her with eggs, which is incredibly tricky without precision aiming. If you hit her enough times, she’ll fly high up, forcing you to use a Flight Pad to follow. While her fireballs are easily avoided, it’s not so easy to direct your Beak Bomb but, eventually, you’ll hit her enough to cause her to erect an impenetrable shield. In this phase, you activate the Jinjo statues with your eggs, avoiding Grunty’s shots, to bring her to the ground, then frantically avoid her barrage of fireballs and homing shots to power up the Jinjonator and send her plummeting to her doom.

Additional Features:
There are 100 Jiggies to collect in Banjo-Kazooie, ten in each world and ten in Grunty’s lair. While you don’t need all of them to unlock every world, you will need plenty to solve jigsaw puzzles and earn an upgrade to your life bar prior to the final showdown. There are also 900 Musical Notes to find, 100 in each world, which again you’ll need if you want to access every area of Grunty’s lair and the ammo stocks prior to the final boss. You can return to any world at any time to hunt down any Jiggies and Notes you’re missing and check your progress from the pause menu. Each world also has two hidden Extra Honeycombs which are worth collecting as you’ll extend your health bar with them, alongside multiple Mumbo Tokens, which you’ll need to change form. If you explore Grunty’s lair, you’ll activate cauldrons to create short cuts and discover Cheato, Grunty’s rebellious cheat book who gives codes to enter in Treasure Trove Cove’s sandcastle to increase your eggs and feather stocks. You can also utilise online guides to enter longer cheat codes in the same way to access mysterious eggs and a giant Ice Key, items that are completely useless here but unlock extras in the Xbox 360 version. There are other cheats you can enter as well to give you infinite lives, eggs, feathers, and air, though some of these cheats disable leaderboards and saving on the Xbox 360 version. Speaking of which, there are twelve Achievements in this version that are all simple to get, whereas the Nintendo Switch version lets you create save states. Finally, you can return to Banjo’s house and complete Bottles’ timed jigsaw puzzle challenges for additional fun cheats, my favourite being one that transforms Banjo and Kazooie into a washing machine!

The Summary:
I played Banjo-Kazooie to death as a kid. I was absolutely enamoured by everything, from its quirky characters to its colourful visuals, and its infectious soundtrack brought me such delight. I searched high and low for every secret I could find, eagerly testing out the sandcastle cheat codes and trying to open doors or find new areas. The game invites this at every turn, encouraging exploration and experimentation and crafting an intricate and enjoyable interconnected world. There are some nitpicks, of course. The camera is finnicky and awkward, flying can be clunky, the life system is antiquated, and it’s annoying that you must recollect Notes each time you enter a world if you don’t get all 100 on the first go. However, these are minor complaints, and the positives far outweigh these issues. I loved that you stay in each world after collecting a Jiggy and that there was a lot of variety in how you acquired them. From simply grabbing them, to completing puzzles, timed challenges, or the odd boss battle, I always felt a sense of accomplishment with every Jiggy I got. Similarly, the worlds are endlessly enjoyable, even the more annoying ones like Gobi’s Valley. I loved how characters carried over between worlds, how you altered the hub world with switches, and how each world had such a strong visual identity. Banjo and Kazooie steal the show with their quirky antics, versatile move set, and mismatched partnership. I just adore how whimsical and random everything is; it’s a lot of fun encountering new, oddball enemies and seeing them taunt the duo. While some elements were refined and expanded in the sequel, Banjo-Kazooie remains the superior game for me. nostalgia has a lot to do with that but I’ll never say no to playing this game. It’s always a joy to come back to it and I was doubly impressed to learn that I remembered how to get everything even though it’s been years since I last played it.

My Rating:

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Fantastic

Was Banjo-Kazooie part of your Nintendo 64 library back in the day? If you discovered it on modern platforms, how do you think they hold up to the original? What did you think to the game’s colourful visuals and quirky sense of humour? Which of the Jiggies was the most challenging for you to collect? Were you disappointed by the lack of traditional boss battles? Did you ever find all the game’s secrets and collectibles? Which world was your favourite and would you like to see the bear and bird duo make a proper comeback? I’d love to hear your thoughts and memories of Banjo-Kazooie so please share them in the comments, consider supporting me on Ko-Fi, and check out my other retrogaming content on the site.

Game Corner: Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair (Xbox One)

Dr. K1 Comment
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Released: October 2019
Developer: Playtonic Games
Also Available For: Nintendo Switch, PC, and PlayStation 4

The Background:
After Rare was purchased by Microsoft in 2002, anticipation was high for the company to continue their track record of releasing extremely polished, high-quality titles as they had during their tenure with Nintendo. Chief amongst the Rare properties most fans were looking forward to revisiting was the Banjo-Kazooie (1998 to 2008) series, which was an extremely well-made 3D action/platformer collectathon for the Nintendo 64 with a quirky sense of humour and memorable, likeable characters. Unfortunately, Rare were disappointingly underused by Microsoft and, while their famous bird-and-bear duo did return, it was in a highly altered form that let down most gamers. Eventually, key members of Rare left the company and formed Playtonic Games, an independent games studio that would allow them to make the types of games they wanted to which, coincidentally enough, meant going back to the Banjo-Kazooie formula with a spiritual successor to that series, Yooka-Laylee (ibid, 2017).

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Impossible Lair is inspired more by Donkey Kong Country than Banjo-Kazooie.

While the first game received mostly mixed reviews, I really enjoyed this welcome return to the quirky 3D action/platformers of old and revisiting the Banjo-Kazooie gameplay style of large, interconnected worlds with many peculiar characters and things to collect and discover. The game did well enough, however, and Playtonic’s new characters were popular enough to warrant the production of sequel, in which Playtonic Games decided to veer away from the Banjo-Kazooie style of gameplay and instead draw inspiration from the 2.5D sidescrolling platformers of their 16-Bit days, specifically the Donkey Kong Country (1994 to 2005) series. This was surprising to me, considering the series was meant to be a throwback to the Banjo-Kazooie formula, but I was happy enough with the first game and charmed enough by its oddball world and characters to give this slightly-revised sequel a fair shake of the stick.

The Plot:
After being defeated by Yooka and Laylee in the previous game, Capital B has returned to cause havoc; this time, he has enslaved the Royal Stingdom using the Hive Mind, captured Queen Phoebee’s Royal Beettalion, and locked himself inside the titular Impossible Lair. In order to overcome the Lair’s enemies and obstacles and defeat Capital B, Yooka and Laylee must travel to numerous new worlds and free the Royal Battalion, all while restoring peace and order to the Royal Stingdom.

Gameplay:
Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair is, primarily, a 2.5D action/platformer in the style of the Donkey Kong Country series; players control Yooka, a laid-back chameleon, and Laylee, a wise-cracking bat, simultaneously to explore the large overworld, traverse the game’s numerous stages, and battle the assortment of quirky enemies found within.

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Many of the duo’s abilities return from the first game.

Many of Yooka and Laylee’s abilities from the previous game return here; the duo can run, jump, and roll along in a ball like a certain blue hedgehog. Yooka can use his tongue to grab at certain objects to spit fruit or bombs at enemies or switches or open new pathways and secret areas and the duo can flutter and twirl in the air to extend the reach of their jumps or perform a powerful downward stomp to defeat enemies or drop down to lower levels. Unfortunately, the duo are missing some of their more useful abilities from the last game; you can only spit out projectiles when you find one in a level, and you can no longer turn invisible, walk while in water, or form a protective shield. While the game does provide alternative means to do some of these moves, there is no way to use Laylee to glide, fly, or have Yooka use his tail for a high jump. Instead, you’re tasked with chaining together high-speed rushes with well-timed jumps to gain extra height and cover large distances, which is fine but I can’t help but feel it’s a missed opportunity to not have the duo flying at some point in some way.

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Get hit and you’ll lose Laylee, leaving you vulnerable until you find a bell to call her back.

Also missing from the first game is a health and power bar; you no longer need to consume butterflies to restore your health or wait for a meter to fill up before you can perform one of the duo’s special moves. Instead, when you get hit by an enemy or obstacle, Laylee will fly erratically around the screen for several seconds like Baby Mario in Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island (Nintendo EAD, 1995). If you can’t retrieve her in time, she will fly away and you’ll be left with just Yooka and missing the few moves the game provided you with; take another hit and you’ll die and be returned to your last checkpoint, with Laylee restored to you. You can, however, find special bells you can ring that will return Laylee to your side and use certain Tonics to extend the length of time you have to retrieve Laylee but, honestly, of all the things to be inspired by! Luckily, Laylee doesn’t whine and cry in an annoying screech like Baby Mario but it can be extremely harrowing and dangerous to retrieve Laylee but, if you don’t you might miss certain collectables and secret areas.

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Collect the T.W.I.T. coins to lower Trowzer’s Paywalls.

To explore the game’s forty stages, you’ll have to navigate an expansive overworld; while nothing compared to the one from the first game, it’s still surprisingly expansive, with many areas connected to others through secret pathways or blocked off by one of Trowzer’s Paywalls. As you explore the game’s stages, you can find five T.W.I.T. coins in each; it is highly recommended that you go out of your way to obtain as many of these as you can as you’ll need to use them to lower Trowzer’s Paywalls and reach new areas and to obtain an Achievement. Each stage is accessed through a magical book, as in the last game, but rather than expanding upon a stage with the Quills you find in the game’s stages, you use these Quills to purchase Tonics and gain new abilities or game-changing buffs (or de-buffs) or to pay for a hint to locate hidden Tonics on the overworld. You can manipulate and alter the overworld, however, by completing a mini game set by a Pagie found in each area; doing this allows you to find new areas (and more hidden Tonics) and open up new paths to link the overworld together.

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Completing side quests adds an alternative mode to each stage.

Some of Yooka-Laylee’s other recognisable characters also make a return but in severely reduced roles; they generally hang around the overworld, offering hints or asking you to complete a series of small tasks that will access a stage’s alternative mode. These tasks this many involve freezing Nimbo the Cloud, pushing a shopping trolley off a lighthouse, causing a boiler to cough up ash, or activating a fan. Each task is slightly different and changes the stages in different ways; the stage may be flipped upside down or on its side, for example, or underwater, frozen, or filled with acid or lava. This means each stage has two sections to it for a total of ten T.W.I.T. coins per chapter and altering a stage can turn even the game’s easiest levels into challenging test of your patience and endurance.

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Track down the Ghost Quills for extra Quills, coins, and items.

Each stage also sees the return of the five Ghost Writer Quills; each one flies around the immediate area in a different way, leaving regular Quills in their wake, and generally explode in a shower of Quills once you collect all their Quills or chase them down. Others, however, leave behind a T.W.I.T. coin, a piece of fruit or a bomb to aid your progress, or a key that can access a new area of the stage and lead you to another T.W.I.T. coin. You never know what the Ghost Quills are going to yield as a prize so it’s worth trying to hunt them down and collect their Quills whenever you find them. Every time you clear a stage, you rescue a member of the Beettalion, which is crucial to increasing your chances at completing the Impossible Lair. Unlike the last game (and most games, for that matter), you can challenge the game’s final stage, the titular Impossible Lair, whenever you like but, if you have few or even no Beettalions to aid you, you won’t last very long as the Lair isn’t called “Impossible” for fun. Some stages also contain hidden exits that deposit you in different areas of the overworld and lead you to one of the six secret members of the Beettalion and it is highly recommended that you don’t attempt the Impossible Lair without all forty-eight members of the Beettalion to form a protective shield around you.

Graphics and Sound:
Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair is just as gorgeous as its predecessor, perhaps even more so thanks to its extra polish and shine. The world and the characters that inhabit it are bright, colourful, and cheery; playing the game is like playing a cartoon and all the characters are full of life and charm. Thanks to the game’s shifted perspective to 2.5D, the character animations rely far more on pantomime than fully-animated 3D models, meaning the game’s simple animations are far less egregious. Thankfully, the game still uses the charming gibberish of the Banjo-Kazooie series; whenever characters talk, they babble and jabber away like loons and I absolutely love it. Just a few sounds is all it takes to infuse these characters with personality and you always know who is talking and when thanks to these simple, but effectively, sound effects.

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The game looks and sounds fantastic, at least.

The music is just as delightful and affective as ever as well; thanks to the likes of the great Grant Kirkhope, the game’s overworld, stages, and areas are infused with a fairytale-like quality and, no matter how frustrating and difficult some sections might be, you’ll always have a catchy, appealing little tune to hum along to and settle your nerves.

Enemies and Bosses:
Yooka and Laylee’s world is mostly populated by mean-spirited little goblins called Meanyions; you’ll come up against blue versions that simple wander back and forth, red ones that you can only defeat by jumping on them, yellow ones that jump when you jump, and green ones that hover around in a jetpack or with propellers on their heads (which protect them from your jump attack). There are also fatter, blob-like Boundalong Meanyions who bounce you backwards (usually to your death), the spider-like Webwhacks that can only be avoided thanks to their spiked behinds, cannons that blast projectiles or homing missiles at you, and laser-spewing spheres. Generally, though, you’ll find most the most danger and frustration coming from the many death traps in the game’s stages; giant instant-death boulders, laser beams, and saw blades chase you, spikes, icicles, saw blades, and other spiked surfaces can either cause you to take damage or instantly die, acid and lava pits are abundant and, of course, there are the numerous bottomless pits scattered across the stages. A lot of the game’s challenge comes from using the duo’s skills and carefully bouncing from one enemy to another to clear these gaps; make a mistake and you’ll pay, usually with your life.

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Getting through the Impossible Lair is easier said than done…!

The game only features one boss battle and it’s against Capital B within the Impossible Lair. You might think that this means the game is lacking in challenge but you’d be wrong; not only do you have to first get through the game’s stages to unlock enough (or all) of the Beettalions to allow you to get through the Lair’s many enemies and death traps, you then have to face Capital B in four separate, increasingly difficult encounters. This wouldn’t be so bad but, to reach each of these battles, you first have to survive the Impossible Lair…which more than lives up to its name. Every type of enemy, trap, obstacle, and gameplay mechanic you’ve encountered and bested in each of the game’s stages is incorporated into the Lair; every time you take a hit or fall to your death, you lose one of the Beettalion and there’s no way to get them back. You can return to the Lair from the start of each battle with Capital B but this only really helps if you reached that fight with a decent amount of bees left and can defeat that phase of the boss battle without incurring much damage so you have the best chance of getting through the next stage of the Lair.

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Capital B can be tough but getting to him is even tougher!

Thankfully, actually fighting Capital B is much easier than in the last game; he has very clear and predictable attack patterns but it’s very easy to mess up and take a hit in these fights thanks to the lack of a high jump and the surprisingly large hit box of both the titular duo and the boss itself. Add to that the fact that he Impossible Lair is more frustrating than challenging and you have a significant portion of the game that is more of a chore to get through than being fun and charming like the rest of the game. If you really want to torture yourself, you can take on the Lair’s alternative mode, where you must try and make it through without any of the Beettalion to protect and save you…and if you can do that then good luck to you; you’re a better person than me.

Power-Ups and Bonuses:
Like the Banjo-Kazooie games of old, and its predecessor, Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair is a bit of a collectathon; each stage is filled with Quills to collect, T.W.I.T. coins to find, and hidden areas that generally contain one, or both, of these items. Clear a stage and you rescue a member of the Beettalion and can use the Quills and coins you’ve earned to unlock new skills and areas of the game. The Tonics from the last game return here; Tonics are scattered across the overworld and, while some are in plain sight, others are hidden and you’ll have to pay sign posts for hints on how to find them. Either way, simply finding a Tonic isn’t enough to use it; you have to pay for it with the Quills you’ve collected, meaning you’ll have to revisit some of the game’s easier stages again and again to farm for Quills to unlock every Tonic.

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Different Tonics have different effects, buffs, and de-buffs.

At first, you can only use three Tonics at a time but, eventually, you earn the ability to have a fourth Tonic slot (either temporarily or permanently, if you find every single T.W.I.T. coin in the game. You have to be careful, though, as some of the more useful Tonics (like increasing the amount of checkpoints, letting you hold on to your T.W.I.T. coins after you die, or having special attacks that destroy all onscreen enemies) reduces your Quill count at the end of a stage. So, to get more Quills, you have to use the more obtrusive Tonics (which turn the stage upside down or mess up the controls, for example) but, no matter how you play the game and which Tonics you use, they’re completely redundant in the Impossible Lair as you can’t use any of them…which really makes you question why you put all that effort into finding and unlocking all of them in the first place.

Additional Features:
Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair is full of Achievements to earn; you get one for saving certain amount of bees and finding certain secrets but also for finding all the T.W.I.T. coins and, of course, there’s one for beating the Impossible Lair without any bees…so I won’t be getting that one any time soon.The Tonics can help to spice up the game and add some replayability to the stages; you can alter the art style and colour scheme to resemble the Nintendo 64 or the Game Boy, slow down time, and alter other elements to increase (or decrease) your chances to somewhat customise the difficulty of the stages. There is also some downloadable content on offer for the game but it mostly boils down to more Tonics at this point rather than adding new game modes or levels to extend the game’s story and playtime.

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The Summary:
I really like the Yooka-Laylee series; I feel it’s a great spiritual successor to the Banjo-Kazooie and Donkey Kong Country series at a time when Microsoft seems perfectly happy to let the bear-and-bird disappear into obscurity. Both games have their flaws, of course; being independently created, largely crowdfunded videogames will do that so some compromises are expected but none of that changes the fact that this series is keeping alive a gameplay style that seems to be dying out these days. Unfortunately, for everything that is good about this game, it is let down by the titular Impossible Lair. I have no problem with testing my skills and being faced with a challenge but the Impossible Lair is such a kick in the ass that it sucks all the fun and enjoyment out of the game’s biggest selling point. This almost makes all of the previous stages and achievements you’ve accomplished redundant; you can’t use any of the Tonics, you can’t collect or replenish the bees once you take a hit, and it’s so easy to slip up and drain all of your bees that, generally, it’s easier to simply quit out and try again than reach Capital B without enough of the Beettalion to make it worth pushing forward. It’s not that the game isn’t fun and there aren’t things to like about it; the graphics and music and controls are, generally, top notch and the game is full of the quirky charm the Banjo-Kazooie series was famous for. But the Impossible Lair lives up to its name maybe too much; I feel the developers were maybe being a bit too clever in piling on the difficulty and precision platforming for this stage and it makes the game more of a chore to get through in its final stages rather than being a fun experience from start to finish.

My Rating:

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Pretty Good

What did you think of Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair? Are you a fan of these characters and their games? Did you have any problems with the Impossible Lair or were you able to beat it without too much difficulty? Which of Rare’s platformers was your favourite back in the day? Would you like to see Banjo and Kazooie get another shot, perhaps even alongside Yooka and Laylee? Whatever you think about the Yooka-Laylee games, feel free to leave a comment below.

Game Corner: Yooka-Laylee (Xbox One)

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How powerful is nostalgia? That is the question Yooka-Laylee (Playtonic Games/Team17, 2017) poses. The spiritual successor to one of the greatest 3D platrformers/collect-a-thons ever, and one of my personal favourite videogames, Banjo-Kazooie (Rare, 1998), Yooka-Laylee once again throws players into a vibrant world full of colourful, squawking characters but, released some twenty years after Banjo’s heyday, is it enough to satisfy modern gamers? Obviously, this is a question many have debated and answered long before I got around to playing Yooka-Laylee and, if you listen to those opinions, you’ll largely hear a sense of apathy, disappointment, and frustrating with some of Yooka-Laylee’s design choices and gameplay mechanics. It amuses me, however, to imagine the same people who criticised Yooka-Laylee’s gameplay are probably some of the same people who were disappointed that Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts (ibid, 2008) was just a kart-constructor and not a fully-fledged 3D platformer. But then, as I’ve always said, you can’t please everyone. Luckily, my needs are far simpler: all I wanted was a throwback to all the things I loved about the Banjo games on modern consoles and, in that sense, Yooka-Laylee delivered.

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Yooka and Laylee must search high and low for their missing Pagies.

Rather than the classic bird and bird duo of yesteryear, Yooka-Laylee sees players taking control of the titular Yooka (a green lizard capable of rolling, attacking with his tail, and spitting fire, ice, and grenades) and Laylee (a purple bat who allows a degree of flight and whose sonar highlights secrets and acts as a protective shield) who must fight against the minions of the nefarious Capital B, who plans to use a magical book to take control of the world. Yooka and Laylee happen to be in possession of the book and, when its pages are scattered across various worlds, they take it upon themselves to journey far and wide to collect the missing Pagies and put an end to Capital B’s plans. The world of Yooka-Laylee is both familiar and new; boosted by the power of modern consoles, Yooka and Laylee are able to traverse diverse worlds that are tall, deep, and wide, with numerous side quests, hidden treasures, and additional content that keeps them busy. Worlds are accessed from the game’s central hub, Hivory Towers: Yooka and Laylee can jump into Grand Tomes and enter any of the game’s five worlds, each with a familiar theme (ice, space, casino, etc).

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Yooka-Laylee‘s worlds have many hidden secrets.

Once they have collected a certain number of Pagies, players have the option of using some of their Pagies to expand each world, opening up new areas and, in some cases, adding entirely new sections to existing worlds where more collectables can be found. In order to reach Capital B, players have to collect a set number of Pagies but, in order to complete the game fully, players must find all 145 Pagies, each of which is protected by either a boss battle, a puzzle of some sorts, mandatory on-rails kart sections, races, and retro-style arcade games. Players can also find and collect various other objects; Quills can be collected to purchase new moves from Trowzer, a shady sales-snake (and finding all 1010 is necessary to obtaining every Pagie), Power Extenders extend your power meter and allow you to use the duos abilities for longer, butterflies can be eaten to restore health and your power meter and there are Health Extenders to get an extra hit point, and five hidden pieces of pirate treasure are also hidden within each world.

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You can purchase new moves and abilities.

To assist with their exploring and collecting, players can access a wide variety of moves upon their purchase. Eventually, players will be able to fly, turn invisible, absorb the properties of beehives to access new areas (eating fire-flies to light dark areas, for example), and even encase themselves in a bubble to walk underwater. Completing certain objective will also allow players to assign one of Vendi’s tonics, which all grant the duo certain buffs (such as an extra hit point, a faster regenerating power meter, or removing damage from falls).

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A variety of wacky transformations are at your disposal.

Furthermore, Dr. Puzz can be found in each world and will transform Yooka and Laylee into a variety of other forms, similar to Mumbo-Jumbo in Banjo-Kazooie. Players can become a plant, a snowplough, a helicopter, a swarm of piranha, and an adorable little pirate ship; each transformation allows players to solve puzzles and earn new Pagies as well as access other areas of their respective world. Yooka and Laylee also have to contend with a boss battle in each world, each more ridiculous than the last (they range from a giant ice block and a lovesick, anthropomorphic asteroid). While most of these aren’t particularly difficult and can be bested with a combination of skill, memorisation, and having enough health and power, some can be quite tricky and frustrating, with the final boss battle in particular proving quite the headache. Similar to the final confrontations with Gruntilda in the Banjo games, Capital B takes numerous forms and requires the uses of all of Yooka and Laylee’s skills to win the day.

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Even Shovel Knight shows up. How indy is that!?

One of the criticisms I heard about this game long before finally getting it was that the worlds are perhaps too large and too sparsely populated and, in truth, it feels like there could have been ten very distinct worlds instead of five that are extended further and basically force the player to remain in each one for extended periods of time with little reprieve. However, each world is alive with gorgeous, colourful characters and locations; they stretch far up, deep down, and right across and each one has so much to see, do, and explore. The downside to this is that there is so much ground to cover and so many areas and sub areas in each world that it can be difficult to know where to go, where things are, and how to proceed. This is a good thing, in that the game doesn’t hand-hold the player, but it does make finding the game’s many collectables (especially those damn Quills) very difficult and frustrating, especially when you have searched every square inch numerous times. However, each world has a lot packed into it and their own unique theme; players will find themselves completing a variety of mini games in capital Cashino, for instance, in exchange for coins that can be further exchanged for Pagies but, in Moodymaze Marsh, have to traverse a murky swamp filled with spiked plants.

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Seriously, screw this guy and his damn kart sections!

Playing Yooka-Laylee is, mostly, a breeze; Pagies can be found and collected without too much difficulty but, if you want to get everything in the game, you’re going to have to endure some frustrating sections. Kartos, the anthropomorphic kart, can be found in each world and beating one of his increasingly-difficult on-rails kart sections is mandatory for earning all Pagies. Similarly, Rextro the Dinosaur’s arcade-style mini games must be beaten twice to earn two Pagies; these are nice, fun distractions but can be annoying to have to play due to the controls, janky hit boxes, and equally-janky controls. It’s nothing you can’t get through with time and patience, though, and adds some variety, if nothing else.

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There’s lots to see, do, and collect. What more could you want?

Honestly, it annoys me that Yooka-Laylee wasn’t more praised upon its release. Sure, there could be a lot more available in the game, but for a crowd-funded, independently-produced title, it has a lot going for it and is more than a worthy successor to Banjo-Kazooie. I would love to see the Platronics guys get folded back in to Rare and a true Banjo-Kazooie sequel be produced but, until then, Yooka-Laylee scratches that particular itch quite nicely with its large worlds, gorgeous visuals, fun gameplay, biting wit, and some brilliant new tunes from Grant Kirkhope. In the end, nostalgia was powerful indeed, certainly enough for me to have a great time with this fun little throwback to an era sadly neglected in modern day videogames.

My Rating:

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Great Stuff

Game Corner: Banjo-Tooie (Xbox One)

Dr. K4 Comments
GameCorner
BanjoTooie

To reach Gruntilda, Banjo and Kazooie had to traverse a variety of worlds and collect a multitude of items, the most important of which were Jiggies – which were required to access new worlds and climb higher up Gruntilda’s castle. The game was a huge success for Rare, heralding a number of successes for the company on the Nintendo 64, and has been a personal favourite of mine for nearly a decade now for its charming aesthetics, catching music, amusing characters, and vibrant worlds.

One of gaming’s most unique duos.

Back in 1998, Rare developed an incredibly intricate and amusing platform videogame called Banjo-Kazooie. The game starred a slightly slow, but very helpful, honey bear named Banjo, who first featured in Diddy Kong Racing in 1997. Banjo, humorously garbed in bright yellow short-shorts, carried around his friend and counterpart – a Breegull named Kazooie – in a blue back-pack. Together, the two were tasked with rescuing Banjo’s kid sister, Tooty, from the evil witch Gruntilda, aided along the way by Bottles, a short-sighted mole who teaches the two their attacks and abilities, and Mumbo-Jumbo, a shaman who transforms the duo into other forms to aid their quest. In 2000, Rare finally produced a sequel, Banjo-Tooie, which was released near the end of the Nintendo 64’s lifespan and has consequently become one of the rarest and most expensive videogames around, even when bought unboxed. As a result, obtaining a copy has been a goal of mine for years, ever since I briefly played it in 2001, and in 2013 I was finally able to procure a copy and play the game through to completion. Of course, since then, the title (alongside the original and many of Rare’s top titles from the area, before, and beyond) was given a high-definition remaster that I later picked up as part of Rare Replay for Xbox One.

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Grunty is back and out for revenge!

Banjo-Tooie picks up two years after Gruntilda’s defeat. Trapped underneath a giant boulder, she summons her sisters, Mingella and Blobbbelda, to free her so she can avenge her defeat. Now little more than a skeleton, she destroys Banjo’s house, killing Bottles, and prepares a special ray gun that will suck the life out of the planet and restore her physical form. Eager for another adventure and desiring revenge for he death of Bottles, Banjo and Kazooie head out to travel new worlds and put the witch to rest once and more all. The first thing to note about Banjo-Tooie is how much bigger it is than its predecessor. Not only can players run around Spiral Mountain (the tutorial area from the first game) and re-enter the mouth of Gruntilda’s Castle, the player can explore and travel through an all-new overworld that is intricately connected to the playable levels in the game. For instance, rather than opening up worlds to enter in a central hub as in the previous game, the players go from one hub to the next following the path of Gruntilda’s digging machine through a huge overworld. Whilst exploring each level, the player can open up shortcuts to other levels, the most obvious being Chuffy the Train, but other sluiceways, tunnels, and paths also exist which connect one world to the next and allow players to traverse what now feels like an entire world rather than an enclosed space.

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Jamjars has some new moves to teach Banjo and Kazooie.

The main aim of the game is still to collect loads of items, but the actual task is much less tedious. Previously, the player was awarded for collecting each world’s 100 musical notes, but the number you collected reset every time you left a world and re-entered it. Now, the number carries over, and they are a lot easier to find and collect. Jiggies, however, are found in a multitude of ways, as before, with each world now being home to a formidable boss battle which will test Banjo and Kazooie’s new skills. Speaking of which, Bottles’ brother, Jamjars, is on hand to teach the duo additional moves. While Banjo and Kazooie are capable of every move from the last game bar one (Banjo’s bear swipes are absent), Jamjars loads the player up with a variety of new eggs to shoot at enemies (which becomes a focal point in the game during its many first-person-shooter sequences), the ever-handy Grip Grab that allows Banjo to hang on to ledges, and the ability to have Banjo and Kazooie separate from each other to tackle switch-based puzzles. Mumbo now becomes a secondary character, as players use his magic to access unreachable areas and acquire Jiggies, while Humba Wumba’s spells are used to turn the duo into new forms, which are new required for a multitude of Jiggy-based tasks and even to conquer certain bosses.

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Banjo-Tooie has many secrets and collectables.

One of the greatest things about Banjo-Kazooie was its many secrets, most of which were meant to be accessed in Banjo-Tooie through a unique “Stop and Swap” feature that, theoretically, would have seen players swap one cart for another to unlock new content. Though this feature was eventually dropped, the ever-mysterious Ice Key and Secret Eggs return in this game, now used to unlock new moves and the awesome Dragon Kazooie, though the full extent of this feature would not be made accessible until the Xbox 360 HD remixes. Banjo-Tooie also features a multiplayer mode, allowing for up to four players to take part in Goldeneye 007-like deathmatches and other modes that, honestly, I haven’t played but I imagine are similar to the same multiplayer modes seen in Conker’s Bad Fur Day. Like The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, Banjo-Tooie features many recycled characters and character models, as characters encountered in the previous game return to aid or hinder the duo at various points.

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It’s all about the story…except when it’s not…

In the end, playing Banjo-Tooie was an awesome experience, but a couple of things let it down for me. Firstly, why remove Banjo’s bear swipes? This seems like a nit-pick, but I expected Banjo to have the attack when he goes solo and he never acquires it, meaning that he is limited to his Pack Whack move. Second, when you acquire a Jiggy, Banjo and Kazooie no longer go into a cute little celebration animation. The Jiggy is simply collected and you move on. While I don’t necessarily mind this, as the lack of the celebration means you don’t get any wasted momentum, it kind of makes acquiring Jiggies mean a lot less as the characters no longer seem to care. Next, the game takes a long time to get started – the opening cutscene is quite long and, at various points at the game’s beginning, the action cuts to a cutscene that shows Gruntilda’s plan in motion. Then you never hear anything of her plot until the final boss, which is pretty jarring – Gruntilda uses her restoration ray once and you never hear anything of it again, so the threat seems diminished and an afterthought by the conclusion. You also never confront her two sisters, which seemed a given, though the addition of a boss for each level kind of made up for that.

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There’s a bunch of new transformations to play around with.

Certain other aspects are a bit tedious as well; before, when you tried to exit a level as a transformed Banjo and Kazooie, Mumbo’s magic would automatically wear off. Here though, you must return to Wumba to transform back into the duo to exit – similarly, Mumbo and either character alone cannot exit levels and must switch back to do so, which can get a bit tedious. There’s a ton of backtracking in this game, which can be frustrating but it’s great to see how characters and events in one level can affect and influence the other, so I didn’t mind this too much and it didn’t really feel like it was padding the game out, more that the world was big and interconnected, so backtracking is more like a given. Also, in comparison to the first game, the ending felt a little limp and the overall game time seemed less – I finished the entire game in just under 25 hours, whereas I remember working on Banjo-Kazooie for a long time, but that may have just been rooting around for more secrets and such.

My Rating:

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Great Stuff

In the end, the game is a masterful example of how to make a great action/platform title – colourful worlds, great music, amusing characters, loads (and loads) to do, see, and collect, great controls (flying and swimming can be a bit testy, as before, however), and a pretty simple premise. Games like this aren’t really made much anymore – once you beat videogames these days, there’s not much incentive to pick up and play again, but in the Banjo titles there’s always more to do. As the Nintendo 64 copy is quite expensive, I recommended Xbox owners download both titles (or purchase Rare Replay) and play them to death and think themselves lucky to be able to experience the full games.