Developers: Rare
Publishers: Nintendo
System: N64
Release Date: May 31, 1998
Rated: E

This was a fun 3D platformer for the N64. I will, of course, grade on a scale from 1-10. Here it goes!

Story: 6
The story begins one day at Spiral Mountain, an area inhabited by Banjo, Kazooie, Bottles, and several other creatures, including giant hopping carrots and other vegetables. On that particular morning, while the sun is shining and the fauna are flourishing, Banjo lies snoring in his bed while Tootie is waiting for Banjo to "go on an adventure" with her. Meanwhile, Gruntilda is hunched over her cauldron admiring her own beauty; even though she is the ugliest hag of all, she remains convinced that she is the loveliest in the land. Asking her magical cauldron, Dingpot, who indeed is the fairest of all, assured that she will hear her own name, Dingpot answers that it is in fact not her, but Tootie who is the fairest in the land. Gruntilda is enraged by this and sets out to Tootie's house to kidnap her and steal her beauty. Meanwhile, back outside Banjo's house, Tootie is talking to Bottles the mole when Gruntilda sweeps down and kidnaps Tootie, who does not go without a fight. Banjo, of course, sleeps through the whole thing (despite Kazooie continually yelling at Banjo to wake up), and only walks out of the house shortly after Gruntilda has flown away with Tootie. After hearing what transpired from Bottles, Banjo and his friend Kazooie begin their journey up Spiral Mountain and inside Grunty's Lair to save Tootie.

The main problem I had with it is that it seemed so boring and so repetitive. Wow, another girl gets kidnapped and the MALE hero has to save her. It seemed very boring, but it was still ok.

Gameplay: 8
The gameplay is similar to SM64. Like Super Mario 64 before it, the player proceeds through the game by finding tokens. There are three kinds of tokens that help the player in his or her progress through the game, namely Jigsaw Pieces, Musical Notes, and Mumbo Tokens. The first, "Jigsaw Pieces", open doors to new worlds by collecting enough to complete a particular jigsaw puzzle. There are ten "Jiggies" (as they are sometimes called) in each world: nine must be sought and found, and one is granted by finding all five "Jinjos" on each world. The second, "Musical Notes", open magic Note Doors that allow Banjo and Kazooie to progress further into Gruntilda's lair. There are 100 notes on each world, and  900 total in the game. The third, "Mumbo's Tokens", grant the player magical  transformations at Mumbo's hut when the player collects a sufficient amount.  Each hut that the player visits will yield only one of the following transformations: termite, crocodile, walrus, pumpkin, or bee. Besides these primary tokens, players may also collect items that are used in performing certain moves. Bottles the Mole must teach Banjo and Kazooie the move before the item can be utilized. Some are used in puzzle-solving, namely "Wading Boots", which enable the crossing of hazardous terrain, and "Running Shoes", which grant extra running speed, often as part of a race or a time-based puzzle. Finally, there are power-ups, such as "Extra Lives", which look like golden Banjo statues and grant one extra life each, and "Honeycomb Energy", which incrementally increases  the player's health and can be found in each level.

Music: 9
I really loved pretty much all of the music. If you liked DK64 music, then you'll love this music because they are very similar. It has the nice banjo guitar and other cool sounds. I personally liked Bubblegloop Swamp a lot. Anyway, the music is awesome, take my word for it.

Characters: 8
Since this is the first game in its series, I can't really compare the characters and tell if they are original characters of the older series or anything. You have your two playable characters: Banjo, a lovable yet somewhat confused bear, and Kazooie, an elegant bird with a cutting wit who is Banjo's partner in action and character foil. Then you have characters that help you out, such as Mumbo Jumbo, a shaman that helps the duo by transforming them into various creatures and Bottles, a timid, mild-mannered mole who is the neighbor of Banjo and Kazooie. Then you have the villains and their kidnappee: Gruntilda Winkybunion, a witch that vows revenge on Banjo and Kazooie, Klungo, who is Gruntilda's servant, and Tootie, Banjo's little sister. If you were confused, Tootie was the one kidnapped, not Klungo. Anyway two playable characters is always a good thing to me, and I liked their allies. I just maybe wanted a few more allies than three.

Controls: 5
Here's the semi-bad part. The controls can be frustrating. You have to use Up-A, then switch to B-Down, etc. It's a lot of button mashing and switching buttons itself. Flying with Kazooie ain't easy either. Then you have to throw certain items with a BAD camera angle. Yeah, I know I'm making them sound horrible, but they're not THAT bad. They just weren't good. Therefore, they're average.

Difficulty: 8
This game is a lot harder then SM64. First of all, the bosses are harder, ESPECIALLY Gruntilda. Second of all you don't have clues like in SM64 that tell you or give you a hint on where to find the Jigsaw Piece. Third of all, collecting every note in every level is a lot harder than just collecting 100 coins in 15 different courses. Believe me, this game is pretty hard. It ain't the hardest, but can be very challenging.

Items: 7
Some nice Items .Items include Eggs, Red Feathers, and Gold Feathers, which can be held in quantities up to 100, 50, and 10, respectively. Eggs are fired as projectiles or ejected from Kazooie's rear, which would bounce slowly until they either hit an enemy or break on their own, Red Feathers are utilized in flight and flying attacks, and Gold Feathers are for the most powerful attack, "Wonderwing", which uses Kazooie's wings to make her and Banjo invincible and able to kill most any enemy, or at least protect the bear and bird. I personally thought there weren't enough, but they did well. Maybe there could have been another type of egg, or maybe another item all together. Overall, they did well enough for me.

Secrets: 1
This is the biggest downfall of the game. The only thing you get at the end of the game after you beat the difficult Gruntilda is an alternate ending. That's it. No extra bonus modes, no 100 free lives or anything at all. This was awful, but it is an adventure game so you can't expect too much.

Replayability: 8
Chances are, you won't have collected every puzzle piece when you beat the game. You'll want to collect a lot more items, and get the rest of the pieces too. I know it doesn't sound like much, but it will take you awhile. You can also beat  Gruntilda over and over again, because I know you'd LOVE to beat her (yeah right).

Graphics: 9
Maybe it's because it was developed by Rare. The graphics are amazing for the N64. There are no polygons, and the pieces look nice. There are very very minor complaints about the levels you'll travel through, but overall you'll barely even notice an error.

Originality: 5
This really was't unique. This game is similar to SM64. Jigsaw Pieces = Power Stars, All of the levels are the same format as SM64, and the bosses are similar too. SM64 didn't offer a second playable character though. So it's average, but I think some things in this game are ripped off from SM64. You'll see if you play it.

Overall: 7
Not a great game, but not a bad one either. If you liked M64 and DK64, then you'll like this one. I'd recommend this game to anyone who enjoys adventure/DK games. Go out and buy it used while you still can.