Banjo-Kazooie

I just can't stop going back to this game even after twenty years. I don't know why it stands so far above other Mario 64-alikes to me, but it always has. Levels like Treasure Trove Cove, Freezeezy Peak and Click Clock Woods just pull me into this warm, nostalgic place, the music is so chipper and charming and the game bursting with fun ideas in the ways it expands your moveset from Mario 64. That quiz game at the end, so clever for its day!

The game has a neat hub world and it also has a lot of personality, but good lord, this game is the definition of overrated. Mechanically the movement options are one-dimensional and stiff with abilities that are overly contextual to be interesting. Level design is mostly boring gimmicks that can occasionally be decent but are either braindead easy or infuriating in how poorly designed they are. Why people think this is some gold standard in platforming is beyond me.

I feel like there was just a spate of games that were exactly the same with different paint.

Not a huge fan of platformers, but this classic still manages to be a good time with a fun little story to go along with the charming soundtrack and gameplay that still holds up 25 years later.

This is awful. You're saving your sister in this game from this witch that kidnapped her & wants to transfer her beauty into her. The 3D is really bad in this game. You can't tell where you going. You need to collect 100 notes per level, Puzzle pieces & what looked like Skelton skulls. You won't advance to any more levels until you do all that per level. If you leave a level it doesn't save all the stuff you got as you got to redo that over again.

I do understand the appeal but Banjo was just too much of a long-form fetch-quest for me to care all that much. I find it very middling in spite of the whimsicality of the characters, music, sound, and overall presentation.

Very tedious collecting all that bullshit. I never tried not collecting anything, it may be much better that way.

~Completed!~ While some of the level design hasn't aged gracefully, it's still a brilliant, shining example of 3D platformers. Its iconic sound and game design, along with its quirky, memorable characters, will keep you coming back for more. This is my third time completing it and I know I'll do it again some day.

The strongest of Rare's N64 platformers, despite being their first; their expressed need to make the others "new" and "different" compared to this often led them astray one way or another. Here, though, the levels fit together on a scale that's fun to explore without making backtracking a chore, the moves are numerous and varied but are introduced at a reasonable pace, and overall, it just works nicely. As successful an attempt to follow in Mario 64's footsteps as you could wish for.

There may be a little to much back tracking for some. Which could be an issue. For those who appreciate the collecathon genre this game towers at the top of. Banjo-Kazooie is legendary and is always a worthy game to go back to.