Banjo-Tooie

The game that comes closest to recapturing what made the first one work, though the overdrawn cutscenes and less focused map design hold it back a little. All in all, I wouldn't even mind the overabundance of collectibles and outsized maps quite so much if the game gave a clearer sense of what you actually *need* to do to proceed.

I adore Banjo-Kazooie, but it was kind of balancing on the perfect knife's edge of having worlds that were huge but still managable and able to be explored thoroughly with a little initiative. These worlds on the other hand are so fucking ludicrously gargantuan that I don't even know where to get started. I've played Banjo-Kazooie to completion at least a dozen times. I've never reached the end credits of Banjo-Tooie.

Scoff, you think you were done collecting???

~Completed!~ A solid follow up to the best game on the N64. While it progresses technically with polished level design and easily the best controls and moves for any collectathon platformer, it kind of wastes all of that by focusing heavily on mini-games and dated FPS levels. I really wanted to love this as much as the first, but it isn't quite up to the bar set by the original. Still a fun, challenging continuation to the first game that I highly recommend if you love Banjo-Kazooie.

As per RAREWare tradition at the time. They outdid even themselves. Banjo-Tooie is lighting that struck twice. It's bigger, it's better, it's almost too much to bear. RARE has hit perfection before, and if this was to be one of the last times, it really could not have turned out any better.

A sequel that improves a lot upon its predecessor, but it also left a lot to be desired. It's a great game that lives in its older brothers shadow.