1 Review liked by AdrenalinDragon


Few games are hampered by their own ambition the way this one is.

The worlds of Banjo-Tooie are massive yet mostly empty. The open world approach simply does not fit the Banjo series, which benefited much more from compact, meaningful levels wherein everything serves a purpose, like in the previous game. Trekking through these massive landscapes, switching between characters and effecting elements in future levels only to come back can feel extremely tedious. I do not recommend playing this game to 100% at all.

The abundance of new moves for the iconic duo, new gameplay styles and new boss fights are all fine ideas on paper, but the game bounces back and forth between ideas far too often for anything to leave an impression. Very little in this game feels polished or inspired, instead opting to throw every idea at the wall and see what sticks.

I can play the original Banjo-Kazooie to 100% anytime, anywhere, and I remember so much from that game, yet so little from this one. I think the overall experience would have been much stronger if some ideas were cut and the levels were shortened.

With that said, the game is still enjoyable up to a point. Many of the levels, while huge and unfocused, still provide fun objectives from time to time. The game will make you work very hard for many of those golden puzzle pieces, but they can be very satisfying to collect for those willing to spend the time.

Altogether, I can still recommend this game for a casual playthrough, but it would have benefitted greatly from keeping its ambition in check.