This review contains spoilers
Banjo-Kazooie's one of those games I've always heard really good things about, but I never got to play it. Never owned it on N64 (although I did own Tooie). I had a playthrough going on my Xbox One a few years back, but I stopped right at Gobi's Valley for reasons I don't remember. Now here I am to finally finish the job, and it was quite fun actually. I think this is still a game of its time and it definitely had some issues, but overall this was a solid experience. It's a cool 3D platformer and a classic Rare collectathon (right before they went crazy with putting hundreds of different kinds of collectables in these games like in DK64). Ended with all Notes and Jiggies in every world, but was just shy of finding everything since there was some unlockable Jiggies in Grunty's Lair that I never found. 97 out of 100 Jiggies.
Platforming and exploring these worlds feels great, especially with all the moves Banjo and Kazooie get along the way. Only issues I had with movement were from my slight stick drift. My main complaints about the moves is that some of them - like shooting eggs or flying (and Beak Buster) - feel pretty finnicky, but part of that is due to me using a Switch Pro Controller. There's four different special actions tied to using the C buttons, one of which is shooting eggs, and that makes it a bit awkward on Switch since its mapped to the right stick there. The flying is at least miles better than Super Mario 64 in my opinion, but getting the hang of it was annoying for me. As for the world design itself, its also quite fun; each one has some kind of unique gimmick and thematic to set itself apart. Even the water worlds weren't too painful, which is certainly rare. The main goal of the game is to find enough Jiggies and Notes to open up the next world until you reach and beat Grunty's Furnace Fun - which is kinda like a deadly board game mixed with a game show - to then gain access to fighting Grunty herself. Apparently a lot of people don't like Grunty's Furnace Fun, but I really enjoyed my time with it. The whole idea of the final level of Banjo-Kazooie being a game show with Gruntilda making you answer trivia questions or else you die was pretty cool, though I agree with the common criticism that its dumb that you have to go find Grunty's sister Brentilda in every location she can be at in the hub world and remember all the stuff she tells you. Those time challenges with stuff like playing a memory game or redoing past minigames are also unnecessarily difficult, but its not too bad since you can land on Joker card spaces and win yourself some free skips. Nonetheless, I went ahead and found all of the Notes and Jiggies for each world. Usually I was able to get about 5 or 6 before needing to resort to guides for the rest, since they can be pretty cleverly hidden. Sadly that wasn't quite enough to get 100% completion since there's some Jiggies that you unlock in the hub world by finding and smashing Grunty portraits in each world, some of which I found and others I didn't. Also, I agree with the common consensus that the two worst worlds are unfortunately the last two: Rusty Bucket Bay and Click Clock Wood. The former has a lot of annoying hazards (any Banjo fan will tell you how horrifying that Engine Room is) and it has a few doors to enter that suck at telling you they're doors since they blend into the background. The latter has a gimmick of essentially having four different variants of the same level based on seasons, which is a really cool idea in theory but a pain in the ass in execution since it means Jiggies and Notes are arbitrarily divided between seasons, leaving you wondering just how many each one gets. My favorites were probably Gobi's Valley and Mad Monster Mansion, both lots of fun and had really cool themes (although the latter is a little confusing to navigate at first).
This somewhat small paragraph here will be complaining about some issues I felt this game has. For one, the fact that it doesn't save the Notes and Jinjos (the little guys you need to find 5 of in each world to get a Jiggie) you found in the world after dying is incredibly annoying and it singlehandedly made me abuse save states. I swear that I wanted to go into this not using save states at all but this problem ruined it for me. It also makes you play some minigames in typical Rare fashion (I love Rare games for the record but this is a trend they do a lot) to earn your Jiggies, some of which are fine but others are pretty damn hard for no reason. Doesn't help that, when you lose them, typically you take damage, which doesn't exactly encourage you to try again and instead encouraged me to use save states (this is why a minigame like the Boggy racing is one I was fine with accepting my losses on but something like the stupid crocodile eating minigame is one I abused save states on). I kinda understand why they did this since, in all honesty, the game would not be challenging at all without these two design decisions. I just can't help but feel it isn't making things tough and is instead making things more tedious.
I also just want to highlight that this game has a lot of personality and charm. I love things like the banter between Kazooie and Bottles constantly coming up with goofy insults for each other and the little idle animation where Kazooie bonks Banjo in the head because she's just a gremlin like that. The fact that each character has their own way of "speaking" (as in a constantly repeating noise at different pitches) has become a pretty iconic symbol of Banjo-Kazooie. This game has wonderfully cartoony visuals and character designs that sorta defined what Rare's N64 platformers would look like, with games like Donkey Kong 64 and Conker's Bad Fur Day having definitely took inspiration from Banjo-Kazooie visually. The music is also very cartoony and catchy. I dunno, I just feel like this game has a lot of charm and I loved seeing all the new sights and sounds it threw at me despite being an N64 game.
Overall, this game's definitely got its fair share of issues and I don't think I would ever play this without save states. However, I still think it was a really fun package overall, and its one of the best 3D platformers I've played (though I've also not played a lot of 3D platformers). I can see why people love this one so much. I am very interested in seeing if this series will get a revival somehow, whether that be a remake or totally new game. Earns 4 stars from me.
Platforming and exploring these worlds feels great, especially with all the moves Banjo and Kazooie get along the way. Only issues I had with movement were from my slight stick drift. My main complaints about the moves is that some of them - like shooting eggs or flying (and Beak Buster) - feel pretty finnicky, but part of that is due to me using a Switch Pro Controller. There's four different special actions tied to using the C buttons, one of which is shooting eggs, and that makes it a bit awkward on Switch since its mapped to the right stick there. The flying is at least miles better than Super Mario 64 in my opinion, but getting the hang of it was annoying for me. As for the world design itself, its also quite fun; each one has some kind of unique gimmick and thematic to set itself apart. Even the water worlds weren't too painful, which is certainly rare. The main goal of the game is to find enough Jiggies and Notes to open up the next world until you reach and beat Grunty's Furnace Fun - which is kinda like a deadly board game mixed with a game show - to then gain access to fighting Grunty herself. Apparently a lot of people don't like Grunty's Furnace Fun, but I really enjoyed my time with it. The whole idea of the final level of Banjo-Kazooie being a game show with Gruntilda making you answer trivia questions or else you die was pretty cool, though I agree with the common criticism that its dumb that you have to go find Grunty's sister Brentilda in every location she can be at in the hub world and remember all the stuff she tells you. Those time challenges with stuff like playing a memory game or redoing past minigames are also unnecessarily difficult, but its not too bad since you can land on Joker card spaces and win yourself some free skips. Nonetheless, I went ahead and found all of the Notes and Jiggies for each world. Usually I was able to get about 5 or 6 before needing to resort to guides for the rest, since they can be pretty cleverly hidden. Sadly that wasn't quite enough to get 100% completion since there's some Jiggies that you unlock in the hub world by finding and smashing Grunty portraits in each world, some of which I found and others I didn't. Also, I agree with the common consensus that the two worst worlds are unfortunately the last two: Rusty Bucket Bay and Click Clock Wood. The former has a lot of annoying hazards (any Banjo fan will tell you how horrifying that Engine Room is) and it has a few doors to enter that suck at telling you they're doors since they blend into the background. The latter has a gimmick of essentially having four different variants of the same level based on seasons, which is a really cool idea in theory but a pain in the ass in execution since it means Jiggies and Notes are arbitrarily divided between seasons, leaving you wondering just how many each one gets. My favorites were probably Gobi's Valley and Mad Monster Mansion, both lots of fun and had really cool themes (although the latter is a little confusing to navigate at first).
This somewhat small paragraph here will be complaining about some issues I felt this game has. For one, the fact that it doesn't save the Notes and Jinjos (the little guys you need to find 5 of in each world to get a Jiggie) you found in the world after dying is incredibly annoying and it singlehandedly made me abuse save states. I swear that I wanted to go into this not using save states at all but this problem ruined it for me. It also makes you play some minigames in typical Rare fashion (I love Rare games for the record but this is a trend they do a lot) to earn your Jiggies, some of which are fine but others are pretty damn hard for no reason. Doesn't help that, when you lose them, typically you take damage, which doesn't exactly encourage you to try again and instead encouraged me to use save states (this is why a minigame like the Boggy racing is one I was fine with accepting my losses on but something like the stupid crocodile eating minigame is one I abused save states on). I kinda understand why they did this since, in all honesty, the game would not be challenging at all without these two design decisions. I just can't help but feel it isn't making things tough and is instead making things more tedious.
I also just want to highlight that this game has a lot of personality and charm. I love things like the banter between Kazooie and Bottles constantly coming up with goofy insults for each other and the little idle animation where Kazooie bonks Banjo in the head because she's just a gremlin like that. The fact that each character has their own way of "speaking" (as in a constantly repeating noise at different pitches) has become a pretty iconic symbol of Banjo-Kazooie. This game has wonderfully cartoony visuals and character designs that sorta defined what Rare's N64 platformers would look like, with games like Donkey Kong 64 and Conker's Bad Fur Day having definitely took inspiration from Banjo-Kazooie visually. The music is also very cartoony and catchy. I dunno, I just feel like this game has a lot of charm and I loved seeing all the new sights and sounds it threw at me despite being an N64 game.
Overall, this game's definitely got its fair share of issues and I don't think I would ever play this without save states. However, I still think it was a really fun package overall, and its one of the best 3D platformers I've played (though I've also not played a lot of 3D platformers). I can see why people love this one so much. I am very interested in seeing if this series will get a revival somehow, whether that be a remake or totally new game. Earns 4 stars from me.