812 Reviews liked by EmanuelPerez


Like many, I heard of Banjo and its reputation thanks to Smash Bros speculations.
"A N64 classic, Rare at its best, Xbox bad, Nuts & Bolts has cars" and yada yada. You know the drill. SO I just gave it a shot thanks to the NSO.... so here it is what I think of it

As many already stated online, the biggest part of Banjo Kazooie is the presentation: from the first second, you can feel how much personality this game oozes: the walking N64 logo, the musical opening, the characters, the spiral mountain exploration, the quirky humor. Everything is just perfect and you can already tell why it is so beloved.
Compared to Mario 64, which in more instances present a world that feels empty, every part of Banjo's world feels alive and memorable.
And this personality makes a lot: the various levels are nothing you haven't seen already in a platformer: desert, woods, swamps, haunted houses, greenlands, beaches... but then you discover the changing of Seasons and stories in Click Clock Wood, the a**hole shark and the goofy pirate in Treasure trove cove, the delusional dad and the christmas theme in Freezy Peak, the disturbing Clanker literally swimming in dung.... the way they are presented and built makes you want to visit them over and over again, which works perfectly for the collective aspect of the title, that is not only necessary to progress, but also feels incentivated.

It's clear that the devs really cared for this world, so much so that they added so much extra details that on paper feels completely unnecessary, like the infamous quiz at the end of the game or the ability to literally turn on cheat codes (and the punishment for inputting too many)

The gameplay is also incredibly good: compared to Mario and other types of platforming heroes, Banjo just... waddles around at a slower pace, but this, combined with the various moves you unlock in later world, makes for a really varied set of skills, that feels natural and just enjoyable to perform.
One thing I particularly respected about the exploration of the levels is how you kinda have to.... manage the resources you get: in a game like Mario 64 or a Hat in time, you can breeze throught the world without a care in the world, getting every extra hearts you find and breezing through enemies with your best moves. Banjo on the other hand has to take care of his amount of eggs, feathers and especially life bar, since dying in a world means having to re-collect the musical notes from the start. This approach I feel is only a flaw in levels like the engine room in Rusty Bucket (which is a cheap way to die) or whenever you gotta grab some tiny objects underwater. Otherwise, I like the idea that I have to be careful about my health and powers: I can't just use all of my gold feathers on these vines, what if I need them later? Or I can't kill this honeyhive now, maybe I will need some health because that freaking bird in the tree keeps pecking me.

It is a sort of "survival-platformer" approach that I really liked, despite many people may prefer the more direct action of other platformers.

The flaws of the game for me: definitely the clunky camera, that while better than the one in Mario 64, still makes for some annoying moments in later platforming options.
Another thing: I am not a fan of the swimming controls, reason why Clanker's cavern and Rusty Bucket are my least favorite levels. I may not be ashamed to say that save-states helped me endure levels like CLick CLock Wood or Rusty Bay, that I feel otherwise would have been infuriating to traverse at times. Grunty's Lair can be also kinda dispersive to nacigate I feel, and in thar regar I may prefer how compact other hubworld like Peach's castle are.

Overall I just ended up going through Grunty's Quiz, save Tootie, and call it a day.... I wasn't really tempted to go into the final battle, since I needed like 10 extra notes and I didn't want go back on a level to collect them all again.
But then I said "ehe, just an extra run on Mad Monster Mansion! What can go wrong?"

And honestly I am glad I came back: first off, because it confirmed to me that replaying levels for collection is incredibly fun, but also because I was really surprised by that final boss. First, just the fact that I ended up with just enough puzzle pieces to complete Grunty's portrait made me smile hard, and reminded me of why collect-a-thons are so based.
Second, Grunty's confrontation has no reason to go this hard: it is simple in concept, but the way the witch shoots fireballs to predict you movement, dashes through the screen and makes you use all of your different abilities only to end up killed by a giant blue terminator jinjo.... I dunno I really liked that..
I didn't 100% the game so I didn't get the "Banjo Kazooie 2 secret footage", but the sole fact that the devs add that..... man it is so good.

So yeah, I heard a classic N64 game was good, tried the game and find out it was more than good.
It has some things that makes it jankier compared to more modern titles, but for the rest this is an immaculate experience.

Kazooie literally called Banjo sister "that ugly thing"... that is kinda messed up, girl.

I REALLY like this game; I only won't give it a 5 star is because I believe there was too much time split between them to make the story seem really scattered at times; I do believe that both stories could've been their own games but I think they're both very very solid.

Even if it was a HUGE game and it took me nearly 5 months to complete due to how busy I've gotten been, it shouldn't take anyone that long normally.

Highly recommend for anyone to play this game; RGG delivered once again for a fantastic experience.

Played this game awhile back; and dropped the 100% as I realized that was not for me.

All around a very great game; and if theres one Yakuza/Like a Dragon you have to play; I'd say this is the best for non fans or people wanting to get into the series.

Like a dragon: infinite wealth was one of my more anticipated games, and I’d overall say it very much delivered. The gameplay is absolutely the king here, with such a fun combat system that I was doing quests and leveling in the dungeon for ages to the point I was overly leveled and had the best gear for everyone I just had that much fun with the combat. The story leaves a bit to be wanted, with moments being cut short or sometimes just feeling rushed. I thought things would be much more grand but it almost felt like things weren’t as fleshed out as they could’ve been. I still enjoyed it, but am anticipating the next entry to close some of these stories up.

my 3rd log of this game but lowkey that chapter 12 boss might be the best fight in any of these games im so serious rn

Indika is a very short (~4hrs) walking game filled with puzzles and thought-provoking dialogue. Oh, the brilliant voice acting in this game... I loved the emotions that the 'narrator' put into his work. The ending leaves you hanging with questions in your mind. There are many scenes where you can't get what's happening because it's confusing or because it happens too fast.
I also want to state that I dissected the game and they animated every scene; characters are moving even when you don't see them in cutscenes or in the game. And the demon is also a part of some cutscenes, but you can't see it. They put real effort into this game. It's sad that it was short.
The downsides were pretty much the optimization and some less-polished parts of the game.

A pretty bog standard 3D platformer that's fairly buggy and short. Scrat's fun to control and the game's fun to break here and there. Otherwise, it's pretty eh. It's bad, but in funny bad way. I've played worse!

It's plain-ass, regular-ass, not-Super'd Collapse!, but it has SpongeBob. We only got this because it was effectively free for us to do so.

Is it funny? In a cosmic sort of way, yes. But like, please don't spend your money on it...

We forgot we had just straight up, plain, not-XL'd, not 2, not 3, ordinary ass white bread Quiplash. We might need to break this one out.

Cute but immediately lost interest within the first hour. Very much feels more aimed towards young kids than Animal Crossing.

This kinda just Cooler Daniels both Afterbirth, Afterbirth+, and even Rebirth itself in our opinion. It's very hard to go back to literally any of those after tasting Repentance; it feels like we had the golden elixir.

We still need to get Dead God, but we got the final ending, which is what counts for us.

...actually shoot we think we might've played this or the Kindergarten one as a child

megaman if it was any good