Banjo-Tooie

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Banjo-Tooie
Composer(s)
Grant Kirkhope
SeriesBanjo-Kazooie
Platform(s)
ReleaseNintendo 64
  • NA: 20 November 2000
  • JP: 27 November 2000
  • EU: 12 April 2001
Xbox 360
  • WW: 29 April 2009
Genre(s)Platform, action-adventure
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Banjo-Tooie is a 2000

worlds significantly larger than those of its predecessor, requiring the player to complete challenges such as solving puzzles, jumping over obstacles, collecting items, and defeating opponents. It also includes a multiplayer
mode in which up to four players can compete in several minigames repurposed from the main campaign.

Development of the game started in June 1998, directly after the release of its predecessor. Several new features were cut from the game due to time constraints and limitations of the Nintendo 64 hardware. Upon release, Banjo-Tooie received critical acclaim from video game critics, who praised its graphics and the size of its worlds. However, the game's inconsistent frame rate was criticized. In 2009, Banjo-Tooie was re-released as an Xbox Live Arcade game for the Xbox 360. The game was also included in the Rare Replay video game compilation, released for the Xbox One in 2015.

Gameplay

The player, controlling Banjo and Kazooie, runs towards an enemy in the game's second world, Glitter Gulch Mine.

Similar to its predecessor

worlds consisting of various platforming challenges and puzzles, with a notable increased focus on puzzle-solving over the worlds of Banjo-Kazooie. These challenges, along with exploration, usually reward the player with collectible items that permit progression to later challenges and worlds. Among the items are golden jigsaw pieces, called Jiggies, that are used to permit entry to new worlds; instead of exploring the game's overworld in search of incomplete puzzle boards as in Banjo-Kazooie, a singular board is used within a temple where a character named Master Jiggywiggy resides, that can only be accessed if the player has obtained the number of Jiggies required to open a new world. A timed puzzle-completion challenge can then be played, after which Jiggywiggy grants access to the world. Each puzzle challenge requires more Jiggies than the last.[1]

Musical notes return in Banjo-Tooie, but are now used to learn new moves from Bottles' brother, a drill sergeant named Jamjars, who assumes Bottles' role from the first game. All of Banjo and Kazooie's moves from the first game are immediately accessible in Tooie, and the player can acquire several new moves such as first-person aiming, new egg types, and the ability to play as Banjo and Kazooie separately, with each gaining moves they can only use while on their own. Empty honeycomb pieces and Jinjos return as well, effectively retaining the functions they had in Banjo-Kazooie. Mumbo Jumbo reappears in this game as a playable character who can venture out into each world and use specific magic spells to help Banjo and Kazooie. Taking over Mumbo's previous role of transforming the duo into different forms is Humba Wumba, a Native American shaman who acts as Mumbo's rival. Small magical creatures called "Glowbos" are required payment for the shamans' services.[1][2][3]

A mechanic introduced in Banjo-Tooie is the direct connections between its worlds. In Banjo-Kazooie, the titular duo were magically transported to each world via special doors in Gruntilda's Lair, with said worlds effectively existing in vacuums, but in this game, almost every world is physically connected to others at multiple points, and is effectively an extension of the overworld.[1] In addition, a train named Chuffy can be used to migrate Banjo, Kazooie, and some minor characters between worlds which contain stations. In conjunction with these additions, required backtracking and puzzle-solving across several worlds constitute many of Tooie's challenges. The game includes a multiplayer mode where up to four players can play a repurposed competition mode for each of the game's single-player challenges. These include first-person shooting, kickball, and several other minigames.[2]

Plot

Two years after Gruntilda's defeat, Banjo and Kazooie are playing poker with Mumbo Jumbo and Bottles. Outside, two of Gruntilda's sisters, Mingella and Blobbelda, use their large HAG 1 digging machine to enter Spiral Mountain. They destroy the boulder trapping Gruntilda, finding that she has rotted into a living skeleton while underground. Seeking revenge, Gruntilda destroys Banjo's house with a spell before fleeing with her sisters. Mumbo witnesses Gruntilda's return and escapes with Banjo and Kazooie, but Bottles does not heed their warnings and is killed by the blast. The three remaining friends resolve to defeat Gruntilda, and at the request of Bottles' ghost, to find a way to resurrect him.

Following the witches' trail, Banjo and Kazooie arrive at Jinjo Village. There, King Jingaling, king of the Jinjos, explains that his subjects were frightened away by the HAG 1 and scattered throughout the Isle O' Hags, the game's overworld. He gives the two their first Jiggy as a reward for rescuing his subjects in advance. Meanwhile, Gruntilda's sisters introduce her to a device called the "Big-O-Blaster" (B.O.B.), capable of extracting "life force" from any given target. They test B.O.B. on King Jingaling, transforming him into a zombie. Gruntilda plans to charge B.O.B. long enough to blast the entire island and use the stolen life force to restore her body. The witch's most loyal henchman, Klungo, is sent out to hinder Banjo and Kazooie's progress, but after losing to them several times, resulting in beatings from Gruntilda, Klungo abandons her and sides with the protagonists. Banjo and Kazooie continue their journey, meeting new allies along the way such as Bottles' drill sergeant brother Jamjars, who teaches them new moves, and the Native American shaman Humba Wumba, a bitter rival of Mumbo who aids the duo with new magical transformations.

Within Gruntilda's fortress, Cauldron Keep, Banjo and Kazooie compete with Mingella and Blobbelda in a trivia game show hosted by Gruntilda similar to that of the first game, in which losing competitors are flattened under one-ton weights. The two sisters are crushed after losing to Banjo and Kazooie, but Gruntilda escapes. Banjo and Kazooie then reverse the effects of B.O.B., resurrecting both King Jingaling and Bottles, who celebrate at Bottles' house along with Klungo. Banjo and Kazooie fight Gruntilda and the HAG 1 atop her fortress, but she is finally defeated when she drops her most powerful magic spell inside the HAG 1 cockpit, causing the entire machine to explode, reducing Gruntilda to nothing more than her head. The two return to Bottles' house with Jamjars, Mumbo, and Humba Wumba, to find that, much to their disappointment, the celebration has ended without them. They then head to the top of Cauldron Keep and play a game of hacky sack with Gruntilda's head, who swears revenge against Banjo and Kazooie once again.

Development

Banjo-Tooie was developed by Rare and designed by Gregg Mayles, who previously worked on Banjo-Kazooie.[4] Development of the game started in June 1998.[5] Some features that were originally cut during the development of Banjo-Kazooie, such as some of its worlds and a multiplayer game mode, were instead integrated into Banjo-Tooie.[6][7] An additional world set in a castle was planned, but due to time constraints, it was scrapped during development and assets from it were used in constructing Cauldron Keep.[8][9] The game features roughly 150 total characters, including enemies and non-playable characters.[10]

Originally, Rare planned to include an additional mode called "Bottles' Revenge" in which a second player could play as an undead version of Bottles and take control of enemy characters, including bosses, to hinder the duo in their quest, with the players swapping roles if the enemy character managed to defeat Banjo and Kazooie.[11] The idea was ultimately scrapped because the developers ran out of time to debug controlling bosses, despite admitting that "it did work rather well;" the only boss that was controllable when the mode was scrapped was the second world boss, "Old King Coal."[12] However, it later served as the inspiration behind the "Counter-Operative" multiplayer mode in Perfect Dark.[13] The developers also planned to implement a feature, called "Stop 'N' Swop", that would have allowed data to be transferred from Banjo-Kazooie to Banjo-Tooie so that players could unlock additional bonuses in Banjo-Tooie. However, due to hardware limitations of the Nintendo 64 system, the feature was ultimately dropped. Despite this, Rare resolved to include some of the planned bonuses within the game. The Stop 'N' Swop feature was later implemented in the Xbox Live Arcade re-release.[14]

The music was composed by

Electronic Entertainment Expo and first released on 20 November 2000 in North America.[17][18] Japanese and European releases followed on 27 November 2000 and 12 April 2001, respectively.[19][20] The game supports the Nintendo 64 Rumble Pak.[21]

Reception

Upon release, Banjo-Tooie was critically acclaimed and sold 1.49m worldwide by 2008

N64 Magazine editor Mark Green felt that, although Banjo-Tooie delivers "a decent complement of clever puzzles and enjoyable run-and-jump moments", it did not feel "as fresh or as exciting" as previous Rare platformers.[27]

The graphics were considered some of the best on the Nintendo 64 due to their rich textures, long drawing distance, and real-time shadow generation, but were criticised for their inconsistent frame rate during certain points in the game.[1][2][3][28] Nevertheless, some critics agreed that the occasional frame rate drops do not hinder the gameplay nor detract from the game significantly.[28][2] GameRevolution said that the game was "beautiful", but it did not meet the same level of awe as its predecessor.[3] The game was also praised for its humour, with Edge commenting that its characters are "impossible to dislike."[24]

The gameplay was highlighted for the size of the game's worlds.[3][28] GamesRadar described Banjo-Tooie as a game that requires a massive time-investment on the player's part, saying that "Keeping track of what you can do next, or where you can re-visit to get something new, requires either a photographic memory or copious note-taking".[31] Similarly, GamePro remarked that the game is so large that players might lose their way and forget what they are supposed to do.[26] GameSpot praised the game's level design and progression for constantly requiring players to collect Jiggies.[2] Despite the praise, Edge concluded that Rare should have innovated more instead of simply copying the formula of Super Mario 64.[24]

At the GameSpot Best and Worst of 2000 awards, Banjo-Tooie was awarded Best Platform Game,[32] and was a runner-up in the Best Sound and Best Nintendo 64 Game categories.[33][34] At the 4th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, Banjo-Tooie received nominations for the "Game of the Year", "Console Game of the Year", and "Console Action/Adventure" awards.[35]

Xbox 360 version

An

Xbox One X.[41]

Notes

  1. ^ a b The Xbox 360 version was developed by 4J Studios and published by Microsoft Game Studios

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Fran Mirabella III (20 November 2000). "Banjo-Tooie". IGN. Archived from the original on 5 May 2013. Retrieved 10 March 2014.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Shane Satterfield (22 November 2000). "Banjo-Tooie Review". GameSpot. Archived from the original on 10 March 2014. Retrieved 10 March 2014.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Johnny Liu (1 December 2000). "Banjo-Tooie Review". GameRevolution. Archived from the original on 10 March 2014. Retrieved 10 March 2014.
  4. GamesIndustry.biz. Archived from the original
    on 23 December 2007. Retrieved 23 December 2007.
  5. ^ "The Power of Tooie". IGN. 9 June 1999. Archived from the original on 10 March 2014. Retrieved 10 March 2014.
  6. ^ Rare Revealed: The Making of Banjo-Tooie (Video). Twycross, England: Rare. 17 September 2015. Event occurs at 0:41. Retrieved 22 September 2015. We used some levels that were originally planned for Kazooie... were then rolled into Tooie.
  7. ^ Rare Revealed: The Making of Banjo-Tooie (Video). Twycross, England: Rare. 17 September 2015. Event occurs at 1:56. Retrieved 22 September 2015. One of the last-minute things we tried to get into Banjo-Kazooie was multiplayer. I think we kind of got it going a little bit, but it was just too big a job. It was just a step too far, so we held that back and we ended up putting a multiplayer section into Banjo-Tooie.
  8. ^ Gregg Mayles [@Ghoulyboy] (14 July 2015). "Who found the 'Castle' world in #BanjoTooie ?" (Tweet). Retrieved 16 July 2015 – via Twitter.
  9. ^ Gregg Mayles [@Ghoulyboy] (15 July 2015). "@8_bit_d @mingellasfella yep, that's what happened. We ran out of time and I sadly had to do a super cut down version as Cauldron Keep" (Tweet). Retrieved 16 July 2015 – via Twitter.
  10. ^ Rare Revealed: The Making of Banjo-Tooie (Video). Twycross, England: Rare. 17 September 2015. Event occurs at 1:20. Retrieved 22 September 2015. We had 150 characters you met or, you know, that took part in the game, and they all had animation, and you know, it was just a really big job.
  11. ^ Rare Revealed: The Making of Banjo-Tooie (Video). Twycross, England: Rare. 17 September 2015. Event occurs at 2:26. Retrieved 22 September 2015. Another player, rather than just watching someone play Banjo could actually control the bad guys, and then try and thwart Banjo's progress. And if they managed to kill him, the roles would swap so that the player who was playing the bad guys would become Banjo and vice-versa.
  12. ^ "Scribes - December 8, 2006". Rare. Archived from the original on 10 December 2006. Retrieved 9 December 2006.
  13. ^ Rare Revealed: The Making of Banjo-Tooie (Video). Twycross, England: Rare. 17 September 2015. Event occurs at 3:00. Retrieved 22 September 2015. We looked and decided we had to get rid of it, but it was resurrected in Perfect Dark in Counter Operative mode, so good ideas never die; they just occasionally get delayed and pop up in a different guise.
  14. ^ Stephen Totilo (23 May 2008). "Why I Finally Accept What Happened To That 'Banjo Kazooie' Stop N Swop Thing". MTV. Archived from the original on 8 February 2012. Retrieved 14 January 2012.
  15. ^ a b c Grant Kirkhope. "Banjo Tooie Video Game Music Compositions". Grantkirkhope.com. Archived from the original on 23 May 2013. Retrieved 13 March 2014.
  16. ^ "Banjo-Tooie Scheduled for Late '99". IGN. 27 October 1998. Archived from the original on 10 March 2014. Retrieved 10 March 2014.
  17. ^ "Banjo-Tooie - Nintendo 64". IGN. Archived from the original on 20 February 2014. Retrieved 13 March 2014.
  18. ^ Jeff Gerstmann (16 May 2000). "Banjo-Tooie E3 2000 Hands-On Impressions". GameSpot. Archived from the original on 10 March 2014. Retrieved 10 March 2014.
  19. ^ "Nintendo 64 Software List 200-2001". Coocan.jp (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 1 October 2018. Retrieved 15 June 2019.
  20. ^ "Banjo-Tooie". Nintendo.co.uk. Archived from the original on 17 June 2019. Retrieved 17 June 2019.
  21. ^ "Banjo-Tooie". Electronic Gaming Monthly. 27 December 2000. Archived from the original on 10 February 2001. Retrieved 10 February 2001.
  22. ^ a b "Banjo-Tooie". Metacritic. Archived from the original on 24 October 2013. Retrieved 10 March 2014.
  23. AllGame. Archived
    from the original on 16 February 2010. Retrieved 2 July 2014.
  24. ^
    Future Publishing
    . January 2001. pp. 100–101.
  25. Enterbrain, Inc.
    30 June 2006. p. 31.
  26. ^ a b Gavin Frankle (17 November 2000). "Banjo-Tooie". GamePro. Archived from the original on 28 December 2008. Retrieved 28 December 2008.
  27. ^
    Future Publishing
    . pp. 40–47.
  28. ^
    Imagine Media
    . p. 79.
  29. ^
    Nintendo of America
    . December 2000. p. 144.
  30. ^ "2008 CESA Games White Paper". Install Base. 26 November 2021. Retrieved 17 November 2023.
  31. ^ Jes Bickham. "Banjo-Tooie". Gamesradar.com. Archived from the original on 4 January 2002. Retrieved 4 January 2002.
  32. ^ "Best Platform Game". GameSpot. Archived from the original on 13 November 2004. Retrieved 13 November 2004.
  33. ^ "Best Sound Runners-Up". GameSpot. Archived from the original on 12 April 2002. Retrieved 12 April 2002.
  34. ^ "Best Nintendo 64 Game Runners-Up". GameSpot. Archived from the original on 25 February 2003. Retrieved 25 February 2003.
  35. ^ "Banjo Tooie". D.I.C.E. Awards. Archived from the original on 18 August 2016. Retrieved 18 August 2016.
  36. ^ Matt Wales (27 January 2009). "Rare Readies Banjo-Tooie for April". IGN. Archived from the original on 11 March 2014. Retrieved 11 March 2014.
  37. ^ William Usher (16 March 2009). "Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts And Bolts DLC Is Coming". Cinemablend.com. Archived from the original on 5 October 2017. Retrieved 10 May 2016.
  38. ^ "Banjo-Tooie". Metacritic. Archived from the original on 10 March 2014. Retrieved 10 March 2014.
  39. ^ Good, Owen S. (9 November 2015). "Xbox One's official backward compatibility list: All 104 games so far". Polygon. Archived from the original on 16 January 2021. Retrieved 25 January 2022.
  40. ^ Michael McWhertor (15 June 2015). "Rare Replay for Xbox One includes 30 Rare games for $30 (update)". Polygon. Archived from the original on 28 June 2015. Retrieved 28 June 2015.
  41. ^ Lucas Sullivan (20 June 2019). "Xbox One X Enhanced games - Every game with 4K resolution, HDR, higher framerates, and more". GamesRadar+. Archived from the original on 18 July 2019. Retrieved 30 October 2019.

External links

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