The original Banjo Kazooie was amazing. At the time it was considered the only game on the N64 that exceeded Mario 64, especially when it came to platformers. The game ended on a hook of a sequel if you beat the game 100%. And so we waited. In that time we got DonkeyKong 64 and Zelda which also became great cornerstones of the console’s line up. But finally in the then dawn of the new millennium of the 21 April 2001 (yeah despite it coming from a UK developer Rare, the Americans got it first) we finally got the sequel.

Set a few years after the events of the first game, the opening cutscene jumps right to the scenario, a large digger tank containing 2 of Gruntilda’s sisters break into spiral mountain, free their sister (her other sister is not seen at all in this game) then blow up Banjo’s house as he, Kazooie and Mumbo Jumbo flee, Bottles was not so lucky. You start the game in the ruined Spiral Mountain that can serve as your tutorial and reminder of the controls and abilities from the last game, sadly the permanent health boost you can get from the first game doing that, isn’t there.

After going through the hole the witches dug and a few events you enter the Isle of Hags (which is presumably where Spiral Mountain always was) which is your new hub zone instead of Gruntilda’s lair. You find this game is MUCH larger feeling than the original. Areas are far more open compared to Gruntilda’s lair and its worlds.

Mechanically the game does feel like an expanded Banjo Kazooie. It treats your end game state as your starting point in this game. You get new abilities from JamJars, Bottles older brother who nicely doesn’t just resort to giving you new boots by the later levels as you still get new abilities. Each level also has its own boss which holds one of the Jiggies from each level. Other Jiggies are acquired by various means in levels but there are other collectibles, Cheato pages, Honeycombs and Jinjo’s all hidden in levels. Jinjos now only give you a Jiggy if you get an entire family rather than all of them in their levels and is not considered part of a level’s Jiggies.

There were 2 major selling points marketed for this game. First is as you get to the third world you unlock the ability for Banjo and Kazooie to separate each with abilities they can only do now on their own. The other, which I felt is sadly less utilised, is you can also play as Mumbo Jumbo in levels. Sadly all this comes to is going about in the levels, finding the Mumbo pad as him and using a spell. After that you tend to just switch back to the bear and bird, as he’s done.

The levels are, honestly, a bit overly complicated now. While bigger levels or even more eventful levels aren’t too bad, the main issue is no level now can be done just on its own. The original game with 2 exceptions you could go into a level and do everything in there in one go. Now there’s always at least one Jiggy or object that you can only do after having done stuff later in the game. Makes going for 100 percent a lot more complicated and less enjoyable.

There are many things that make me find Banjo Tooie more enjoyable than the original, but as a complete package I find the first game more fine tuned. I like the bosses, the new abilities and secrets of Tooie, but the game has many points that just make me miss the more cohesive Kazooie.

It’s worth me mentioning the Stop and Swap, how Kazooie’s developers original plan with hidden objects had to be abandoned after they got word the plan wouldn’t work for everyone’s console, so instead the 2 Mystery Eggs and Big Ice Key shown at the end of the first game 100% ending were instead just hidden in Tooie, and honestly only one gives a good reward, it’s a great reward though, and given its the most hidden, makes sense.

Don’t let that sense of negativity put you down though, the game is magnificent and I wouldn’t call it a downgrade over the previous entry, it’s a great sequel and does what a good sequel should, it doesn’t just feel like more of the old game. I just feel that they pushed it a bit too much that it lost a bit of that end charm that brings the original all together, but those times the game is doing what it does, it’s doing it better than the original.

Rating: 🎮🎮🎮🎮