Artistically, this game is fascinating, being a copyright-friendly reconstruction of a franchise by the creators who lost control of their IP. But how does it compare to Banjo-Kazooie...or stand alone?
It's impossible to play without being reminded of Banjo. The analogues are so close in so many ways that it can be a little unsettling or disappointing. I think the character designs are much more inventive and compelling, but the characters themselves aren't much more dimensional than Banjo's. There are some differences from the first game. Collectibles are saved, for one, which is nice, and worlds are much more spread out and even have a mechanic to be expanded to access more content, which feels a bit pointless to me. The world sizes and inability to be completed till near the end of the game goes against the satisfying one-sitting approach the original Banjo offered, and the scale of the worlds feels a bit hollow. I'd have preferred them smaller, denser, and more numerous.
The gameplay itself is fine. The moves are good, there are some good sequences all around, and bosses are better than in Banjo, but the enemies are cookie-cutter palette swaps and some can be frustrating due to a mechanic where enemies enter an untouchable attack state. The exploration offers some nice attractions, but there are fewer hidden secrets like in the original game.
The graphics are good but not remarkable. The Rare-style UI recreations are delightful, but the visuals of the overall game strike me as indistinct from other cartoon non-Nintendo 3D-rendered titles.
One thing I couldn't shake was the sense of insecurity. Since the game is trying to rebuild and inherit a legacy, they went completely meta with the comedy, and the characters joking about modern gaming and their own franchise feels really desperate, as if we're being told to think "this is modern! This is Banjo today!" There are some cute jokes about gaming, sure, particularly with an N64 character and his arcade, but the application of the jokes feels pathetic and the meta aspect was overall unwelcome. A nostalgia piece trying to gain the status of its legacy has no standing to make jokes about modernization and trends. The corporate satire as the villain also feels uncomfortably bitter in the way Microsoft is put in the crosshairs. Maybe the Banjo purchase was wrong, but still, game, get over it!
This game is a competent platformer, but it's not special and its thesis lends it a disquieting artistic quality—a game built on spite and desperate wishes to recreate something lost.
VideoGame A game let down by its baggage and insecurity.
Artistically, this game is fascinating, being a copyright-friendly reconstruction of a franchise by the creators who lost control of their IP. But how does it compare to Banjo-Kazooie...or stand alone?
It's impossible to play without being reminded of Banjo. The analogues are so close in so many ways that it can be a little unsettling or disappointing. I think the character designs are much more inventive and compelling, but the characters themselves aren't much more dimensional than Banjo's. There are some differences from the first game. Collectibles are saved, for one, which is nice, and worlds are much more spread out and even have a mechanic to be expanded to access more content, which feels a bit pointless to me. The world sizes and inability to be completed till near the end of the game goes against the satisfying one-sitting approach the original Banjo offered, and the scale of the worlds feels a bit hollow. I'd have preferred them smaller, denser, and more numerous.
The gameplay itself is fine. The moves are good, there are some good sequences all around, and bosses are better than in Banjo, but the enemies are cookie-cutter palette swaps and some can be frustrating due to a mechanic where enemies enter an untouchable attack state. The exploration offers some nice attractions, but there are fewer hidden secrets like in the original game.
The graphics are good but not remarkable. The Rare-style UI recreations are delightful, but the visuals of the overall game strike me as indistinct from other cartoon non-Nintendo 3D-rendered titles.
One thing I couldn't shake was the sense of insecurity. Since the game is trying to rebuild and inherit a legacy, they went completely meta with the comedy, and the characters joking about modern gaming and their own franchise feels really desperate, as if we're being told to think "this is modern! This is Banjo today!" There are some cute jokes about gaming, sure, particularly with an N64 character and his arcade, but the application of the jokes feels pathetic and the meta aspect was overall unwelcome. A nostalgia piece trying to gain the status of its legacy has no standing to make jokes about modernization and trends. The corporate satire as the villain also feels uncomfortably bitter in the way Microsoft is put in the crosshairs. Maybe the Banjo purchase was wrong, but still, game, get over it!
This game is a competent platformer, but it's not special and its thesis lends it a disquieting artistic quality—a game built on spite and desperate wishes to recreate something lost.