This review contains spoilers
Banjo-Kazooie has been one of the most enjoyable games I've played this decade, so I went into Tooie with high expectations. I heard it's quite polarizing; I was hoping to fall in love with it. Unfortunately, I don't feel that way but I also don't hate it.
I started playing this last fall and took some hiatuses between playthroughs, especially when I reached Grunty's Industries and Hailfire Peaks. The world's are humongous compared to the first game which made it more intimidating to enter new worlds and get familiar with the geography. The size of some of these worlds is unnecessary; there's a lot of unused space.
The gameplay is fun. Lots of great puzzle-solving, missions and platforming. When I first encountered an FPS stage, I thought I was gonna dread it but it was surprisingly fun. Changing into Mumba and Humba added a nice shift to the gameplay. Some worlds are very disorienting and frustrating to navigate, like Glitter Gulch Mine and Jolly Roger's Lagoon. Grunty Industries is also a chore. Cloud Cuckooland is probably the best world in my opinion, but I also like the dilapidated Witchyworld. Theme park worlds in video games are always fun. The worlds in this game, overall, feel very muted and sombre compared to the first game. Not as memorable and not as enjoyable.
The backtracking is interesting. I like the mole one, but the pool and dinosaur medicine train missions are annoying. Thank god this game has teleporting stations.
All the bosses are great except the final boss. Gruntilda is very frustrating to beat and the quiz is annoying as hell. I struggled to beat the Tower of Tragedy gameshow and when I had to fight her on the tank, I had to take a break and play Mario 64. But, I revisited the game and finally beat Gruntilda after an infuriating 2 hour grind. I managed to get her down to one life and panicked when she wouldn't stop firing her spell with minions still charging at me, then died. This happened twice, but third time I an annihilated her. Yeah, the final boss is awful.
I started playing this last fall and took some hiatuses between playthroughs, especially when I reached Grunty's Industries and Hailfire Peaks. The world's are humongous compared to the first game which made it more intimidating to enter new worlds and get familiar with the geography. The size of some of these worlds is unnecessary; there's a lot of unused space.
The gameplay is fun. Lots of great puzzle-solving, missions and platforming. When I first encountered an FPS stage, I thought I was gonna dread it but it was surprisingly fun. Changing into Mumba and Humba added a nice shift to the gameplay. Some worlds are very disorienting and frustrating to navigate, like Glitter Gulch Mine and Jolly Roger's Lagoon. Grunty Industries is also a chore. Cloud Cuckooland is probably the best world in my opinion, but I also like the dilapidated Witchyworld. Theme park worlds in video games are always fun. The worlds in this game, overall, feel very muted and sombre compared to the first game. Not as memorable and not as enjoyable.
The backtracking is interesting. I like the mole one, but the pool and dinosaur medicine train missions are annoying. Thank god this game has teleporting stations.
All the bosses are great except the final boss. Gruntilda is very frustrating to beat and the quiz is annoying as hell. I struggled to beat the Tower of Tragedy gameshow and when I had to fight her on the tank, I had to take a break and play Mario 64. But, I revisited the game and finally beat Gruntilda after an infuriating 2 hour grind. I managed to get her down to one life and panicked when she wouldn't stop firing her spell with minions still charging at me, then died. This happened twice, but third time I an annihilated her. Yeah, the final boss is awful.