(Everything I express in this review is simply a personal opinion. Please do not get mad at me. People still have valid reasons to enjoy this game.)
Frankly, I didn't find this game too fun. I'm sorry. Even though I CAN still say it's a good game.
Note: the first part of my review is going to be kind of negative, but I had lots of things I liked about this game, so feel free to skip ahead.
I'm putting "played" here, because I can't say in good faith I've done everything in this game. I got right up to the final boss, but died at the second round, quit, and lost an hour of progress because I forgot to save. It brings me to a feature I would like: if it would save when you select "quit". However, I watched the final boss and ending, so in my mind I've seen everything I wanted to see with this game.
It's my first experience with Banjo-Kazooie. I might be starting off on the wrong foot here. Rare's other games have impressed me ( see the Donkey Kong Country series), which I find ingenious. This one, not so much.
Many have complained about the camera angle, but I just didn't find the core gameplay loop fun at all: collection felt mindless rather than rewarding. It was tiresome to backtrack to certain areas to get these puzzle pieces ("Jiggy's"), mostly because I didn't find the areas notable. Aesthetically, they were the artistic equivalent of Home Depot.
It suffered some from, I think, a lack of meaningful places and NPC's. I'm not asking for this game to be some kind of world building RPG, simply that it makes the areas fun to revisit. There are secrets in each place, sure, but a lot of them are monotonous, like (literally) grey sewage pipes. My favorite was this sand castle in the harbor area, which I found charming because it was made up of these small things that distinguished it from the previous area, the little background details: sea stars, candy wrappers and such, really helped break up the monotony a little, even added some character. The pre-rendered graphics I also found really worked towards a pleasing whole. It was really cool seeing all the little pre-rendered buildings, like the temple. Being able to go through the chimney into a luxurious hotel room, and see the little luxurious, tiger-striped bed, TV, and lamp in all it's pre-rendered glory, on a GBA no less, was a weird kind of liminal (to be pretentious) experience. It was little things like that, the details, that really made this one charming.
Part of the monotony could be broken also, by getting to know the people you meet in the game more. For example there is an ice cream vendor in a truck, maybe in the later worlds, they could come to visit Banjo and Kazooie later on with a new ice cream store. Or maybe they are starting a shaved ice business and getting ice from Freezing Furnace (the ice themed area). These are just examples. I think seeing how the world develops would be cool, of course within system limitations and all that. Maybe even have new plotlines that happen only after you finish an area and go back to it.
I want to try the other Banjo-Kazooie's, however. Simply because of the charm of the world in this one.
It is charming, for some reason the character design and art direction reminds me a little of Wallace and Gromit, in it's kind of playful and lightly caricaturized design (and it has animals with googly eyes, reminding me of Wallace and Gromit)
TLDR: My impressions of this game is that it IS worth trying, just wasn't for me. Partially because of my expectations: I went in expecting something deep, like a real lengthy story-based game. It's not exactly like that, far from a world building action-adventure.
However what this game excels at is it's whimsical, childlike sense of humor, and it's unique attempt at putting a series of 3D platformers on the GBA. If you love collect-athon gameplay, a childlike sense of whimsy, or pre-rendered graphics, I would recommend this to you, with some reservations.
Frankly, I didn't find this game too fun. I'm sorry. Even though I CAN still say it's a good game.
Note: the first part of my review is going to be kind of negative, but I had lots of things I liked about this game, so feel free to skip ahead.
I'm putting "played" here, because I can't say in good faith I've done everything in this game. I got right up to the final boss, but died at the second round, quit, and lost an hour of progress because I forgot to save. It brings me to a feature I would like: if it would save when you select "quit". However, I watched the final boss and ending, so in my mind I've seen everything I wanted to see with this game.
It's my first experience with Banjo-Kazooie. I might be starting off on the wrong foot here. Rare's other games have impressed me ( see the Donkey Kong Country series), which I find ingenious. This one, not so much.
Many have complained about the camera angle, but I just didn't find the core gameplay loop fun at all: collection felt mindless rather than rewarding. It was tiresome to backtrack to certain areas to get these puzzle pieces ("Jiggy's"), mostly because I didn't find the areas notable. Aesthetically, they were the artistic equivalent of Home Depot.
It suffered some from, I think, a lack of meaningful places and NPC's. I'm not asking for this game to be some kind of world building RPG, simply that it makes the areas fun to revisit. There are secrets in each place, sure, but a lot of them are monotonous, like (literally) grey sewage pipes. My favorite was this sand castle in the harbor area, which I found charming because it was made up of these small things that distinguished it from the previous area, the little background details: sea stars, candy wrappers and such, really helped break up the monotony a little, even added some character. The pre-rendered graphics I also found really worked towards a pleasing whole. It was really cool seeing all the little pre-rendered buildings, like the temple. Being able to go through the chimney into a luxurious hotel room, and see the little luxurious, tiger-striped bed, TV, and lamp in all it's pre-rendered glory, on a GBA no less, was a weird kind of liminal (to be pretentious) experience. It was little things like that, the details, that really made this one charming.
Part of the monotony could be broken also, by getting to know the people you meet in the game more. For example there is an ice cream vendor in a truck, maybe in the later worlds, they could come to visit Banjo and Kazooie later on with a new ice cream store. Or maybe they are starting a shaved ice business and getting ice from Freezing Furnace (the ice themed area). These are just examples. I think seeing how the world develops would be cool, of course within system limitations and all that. Maybe even have new plotlines that happen only after you finish an area and go back to it.
I want to try the other Banjo-Kazooie's, however. Simply because of the charm of the world in this one.
It is charming, for some reason the character design and art direction reminds me a little of Wallace and Gromit, in it's kind of playful and lightly caricaturized design (and it has animals with googly eyes, reminding me of Wallace and Gromit)
TLDR: My impressions of this game is that it IS worth trying, just wasn't for me. Partially because of my expectations: I went in expecting something deep, like a real lengthy story-based game. It's not exactly like that, far from a world building action-adventure.
However what this game excels at is it's whimsical, childlike sense of humor, and it's unique attempt at putting a series of 3D platformers on the GBA. If you love collect-athon gameplay, a childlike sense of whimsy, or pre-rendered graphics, I would recommend this to you, with some reservations.