One of the most unfairly despized games ever made. I get it, I grew up waiting for a Banjo Threeie and was beyond hyped to see the initial reveal trailer, not expecting it to turn out to be a car game. But I genuinely believe this game still follows up on the spirit of the BK franchise. From the personality present in the writing, worlds, characters, and another excellent Grant Kirkhope soundtrack...To the overall high quality of the game in its polish, graphics, and ambition. Banjo was not just slapped on mindlessly for brand recognition, this was always a BK game at its heart.

There's nothing genuinely wrong with the game, and it being a Banjo game isn't even a problem. If there were traditional Banjo games released before and after this, I guarantee this game's rep would be better. But unfortunately the higher ups in the industry somehow got the idea that 3D platformers are unwanted. And that misguided belief is where the distain for this game comes from. Believe me I was very disgruntled and disappointed with the direction the industry took in that era, and what this game stands for is rather depressing. But it's not fair to write off just how good this game is due to that baggage.

The cars themselves work extremely well, and are very well integrated into the game. And just as important, the vehicle creator is incredibly intuitive. I've yet to see a game made before or after this with a more user friendly vehicle creator, let alone one this expansive. There's a lot of variety in what you can make, and the missions themselves generally encourage being as creative as possible. Or at the very least offer a nice sense of risk vs reward with your car designs. For people who don't want to spend the time creating their own cars, you can use your notes to buy pre-built blueprints which can then be edited if you wish.

Which brings up the collectathon aspects that are still present. I love exploring the hub world looking for crates to turn in to Mumbo which gives you new vehicle parts. Notes are still scattered around levels, and are quite fun to find in the hub world especially. Jinjos are still around for bonus optional challenges though given its still got the collectathon formula, technically most of the game is optional. If you don't want to do a mission you can always just do a different one. I like the extra trophies you get if you excell in a mission, doing better than it asked to simply win the Jiggy. 4 of these trophies = 1 jiggy. There's even some hidden jiggys you can find by exploring the hub. I wish each main level had at least one of these hidden jiggy's. The hub world is definitely my favorite level as odd as that may sound. It feels the most fully realized as a real place, and the only one that encourages on-foot gameplay. Whereas the actual levels themselves are for the most part simply designed for vehicle challenges. The hub even brings back some move-based progression. For example when you beat the first boss you gain access to wheels that let you drive up steep slopes. Pretty reminiscent of learning talon trot to reach the next floor of Grunty's Lair in the original game.

And the story even follows up on the originals nicely. It's cool seeing what all the characters are up to. After beating Klungo in Tooie he says he's quitting being a bad guy and going to become a game developer. Well in this game you can find him and he'll have you play the game he's made. It's got MSpaint graphics and more levels open up as you progress through the main game. Super charming.

Not every mission is a winner, there's a couple slow races especially early on. And sometimes it makes you use a pre-built car that's just tied to the mission, which doesn't tie into the appeal of making your own cars. Though sometimes provides a challenge in making you drive an awkward car, your mileage may vary on whether that's annoying or not. Other times it makes for a unique mission that's a welcome change of pace. And while I love the soundtrack and how ambitious a lot of the music is, I'd have liked more variety in the actual mission music. Sometimes a mission feels like it warrants a song that's more than just the same as an average race. But thankfully most of the game does lean into its strengths. And honestly, a Banjo game being more mission based isn't even completely out of left field. Tooie was already MUCH bigger than the first game, and featured a lot more missions and minigames from NPC's over pure platforming and exploration. It would be disingenuous to imply this game ISN'T a dramatic departure sure, but I also don't find this game unrecognizable as a Banjo-Kazooie game.

I really think people who are getting a kick out of Tears of the Kingdom's vehicle freedom should give this game a try, it's quite literally a game built entirely around that level of freedom and more I'd argue. Stuff like an early mission wanting you to defend an NPC as he goes out jogging. You can try to actually take care of the enemies, which can be somewhat difficult at this point in the game. But I've also seen people make a helicopter with a protective cage and landing the cage around the NPC as he takes a breather, so enemies can't touch him. The speedrun builds a car that captures the NPC, and flies him to the end of his route. Idk if Zelda fans would vibe with all the races but this game was quite ahead of its time as far as physics-based, player creativity driven gameplay. And some of the bosses feel like those master Kohga battles except you can't just walk behind him and slap him with an arrow, stunning him. Grunty will make her own vehicles using pieces you don't have access to until you beat that fight, and you have to find a way to dismantle her car. Would have liked a few more of these boss type missions, sometimes it's just a race and that's not quite as fun for a boss. But it still makes you do some problem solving considering she's using car parts you don't have yet. The graphics were also ahead of its time, being one of the select few games of its generation that doesn't look horrendously ugly/bland.

Also playing this on modern Xbox systems is amazing. On the 360 loading into the hub could take at LEAST 30-40 seconds. But on the Series consoles, load times are often so fast the loading screen can't even fully start. Meaning they somehow got this game to have load times on par with the N64 games.

Just like the other Banjo games, this is among Rare's best work. A very unique experience that stands out from the crowd.

CW: Discussions of Transmisogyny

The common response to vulnerable niche play experiences like Video Game Feminization Hypnosis (2019), Cave Story Sex RPG 2007 (2021), and He Fucked The Girl Out of Me (2022), is mockery both for the boldness of name and of content. Video Game Feminization Hypnosis is a psychic-design-manifesto with lines like "i dont care about the "puzzles" i just wanna explore weird islands & mess with the machines" and "ive half-joked about my games being laced with estrogen but i wonder how powerful they could be. what if we could use video games to forcefem ppl all over the world" nested as hyperlinks throughout her vent towards a better girly gameworld. Written in lowercase text and using internet acronyms like 'ppl', she speaks with a casual concern for unfettered femme exploration games as a way to potentially rewrite the social code.

It has not been product tested for review, nor has either of the other 2 games mentioned. The problem here is that the culture of 'gaming' itself is unable to step beyond the bounds of product review. Franz inquires into this problem around Cave Story Sex RPG 2007

"Why do we seek to quantify something clearly very personal based on how much it resonates with us?

I think my problem is that I think people are looking at this game as they would a product. Like it needs to have some value to me, otherwise it's not "worth playing".

Nadia, Fewprime, Blood Machine, npckc, communistsister, bagenzo, and [pourpetine] (https://xrafstar.monster/games/). These are in my mind the most notable transfemme gamedevs and their relevant store pages for their work¹. It's obviously not a comprehensive list, but this is my notation for who is the most publicly notable and prolific within the scene. Notice that all of the games on these pages are free as are the 3 games I opened with at the start. That's because transfemme gamedevs more often have to make their corpus free just to get eyes. So what are gaming spaces assessing the 'worth' of a completely no strings attached free simulated experiences? I think its the fact we dare to make people uncomfortable and borrowing a modicum of their time (across all the devs I've mentioned I cant think of 1 that takes more than 3 hours to finish, usually only being around 20 minutes in length at most). My sisters have to cheapen themselves to 0 just to get your ear and its still just met with mockery, harassment, and belittlement².

Even when a transfemme game dev gets the chance of any success at all she is thrown down again. In pourpetine's Hot Allostatic Load (2015) she notes among a litany of pained observations that

"One of my abusers was sent a list of the nominees for the upcoming games festival Indiecade. Unfortunately, I was on the list. I ended up winning an award, ostensibly to recognize my feminine labor in the areas of marginalized game design—years of creating access for other people, publicizing their games, giving technical support, not to mention the games I had designed myself. Instead of solidarity from other marginalized people in my field, I was attacked."

Video Game Feminization Hypnosis beats to a much more Utopian drum. A belief that we can mesmerize people into a more pure goo out of this vindictive rut, create a games made out of love, show people feminine Exits.

I believe in all that. I also believe that my words and those of my sisters are constantly being cast a sidelong jeer of disposability. That I and my sisters are then to blame for when a mobbing happens and not the world's own biases and outrage. This world has made this all quite non-negotiable, no more playing along with the democratic cesspits and hateful comedy routines. Here's to reflecting on the play experience others treat as compost as if its the most meaningful urtexts in the world because to quote pourpetine again "Build the shittiest thing possible. Build out of trash because all i have is trash. Trash materials, trash bodies, trash brain syndrome. Build in the gaps between storms of chronic pain." trash art is my queendom.

I hope it suffocates society before it can flee to their patriarch Arks. As princess put it here 'flood the world and dilute the sludge'.

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1. 2 notable exceptions I know of with pay to play games by transfemme is princess/Girl Software's other games, and the cowriting of Aevee Bee on Worst Girl Games. Also key in on the fact here I'm making no judgements on individual pricing of games as a moral decision.

2. Does not remotely just happen On Backloggd³ if you think this is just a grievance I have with this site you're gravely misreading me and I urge you to slow down your social media outrage use for a bit qt~

3. Although I should not lie, social media sites are remarkably more unreliable habitats for trans people than they initially appear, this place has been a great learning experience of that in my case

I was very addicted to this game for a while.

Even played the Calamity mod
(which i think every Terraria player should do)
10/10 game, nothing else to say honestly,