Esse jogo é não ironicamente (sério mesmo) uma obra de arte. Ele se despe de qualquer pretensão comercial pra trabalhar de forma esteticamente agressiva uma paródia do livro Ready Player One e alcança toda a indústria criativa que recorre a referências para não enriquecer, mas para conferir conteúdo às obras.

Um conteúdo raso, excludente e que se regozija em se sentir superior por ter a referência, e assim acima da "plebe", "filtrando" os incultos. Esse é um sumário do que se tornou a Cultura Pop/Nerd/Geek. De subcultura marginalizada, a pretensiosa e arrogante, algo que conhecemos bem quando lembramos que educação deficiente faz oprimidos quererem se tornar opressores.

OKKUSENMAN OKKUSENMAN

Apesar de interessante, um debate sobre a paródia ser um espantalho em cima de um absurdo cabe, mas como ponto de partida, não como conclusão.

Afinal, refletir sobre o uso indiscriminado desse tipo de fanservice levanta a questão de em que momento ele é válido e em que momento ele atrapalha e cria ruído, impedindo pessoas sem aquela referência de valorizar mais a obra. Há talvez uma hipérbole nessa obra, uma vez que a sátira exagera demais no que pretende correndo o risco de não surtir efeito crítico por extrapolar em demasia.

OKKUSENMAN OKKUSENMAN

Eu mesmo, pra ilustrar, não li o livro Ready Player One, assisti apenas o filme, e não achei que ele fez o que o jogo critica, ao menos de forma a prejudicar sua fruição como filme com proposta imaginativa e divertida. Mas claro, eu preciso ler o livro pra que eu possa ter uma plena compreensão de quão mais pertinente seja a crítica, por exemplo, já que ela mira neste e não naquele.

A salada de referências a obras da cultura pop encontra um nível de saturação tão absurda que é impossível encontrar algo que você não conheça, a menos que você jogue o jogo daqui 200 anos ou tenha crescido em ambiente ultrar-religioso que te manteve longe das "coisas do mundo".

Por isso mesmo, no fim, eu compreendi a crítica, valorizo como obra de arte, mas a experiência em si foi menor do que eu gostaria. Ao menos eu tive um momento impactante, já que um outro apelo do jogo é a nostalgia.

Em algum momento ela vai bater, especialmente se você for millenial. E aí talvez você tenha seu momento....

OKKUSENMAN OKKUSENMAN

(que final foi esse, quem é Dr. Who?)
(PS: eu já ouvi falar mas não conheço)
(PS2: excelente console)

A Cultura nerd precisa ser revisada.

É uma cultura que sequestra obras de arte em um culto egocentrico e excludente. Pessoas resgatam símbolos das obras para se identificarem e vão enaltecer aqeuelus que reconhecem esses símbolos, que conseguem ler as referências e se sentem superiores por conta disso, mais popularmente culturados.
Ready Player Fuck sequestra esses símbolos em uma sátira divertida, engraçada e que não se importa com propriedade intelectual. Usando esses símbolos para mostrar o quão tosco e sem noção é esse imaginário coletivo do nerd boomer, que adora essas imagens religiosamente.

Quando partimos do pressuposto de que a paródia é um exercício de intertextualidade, cujo objetivo é levar o interlocutor a fazer uma reflexão crítica sobre o conteúdo parodiado, Ready Player Fuck é um exercício bem raso que se debruça na premissa de que, só de profanar ao mesmo tempo todas as referências possíveis da cultura pop e geek, é uma ofensa primordial per se. Dava pra ser mais ofensivo, cutucar mais, profanar mais, do que só embrulhar um milhão de assets. Não é o suficiente. A arte ofende, e aqui vai ofender quem? O nerd com a "doença do sapo cego"? Já são minoria. Não deixo de considerar uma boa proposta, mas frente à liberdade e desprendimento das amarras da propriedade intelectual, poderia se propor a ser ainda mais ofensivo.

Back in September of 2023, I decided to replay both Banjo games to see how much I still liked them. It had been around 10 years since I had played Kazooie since then, and 4 years since I'd last played Tooie, so I was excited to dive into both games. Well, as it turns out, I loved replaying both so much I decided to replay them directly after. I very rarely do that, so I just knew I had to bump both games to a 10. Well, after my whole review purge, I decided to replay these once again and rereview them all over again. Only 7 months later after playing them both twice before, I'm a madman I know (haha you won't get this reference because those reviews are now deleted). Anyways, just like before...I had a blast replaying Kazooie and consider it one of the best N64 games ever.

The first thing I'll get into are the controls and Banjo-Kazooie's moveset in general. I honestly think this game controls masterfully, Banjo and Kazooie have such a varied move set that flows well with each of the levels. The talon trot is a must in every level as it let's you go through each area that much faster. With the c buttons, it's also really easy to remember how to perform it too. In fact, I haven't played the game on anything but the N64 itself, but idk how I'd feel about playing it on another controller just cuz I find the N64 controller fits it perfectly lol. Besides the talon trot, you also have a roll attack, rat-a-tat rap which is an aerial move, golden feathers which you can use to turn invincible as long as you have them, red feathers which you can use to fly (and the flight in this game is more satisfying than Mario 64), the beak bomb which is an attack you can use while flying and more. All of this you unlock gradually while playing and is all used plenty through-out the game. You also have two power-ups that let you either traverse unsafe ground (wading boots) and the speedy shoes which, as the name implies, let's you go fast. Even the swimming in this game is pretty nice once you know how to use it. I've seen some people say it's awful because it's so clunky. Which, if you're not holding the R button then yeah totally, but if you are it's very nice and smooth as you have a breast-stroke and a paddle you can perform depending on what you need.

The game itself is incredibly charming, both aesthetically and comically. The world's all look lovely and is just full of that N64 Rare ware charm. When playing through a world, you would be hard pressed to not see a pair of googily eyes on an enemy or even the items (when the item explanation first pops up) and for how lighthearted this game is, it very much fits. That's not to say the dialogue is all light-hearted. It's not as dark as Tooie obviously but they still put in a couple of dirty jokes hear and there. The dialogue itself, while not nearly as funny as Tooie imo, its witty enough especially Gruntilda's dialogue.

Going into Gruntilda and her lair in general, both are fantastic. The lair is a tightly designed hub world that is super memorable, not just because of it being compact in size and easy to traverse, but because the whole way through Grunty insults you and eggs you on. Kazooie has way less dialogue than Tooie, and Grunty herself I find more menacing in that game, but when it comes to her insulting rhymes...they're easily the most memorable pieces of dialogue in the game. Even on this most recent playthrough, I was still hearing rhymes I've never heard before. Really makes me wonder just how many there are in total lol.

When it comes to the worlds themselves, they are excellent tightly designed levels just like Grunty's lair was. Mumbo's Mountain is the worst one imo, and that's just because of how small it is...which makes a ton of sense because it's the first world. All the rest are very enjoyable, with some of my favorites being Freezezey Peak, Clanker's Cavern and Click Clock Wood. Now you might be saying to yourselves, Clankers Cavern? Yeah, idk why but it might've been my favorite world this time around. I honestly don't have an issue with the swimming portions, I love the track that plays in it and the dank grimey atmosphere I find wonderful (which makes sense because I love Tooie and it has a lot of that). It feels like one of the more unique world settings next to Rusty Bucket Bay. Speaking of Rusty Bucket Bay, it has the infamous engine room area and yeah that's still my least favorite part pf the game. It's not TOO bad if you do that part right away, but I still died like 5 times this playthrough. I also died to Click Clock Wood very stupidly, those two levels even now can still get me as they're easily the two hardest in the game. Going back to the engine room tho, the reason it's so hated is because it's the only world with an instant death pit. In the N64 version, instant death means you lose all your notes as the game tracks a total note score in this version rather than keeping your notes when you die like in the Xbox version. This is also a small gripe I have, but only in these last two levels because I pretty much never die in any of the earlier ones.

The music in this game was done by Grant Kirkhope and he's absolutely legendary. He has a very distinct bouncy style to his music and it absolutely fits here with how goofy this game is. My favorite tracks in the game would have to be Rusty Bucket Bay, Spiral Mountain, Clanker's Cavern, and The Final Battle. The entire soundtrack is wonderfully though, and I especially love Grant's use of dynamic music. His work on Banjo Kazooie and Tooie, and DK64 show he's a big fan of it and it's perfect in these types of games.

Once you beat every single world, and have obtained enough notes and jiggies to progress, you enter Grunty's Furnace Fun. This is basically a giant quiz show that puts your knowledge to the test. It's very goofy and fitting for the type of game Banjo Kazooie is. The questions consist of listening to the voice of a character or song of a level and guessing who/what it is, random trivia, playing a mini-game from the main levels or a Grunty question. The grunty questions consist of trivia about Grunty herself that you must know to answer. To find these out in-game, you must hunt down her sister Brentilda, who is hidden in specific areas of the lair. You might think, meh I'll just look the answers to these online. But they're randomized per playthrough so you simply cannot do that. Luckily, with the joker card which let's you skip 2 spaces on the board, you can bypass these if you weren't able to find Brentilda. Same with the instant death skull spaces which are usually just a basic trivia question, but still are very nerve-wracking. After you get to the end of the board, you get a hilarious joke where Grunty makes her escape by forcing credits on you. After that though, it's actually time to fight her.

Before you fight Grunty, depending on how many collectables you have gotten, you can unlock consumable refills and even double health. Once you've gotten what you need, it's time fight Gruntilda herself. The final battle may honestly be in my top 20 fights ever, it's super good. It tests you on many of your moves you've learned through out the game and it has a killer boss theme to boot (as you know with my favorite songs portion). The end of it is super satisfying too, with the Jinjonator being summoned to defeat her. If there's any one thing I love more than Tooie, it's this final boss and cutscene. The Hag-1 is a fine enough final boss for that game, but it pales in comparison to Kazooie's final fight.

All in all, I'm glad I replayed this once again as it's still amazing and still one of my favorite games ever. Back in September, I stated I might love Tooie even more for the things it improved on and its expanded worlds, and yeah I probably do in the end. However, Kazooie has its own strengths , some even over Tooie's and it's still a must play as an N64 fan. Next up though is Tooie, and I simply cannot wait to replay it so look forward to that review coming soon!!