Banjo-Kazooie (XBLA) is a port of the original N64 version. A lot of people criticized it for being similar to Mario but it got a solid following and has received several games and awards, most recently Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts. I remember as a little kid renting the game and thoroughly enjoying it but after all these years does the gameplay hold up or is it another port for nostalgia purposes?

The game stars a bear and his friend bird, named Banjo and Kazooie respectively. The story opens up with Grunty looking into a pot and asked who the prettiest person in the world is. Disgruntled that it’s not her, she seeks out the one person that is and devises a plan to transfer her beauty to herself. This young lady ends up being Banjo’s sister Tooty and that starts your wild adventure to rescue her back.

After all of these years, the game is still a lot of fun and will run over 10 hours and even more for completionist. Whereas a lot of old ports are played for nostalgia, Banjo-Kazooie still holds up to today in the gameplay department. You’ll traverse Grunty’s Mountain hideout in search of Tooty but doors are blocked by a note requirement and some places you just can’t reach because you haven’t learned a certain move. To get notes you have to open worlds and collect them inside. To open worlds you have to collect jigsaw pieces and use them to finish pictures. These can be attained in the mountain or within the worlds themselves by exploring or doing specific challenges. I always enjoy how the developers liked to put them right out of reach to taunt you, a great gameplay device. A friendly mole will guide you through the tutorial and pop up from time to time to teach you a new move which will aid you in your adventure. The last piece of the puzzle is Mumbo. Collecting mumbo skulls around the world will allow you to change your appearance for specific challenges and exploring, and sometimes the process doesn’t go exactly as planned which injects some fun humor into the game. For those with Nuts and Bolts will be happy to hear that the Stop ‘n’ Swop is now in full working order. You can collect a multitude of colored eggs and the fabled ice key with ease now. They no long sit there and taunt you. Then slap in Nuts and Bolts and you’ll unlock some accessories for your vehicles. Unfortunately they are just for looks and don’t really affect your vehicle, but it’s nice that it’s finally there.

The graphics have obviously been boosted up with a significantly higher resolution and surprisingly it looks pretty good for an XBLA title. Certainly you will come upon blurry textures and the occasional area that doesn’t look the greatest but overall for the amount of content you have the title is up there with the best the service offers. The sound is the aspect that has faired the worse but it is still pretty decent. You’ll occasionally find yourself humming along with the tune of certain songs and especially when you have powerups.

You may initially be off put by the 1200pt price but its well worth it. It contains over 10 hours of classic platforming gameplay that will have you entertained from start to end. The encouragement of exploration is great as well as the frequent puzzles that taunt you with the items right in your face, but you can’t get them. When you’re finished you can go check the leaderboards and compare your times in the various worlds with your friends.  Either platforming games have not evolved much in the past decade or Banjo-Kazooie was a great game. I’ll go with the latter. For $15 you get over 10 hours of content and joy. Well worth it if you’re in the mood for platforming or need a companion for Nuts and Bolts.

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