Banjo-Tooie

Banjo Tooie is easily one of the best platform games ever created. When you consider how lacking the genre has been lately this will certainly be a breath of fresh air.

Banjo-Tooie is a no-frills ROM port that is a slam dunk for those looking to relive some of gaming’s past glory without having to pull out past consoles.

If you played Banjo-Tooie back in the day it's worth a revisit to remind yourself how good this game was and earn a few achievements. And if you've never played Rare's masterpiece it's high time you found out why it is considered a high point for the genre.

Classic platformer gaming that will have you reliving the glory days of the N64 console. Whether you're a fan or a newcomer, there's little reason why you shouldn't purchase the XBLA port of Banjo-Tooie.

As an XBLA download, Tooie is fantastic value. Much cheaper than the actual cartridges go for these days.

I mean really, what's not to like about a bird that can regurgitate eggs from its mouth to batter an enemy, or shoot them out of his butt to zap enemies coming up from behind?

By playing Banjo-Tooie, you can get a sense of what platformers used to be like. Besides Nintendo with Mario, no one pulls them off better than Rare and this is no more evident than in this well-made remake of the classic Banjo-Tooie.

It is really hard to find anything to really gripe about in Banjo- Tooie except maybe how much it is TOO like Banjo- Kazooie.

Sure to keep you entertained for hours. [July 2009, p.96]

Time definitely has not been kind to Banjo Tooie, but it is still as fun as it ever was.

For every moment where the game deviates from predictable platform tropes, there are dozens more when it's really nothing more than a very nicely assembled and presented riff on what other games were pioneering. Banjo-Tooie, then. Not one of the all-time greats, but when you take off the rose-tinted glasses the result is still enough to make it a standout on Live Arcade.

Banjo-Tooie's gameplay is an mid-point between the simplicity of Banjo-Kazooie and batshit insanity of Donkey Kong 64, though it can be immensely frustrating like the latter game a lot of the time.

That nostalgia isn't worth 15 bucks. [July 2009, p.84]

Despite the irritating 'cute' dialogue, the script is super funny, while the presentation is sweet enough and the platforming is still very playable. [Issue#47, p.100]

When all is said and done, gamers wishing to relive the glory days of wholesome, 64-bit goodness will want to download and enjoy Banjo-Tooie; in reality, most will already have done so. On the flip side, the modern gamer wishing to see what all the fuss about Banjo and his pal Kazooie is will be disappointed, as they will go in expecting something that is amazing and get something that was amazing… back at the turn of the century.

Banjo-Tooie is far from being a bad platformer, though instead of taking what made Banjo-Kazooie great and improving on it, the Rare philosophy seems to be throw everything into the mixing pot and see what comes out.

Another classy retro conversion but Rare's platforming sequel feels older than it looks.