Key

Banjo-Kazooie

I freaking love this game. As far as games that I would replay over and over that are from this era of gaming, Banjo-Kazooie is up there if not the first on the list to get another playthrough from me. I actually think this game amongst all the others I've played is the one I have replayed the most. It's got everything you need to have an unbelievably great experience in a game that is simply titled "Banjo-Kazooie".

Even from the opening cutscene of the game, it's just you and other characters playing music together in a forest having a good time. There's no hint as to what happens next and why you end up traversing an enormous castle filled with secrets at every corner. It's the subtlety and the creative writing that makes this game shine more than a lot of other platformers. And granted, there's still a lot of great platformers on the Nintendo 64, and I will certainly be talking about them this month, but Banjo-Kazooie is special in the sense that it's not just a platformer, it's got so much more. Much like Super Mario 64, Banjo-Kazooie comes packed with cool moves that you know from the start as well as new moves that you learn about throughout your playthrough. You got your simple rolls and melee attacks etc, but once you start to traverse the castle and enter various on top of various levels, you start to see that the game has so much more to offer than it lets on. And that's not a bad thing by any stretch. Even after playing this game maybe 10 times over the years, it still brings me joy when I 100% a level and I can move onto the next level to experience it again and again and again. The levels themselves never get old because they also come jam packed with all kinds of things you can do. And as Banjo-Kazooie is a collectathon, there are a lot of things to collect. Notes, jinjos, puzzle pieces. They're all there. You just have to learn to overcome the obstacles that hold these valuable collectibles that you need in order to take on more levels.

And even while you're going from level to level, Banjo-Kazooie offers an amazing hub world of sorts in Gruntilda's Lair. The music, the creepy laugh coming from Gruntilda every time you walk in and out of a room, and just the amount of things that are scattered all over the castle making it worthwile to check every nook and cranny that you can. Some things will lead you to secret rooms that holds interesting secrets and other things will lead you to the puzzle to open the final level, only to realize that you need a ton of jigsaw pieces to complete it. So you come back to that later. But you found it just by exploring which is what makes Banjo-Kazooie not just a great platformer, not just a great collectathon, but a great game overall to just experience time and time again.

And even with all of that, once you get through all the levels and experience everything they've had to offer, you then move onto the last few parts of the game which lies in Gruntilda's Furnace Fun and then subsequently fighting Gruntilda on top of her castle. And I still hold the belief that the final mega jinjo encounter that eventually takes Gruntilda down is still one of the very coolest ends to a boss fight. It's certainly been surpassed over the years, but it is still oh so satisfying to finally get those few eggs that you need in order to unlock the mighty jinjo to let it wreak havoc.

And then of course once that's all done, you enjoy the fact that you just beat one of the coolest and most fun games on the Nintendo 64. And hell yes to the fact that these are available on Game Pass because once I have some time to kill, I really want to revisit it again because it really it just an unbelievably great game. And it shows even to today's standards. I guarantee you can go back and play this today and you'd still have as much of a blast if not more than you had when you played it originally. I still have good memories (and some bad) of finally getting the final collectibles needed in the final level - Click Clock Wood and just realizing that although this adventure is over, there is another one soon ahead.

Speaking of which, while we're on the topic of levels. Click Clock Wood always stood out to me as I'm sure it did with others because while the other levels are super creative and really great in their own rights and really do work with the themes that they are going for, nothing beats Click Clock Wood. Basically due to the fact that it's literally 4 levels in one. And they all flow together so well as you'd expect given that the 4 levels are based on the 4 seasons. It'd be weird if it didn't flow well.

The music is also great, but that also goes for all the levels in the game if i'm gonna be honest. The soundtrack is absolutely awesome. I honestly don't think I really have a standout track that I would say is my favorite because they all have their own strengths that make them unique to the levels that they are mixed in with. And as many times as I have played this game, I still think the soundtrack works so perfectly with every levels theme and it really shows that the composers did everything they could do to make sure you were as immersed into the levels as possible. And it works. You've got creepy music for the darker levels, you've got cool robotic music for Clanker's Cavern which is literally based around a large metal fish. It's little things like that that add to the uniqueness of the game while also managing to add to its greatness overall.

Banjo-Kazooie to me should certainly be seen as a staple in gaming in general and I still hold the belief and i'm sure others do as well that it was, is, and will continue to live on as one of the best 3D platformers of all time. And that's crazy when you think about the other games in the system that all perform excellently for what they are. This is why I feel like the Nintendo 64 had a leg up when it came out because man, so many great games were born because of it. There just aren't that many games that I hold to as much of a high regard as I do with Banjo-Kazooie, except maybe Breath of the Wild or Fallout 3. It just has that special something that has lasted with me all the way into my 30's. It's crazy to think that I played this game for the first time that long ago, and like I said, have played it many times since. And each time I playthrough it, I can easily see myself playing through it again in months or years time.