2/5 ★ – lunarobserver's review of Banjo-Kazooie.

I got through like 85% of this game. I got to Click Clock Wood and quit. This game was the game that made me want to buy an N64 because so many people talk about how great and nostalgic this game is. Banjo-Kazooie also got into Smash Ultimate, so I was curious as to what all the hype was about. If you want to play this game, please play the Xbox version. Please. This game would be much higher on my list had I just played the Xbox version. This game has a lot going for it. The music is great, and obviously revolutionary for the time it was released. Kirkhope did a great job, and also composed for another one of my favorite games (Mario + Rabbids). Most of the levels were beautifully designed and were a great little sandbox to mess around and collect collectables (Treasure Trove Cove and Mad Monster Mansion were especially fun). The combat was decent and as interesting as the enemies. I really only ever found myself using the aerial Kazooie beak attack, as that was their best move. The graphics were great for being released around the same time as SM64. This game looks way better than SM64. There are two things holding this game back for me. The controls, and the notes system. The controls are decent and that’s a huge problem. I don’t know if it’s the game or the controller but when I really need to make a precise jump in a PLATFORMER I should have the ability to. While this isn’t an issue for simple levels like Spiral Mountain, when you get to Rusty Bucket Bay it’s absolutely infuriating. The flying is decent (beak bombing is horrible), and the swimming is just zero fun and hard to control. The notes system is horrible for one reason. When you die, all the notes you collected during your life go back to where they were. You lose all your progress… This is a design mistake that the developers agree with, considering they changed it in the Xbox version. In this game particularly, I don’t find backtracking fun at all, so this took away a lot of the fun for me. Normally, I would tell myself to get good, but Rusty Bucket Bay was what convinced me otherwise. There is so much dumb shit in that level that made me quit the game. I’m sure this game would be much higher on this list had I played the Rare Replay version, but sadly I didn’t.