It's a miracle that I managed to get a Nintendo 64 emulator to work on this computer. Even moreso that Project 64 emulates it pretty damn well. So I've been having a second go at Banjo-Kazooie, one of my favourite N64 games of all time and one I'm constantly stealing ideas from in order to make SHPDMBGWL4 3 Ex, which I've somehow managed to plug AGAIN. If you've not played this game then sucks to be you, and in this case, just playing a bit of it at a friend's house doesn't count. BK needs to be played from the beginning because it's practically worthless once you've done everything (sorry, but it is).
If I were ever to go for the video game industry in terms of a job, I'd probably have a try at Rare simply because of this game (and the Donkey Kong ones... and Conker). Banjo-Kazooie is an amazing, well polished (at least on the actual console - Project 64's not to great with the transitions and it doesn't always run at 60fps over here) game that quite frankly, beats the crap out of Super Mario 64 nine times out of ten... sort of. I always thought it was amazing that Midway's Mortal Kombat division made a character out of MK2's ERMAC error - Rareware did something very similar with Banjo-Kazooie, naming a good half-dozen characters in the sequel after insults thrown out by Kazooie or Gruntilda in this game. Mario remains a mute in Super Mario 64, whereas all the characters (and objects) in this communicate with strange noises just for the hell of it. Only other game I can remember off the top of my head that did this was Fur Fighters on the Dreamcast, which even then was changed in the PS2 remake (btw play that as well since that's fantastic too). Grunty speaks in rhymes, everything has eyes... it's tiny things like these that make this game stand out from all your ordinary platformers.
Rare also have a habit of screwing about with the brains of their fans. Over the last 10 years they've been hinting at the hyped but removed Stop 'n' Swop feature which I love for reasons unknown. Yes I was sad enough to raise Shark Food Island and get the pink egg before opening Bubblegloop Swamp (pictured above). To think the game was originally planned to be compatible with Donkey Kong 64 and Banjo-Tooie... shame they never made a Sonic & Knuckles lock on cartridge.
I won't go into great detail since I know rambling stretches this blog down a bit, but to put it simply, invest in this game if you haven't already. Who knows it might even get on the Wii's virtual console... not to mention Banjo 3's in the works for the Xbox 360. You shouldn't be displeased unless you're trying to be.
Now that is one legendary N64 game, and one of my favourites, too!
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