Well. I haven’t felt like writing too much recently. Maybe I’ve been a bit more active in posting on DKVine, so that takes away from this blog. Ooh, tension! Anyways I haven’t played too many games so that’s ok.

I did finish, or rather complete, Banjo-Kazooie. I was rather hard on SM64 when comparing them earlier, and I’d like to give it a bit more credit. In building a nice world that’s fun to explore, with a variety of things to do, B-K has the clear lead. However, in terms of pure platforming challenge/variety, SM64 is technically superior. By technically I mean as a technicality, because the physics and controls of SM65 are slippery and loose as hell, which undermines the focus on platforming. Ironically, the most interesting stages of SM64 in this respect are the abstract ones like the Bowser stages. They lose on immersion but win on runny jumpy stuff. Mario also has a lot more jumping and mobility moves, as opposed to Banjo’s moves which give him varied abilities for attacking, mobility, situational things, etc. It’s just a different focus of the game.

My opinion may have softened slightly on SM64, but I still feel it was poorly executed and inferior to other games that came after. Yup. So how about them Banjos?

Banjo-Kazooie got hard in the last few stages. Anyone who’s played it will tend to shudder at the thought of Rusty Bucket Bay’s engine room, or climbing Click Clock Wood’s tree. I had a few deaths on those levels, which are especially frustrating in the middle of a 100% level run. But oh man, completing it after all was very satisfying. There were even some late bits I didn’t remember! I know I never got 100% before, so I feel good, I feel superior to young me. Heh.

I didn’t want to do a full review of the game, because as you may have read in my last update, it might be hard to not slavishly gobber all over the game. I feel a bit more objective about it, but just thinking about it I’m having trouble being really critical. It’s funny because I can be critical about say DKC2, which I like better. Besides, what hasn’t been said about Banjo-Kazooie at this point? On that note, after I finished I watched a complete 100% TAS run (tool-assisted speedrun) which was incredible. Check this out. In 2 hours. Not many glitches used either, just a lot of frame-perfect jumping stuff that’s just impressive.

Apart from that I’ve played a fair bit of Spirit Tracks, but it’s just digressing & sidequesting, not much to report. I finally figured out those stupid portals. You just blow your whistle! I feel dumb. That was probably explained but I forgot. I also have the manual but eh. I also started Banjo-Tooie and I’m about halfway through but I might save that for a longer write-up, and do some comparisons to Kazooie. I will say though that especially on a second playthrough (which this is), the SuperBanjo cheat to speed you up is essential. The worlds are so big!

I think that’s it for now. Been busy recently so yeah. Probably there’ll be a lot more next time. I have holidays coming up so I foresee a lot of game time for little old me. So long for now. Oh I forgot to rhyme, in honour of Grunty. Eh. Oh! We just had the 15th anniversary, of the wonderful game Banjo-Kazooie. I played the whole thing before I knew, that its birthday should have compelled me to!