Banjo-Tooie

Banjo-Tooie
Developer	Rare Ltd.
Publisher	Nintendo
System	Nintendo 64
Release Date	Nintendo 64 US November 20, 2000 JP November 27, 2001 EU April 12, 2001
Rating	ESRB: E

Banjo-Tooie is the sequel to Rare's hit Nintendo 64 game Banjo-Kazooie and was the last Banjo game to be published by Nintendo due to Rare leaving to Microsoft several years later.

Story

The story is set two years after Banjo-Kazooie (the exact time gap between the games' releases), and begins when the evil witch Gruntilda is still trapped under a boulder following the end of the last game. However, her sisters Blobbelda and Mingella arrive and free her by destroying the boulder, although by this point Gruntilda's body was reduced to little more than a skeleton. She immediately seeks revenge, destroying the home of Banjo and Kazooie, and fatally wounding Bottles the Mole in the process.

Banjo, Kazooie and Mumbo Jumbo escape, then proceed to go on another adventure to collect the Jiggies to defeat Gruntila, who with her sisters is using a Big-O-Blaster machine to steal the life force of various creatures on the island in order to restore her own body.

Gameplay

The game features a modified version of the previous game's gameplay. Banjo and Kazooie now have an entire island to explore as the hub world. The individual worlds are played through similarly to the previous game, although one twist is secret passages which connect certain worlds. The Jiggies once more act as the main item to collect, although this time to unlock new worlds the pieces must be put together by the player in a minigame at Jiggywiggy's temple.

All the moves from the previous games return, with Banjo and Kazooie being capable of learning new moves by paying General Jamjars (Bottles's replacement) with musical notes. One move allows Kazooie to be played as independently of Banjo, while with another Banjo can use Kazooie as a weapon in first person shooter-inspired segments. Additionally, Mumbo Jumbo is playable in some areas after being supplied with a Glowbie and had special tasks to fulfill. A new character, Humba Wumba, took up his old job of transforming Banjo and Kazooie into animals.

The game also featured a multiplayer mode for up to four players, where they could compete in various minigames.

Legacy

Sequels

The next Banjo game to be released was Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge, which was set between the first two games and was the first Banjo game released after Microsoft bought Rareware. A more direct sequel was planned for the Gamecube until said buy-out, and since then a sequel with different gameplay (Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts) has been released for the X-Box 360 almost a decade after Tooie's release.

Ports/Remakes

• It was released for download over the X-Box 360's XBox Arcade service in April 2009. Changes include higher resolution, removal of Nintendo references and usage of the Stop N' Swap feature (as well as adding a mysterious Stop & Swap II).