Banjo-Tooie Hands-On

Banjo and Kazooie are back and this time they have a ton of new moves, abilities, and a huge new cast of characters to interact with, not to mention a massive 3D world that is eight times larger than the first game's.

The game takes place across eight new worlds on the Isle o' Hags, where they must once again defeat the evil witch Grutilda. This second quest is also all about completing puzzles in an attempt to collect Jiggy puzzle pieces. The world is unbelievably huge, and to help navigate it, Rare has developed a transport system that allows you to easily warp from one place to the next.

The minigames that pop up during the game are one of the coolest new features in Banjo-Tooie. The minigames range from simple events - such as a game that is best described as a pseudo soccer shootout where the objective is to score more points than your opponent - to a full-blown first-person deathmatch-style shooter. One of the great things about these minigames is that Rare realized the games were way too fun just to hide within the game, so they've made them available for four-player multiplayer action from the game's outset. You can select individual events from the 14 minigames available, or just simply choose to play them all in succession.

The regular single-player adventure also has a Perfect Dark-style counteragent mode where two players can play at once. One player controls the lead character, while the other player has the ability to take control of any enemy who wanders on the screen.

Visually, the game looks fairly similar to the first, which, if you never got around to playing it, was one of the more visually detailed N64 adventure games.

So, while the first few hours we spent playing Banjo-Tooie were certainly enjoyable, we'll have to reserve judgement until we get a final build of the game this November.