Of Birds and Bears: Banjo-Kazooie

Yoshi's Story disappointed more than a few N64 fans, but it seems that that game will be but a blip on a road map of hits Nintendo has scheduled for the summer/fall - the first being BK.

The first noticeable thing about Banjo-Kazooie is how remarkably smooth the whole game is. While the version we played isn't final yet, it was still amazingly smooth.

The game has a full intro with the main characters all jamming out on the theme song. But where it really gets cool is the real-time introduction/setup to the game (which tells its story). This is where the N64 has the complete edge over systems like the PlayStation or Saturn, because it just looks really good.

The story is basically that Gruntilda (an evil witch), has "bearnapped" your sister in order to steal her good looks and innocence and use them to make her ugly mug pretty - no amount of plastic surgery could fix this wench, lemme tell ya!

Levels are set up around an expansive main overworld. To enter each level, you have to find puzzle pieces and complete the level's picture in order for its door to open. There are plenty of items to collect and many more moves for a 3D game than Mario could do in his first 3D outing. Inside each level, you need to collect notes - there are 100 of them in each level. These will open up other areas of the game later on, depending on your "high score" total of notes. You can also collect honeycombs, which, after six are collected, give you one extra life vessel.

The game isn't just big - it's huge. Rare has crammed a very big game on a 128-megabit cartridge, and as new areas are entered there's always something to say "wow" over.

For the first-time player, there's a handy little tutorial at the beginning of the game that will acquaint you with the basic moves and attacks. But don't think you know all there is to Banjo-Kazooie after the tutorial - there's plenty more to be discovered as you work your way through each level.

Check out these screenshots, and we'll have more on Banjo-Kazooie next week.