One of the best games released on the Nintendo 64.
The story of Banjo-Kazooie starts off fairly simple. Banjo's sister Tooty has been kidnapped by the evil witch Gruntilda in the hopes that she will be able to sap Tooty's youth with a contraption she has invented to make herself young and beautiful again. Banjo, determined to save his sister Tooty, sets off into Gruntilda's lair with Kazooie -- a red bird that lives inside of his blue backpack. Banjo ventures into Gruntilda's lair, learning new moves from the mole Bottles, who appears in the various levels that Banjo goes through.
Your objective is to collect Jiggy's, musical notes, and honeycomb pieces to increase your total health (mostly Jiggy's and musical notes). Throughout the lair you will need musical notes to open doors and Jiggy's to complete puzzles to open up the portals to new worlds, where Banjo can find a total of 10 Jiggy's, 100 notes, and 5 Jinjo's, which are little birds that need rescuing (and will also provide a Jiggy for saving all 5 in each world).
Gameplay wise Banjo-Kazooie does resemble Super Mario 64 a lot but in my personal opinion, Banjo-Kazooie takes that style of gameplay and adds more to it. Banjo and Kaoozie both learn more moves than Mario ever did in Super Mario 64, and each world has it's own unique touch, making it interesting and fun as you travel to new worlds.
Musically speaking Banjo-Kazooie is fantastic. The songs used for each world fit it perfectly, so you're not only enjoying the game but you are tuned into it more by the great soundtrack. I find that if you have a really great soundtrack with a really great game, what's NOT to like about it?
As for the difficulty of the game, Banjo-Kazooie is great for both beginners and experienced players, but doesn't make it so easy that you aren't challeneged just a little along the way. The enemies you encounter in Banjo-Kazooie can be easily defeated and you rarely have to worry about dying in game unless you're fighting a "mini boss" of some sorts and you accidently don't pay attention to your health. Banjo-Kazooie proves that a game can be both fun, but easy and yet challenging at the same time.
In the end, Banjo-Kazooie is one game on the Nintendo 64 that you do not want to miss out on.