Just A Great Game!
But let me tell you, Banjo-Tooie was the best, most fun acid trip I ever took.
In terms of levels, Banjo-Tooie has some of the most original. There are eight including a mine, a factory, a lagoon/Atlantis, and a theme park (along with the typical forest and fire/ice worlds). This is good--a good show of variety. However, there is a thin line separating variety and randomness, and there is also a thin line separating randomness from mindless paranoia. But there is a thick line separating paranoia from "cloud cuckooland."
Cloud Cuckooland is the chaotic, whimsical eigth level in banjo-tooie. It is a level where all of your five-year-old nightmares will come back to destroy you. It is a level of islands floating above the clouds. You travel there by way of pink bubblegum bubble. Weirded out yet? No? You will be. What awaits you on the other side of the rainbow where you find cloud cuckooland is no munchkinland, it's a world of pure horror. A world of absolute chaos where the laws of physics (and sanity) do not apply. In this level, you will find athletic anteaters, eyeball-throwing eye flowers, paper-thin 2-dimensional enemies that brandish sausage links and lollipops against you, a giant pot of gold, a self-consious safe, a hive of bees that award you for slaughtering members of their own hive, a floating trashcan, a giant jello mold castle, floating magic jellyfish, a creepy bird-canary-human-thing, a giant block of cheese full of onions and poisonous gasses, and so much more--just name your nightmare, you'll find it.
I dont know what kind of sick joke Rare is playing, but this level made the logical part of my brain collapse from the stress of having to fight-off the insanity that attacked when I had to fight 2-dimensional characters which sprung up out of the dirt (thereby making the sound of a cash register when doing so. The horror, the horror...). Oh, and I still have bad dreams about that canary-human-thing...
Its too painful to talk about this level, its too soon. In terms of gameplay, Banjo-Tooie is incredible. It's easy for newcomers, yet still challenging for veterans of the typical platformer. The puzzles may be puzzling at times (a pun, yay!...I'm so retarded...) but never are too hard to figure out sooner or later. As a matter of fact, many of the coveted puzzlepieces are too easy to come-by, even in later levels. However, one level, Grunty Industries, may give even hardcore gamers a run for their money. This may possibly be the most difficult level I have played through since Phazon Mines in Metroid Prime. It also has the most difficult boss in the game besides Grunty herself in Weldar, the blind welding torch. You will eventually figure it out, but not without pulling-out at least a third of your hair in frustration...
Graphics? Great for its time.
Music? Memorable.
Replay value? Heck yes.
Fun factor? Yeah, one of the funner games I have played, except for one thing: I hate Jinjos. You may know what a Jinjo is, but incase you do not; Jinjos are the bane of my existence. They are seemingly nice, seemingly harmless timid little creatures that hide around in precarious parts of levels and wait for you to set them free (or so it says in the manual). Let me tell you, I ahve died more times because I was trying to save a Jinjo than the entire rest of the game. They have to pick the most dangerous parts of levels to hide in--spike pits, lava plains, cliff faces, you name it--if its hard to reach, out of the way, and possibly life threatening to get somewhere, there's probably a Jinjo there. I swear, Jinjos are in league with the witch herself (who is the major enemy of the game). They are out there to kill you. You're alone and no one will help you in the light of the almighty evil of the Jinjos...
All in all, it's a crazy game, its a scary game, its an absolutely fun game that is definately worth buying. Save Mario for later, get Banjo-Tooie asap...or else...hahaha, just kidding, but seriously...
HeadshotJackal's Rating: I gave this game 8/10. You will be lost, you will be confused, you will wake up in the middle of the night screaming after repeated nightmares about that canary-human-thing, but you will also love the game, "Banjo-Tooie."