So much potential is lost to a subpar camera and terrible mechanics throughout the game.
First off let's just go into all the flaws of this game, First we have the camera, well let me say first that back in this time in gaming 3d gaming was just starting so most of the camera in even some of the best games at this time were not that great however they weren't a terrible abomination and that is what Banjo Kazooies camera is, There are so many parts where you will have to walk across a tiny platform and you can't do it because the camera is off-putting and you will fall over and over and over again, let me ask you something, how are you supposed to play a 3d platformer when the camera can't even concentrate properly on the platforms. So already this is pretty much a game breaker for me but then it just gets worse.
Second the combat, hit detection and no post hit invincibility. So let's start with the combat, let's be honest, there is no combat, B makes you do some wimpy punch, that never hits anything and you can also roll which never does anything also so those are your main attacks, how you supposed to attack your enemies, the only way I could was to jump and press B to use Kazooies peck attack, and that still wasn't that great of an attack move. The hit detection isn't that great either but I guess for the most part it's passable. Another big problem is that Banjo and Kazooie can be hit multiple times and lose all life in an instant, because in a normal game once you get hit, you have some post hit invincibility to give you a chance to recover, on this one there is none of that so if you make a fatal mistake you're done for. Another thing that really irritates me is that you can lose a ton of life from falling from really high up and that's understandable but you will almost lose all of your life and I can get the sense in that, but the camera is so bad in this game as I explained above, you will be falling from big heights because the path was to narrow and you will lose most of your life because of it and sometimes all of it.
This brings me to my next big flaw the notes you have to collect. You must collect 100 notes in each level in order to progress through level to level, simple enough right, well you are wrong, because most levels as you progress gradually get harder and the other flaws in this game don't help you out either, so let's say you've got 30 notes in the level, you are doing a really good job and everything's going well your trying to get more notes on the top of the high roof where the honeycomb piece is in the monster mansion(or whatever it's called) and all of a sudden you accidently fall due to the faulty camera all the way down, well guess what you die, oh and it gets better you lose all your notes, are you serious this happened way to many times to me and it pissed the crap out of me, it's ridiculous, I get that they are trying to provide incentive to keep you going through the level but it's too cryptic too have to collect every note over and over again just because you made one small mistake, and if they wanted to do this why not take the notes away after you lose all your life's at least that would be a little more fair, and Rare knows they screwed up with this because in the HD remakes you don't lose them at all.
Once you get to the end of the game you must defeat Gruntilda in a trivia game, yeah really inspirational segment huh, well you know Gruntilda's sister, that is always hiding somewhere throughout the game well that useless information she always tells you is actually not useless because there are some squares that you will have to have her information, who would honestly want to talk to her to figure this stuff out. The trivia wouldn't be that bad if it wasn't so cryptic why does it have to be so long they couldn't have made it shorter. After that they tease you that the game is over and you go through a long credit sequence, this was my first time playing the game, so when I saw this I thought the game was over, this is a joke what was the point of this they could save this till the ending credits. After that you must defeat Gruntilda for real and it's an alright boss battle and then after that you will beat the game and get a boring ending that's nothing special.
While there are so many flaws in this game, there was some potential for this game to be good, every level is memorable, they have got these special charms about them, but they are lost because they are so frustrating due to all these flaws in the game, and the music is also really good in this game, but this is the only thing that I can really say is good about this game, there were so many parts where I was actually enjoying this game and all of a sudden I make one tiny little mistake like falling from too high because of a faulty camera angle and then it all turns to hell. That's my biggest gripe with this game it could be good but it just teases you most of the time. Look if you like Banjo Kazooie that's great, good for you, but I just can't see what you see in it, so if you want a rip me a new one go right ahead but it's just my opinion of this game.
Overall maybe why people overlook this games flaws is the same reason I overlook Donkey Kong 64's flaws, because they grew up with it and they got use to it and it's special to them and that's fine I'm not trying to put people down because they like this game, I am talking about my experience though and this is honestly just what I felt, feel free to disagree with me, but I just didn't like this one.