If you need your nostalgic fix look no further
I'm not going to go into the game much here, if you want a more detailed review check out the review of the origianl on the N64. (http://uk.gamespot.com/n64/action/banjokazooie/player_review.html?id=687584&tag=contributions;review4) In this review I shall be covering what has changed as this isn't just a port, they certianly could have done but there are a few noticable changes.
But there are those of you who can't be bothred to copy and paste my link and read through it so here is a quick summary. A evil witch named Gruntilda has stolen Banjo's sister Tooty because Grunty want's Tootys good looks and with the help of her assistant Klungo she hopes to get them. So Banjo & Kazooie must travel through 10 diffrent worlds in order to reach Grunty and "Peck some witch butt!".
In each world you will find Musical Notes, Jiggys, Red Feathers, Gold Feathers, Eggs, Mumbo Tokens, Jingo's, Empty Honeycomb Pieces and many more varoius random objects which need to be collected in order to advance your way through Grunty's Lair. You also pick up new moves and you also can be turned into diffrent creatures which can be used to get more collectables. So yes that about sums it up, the game is lighthearted and very enjoyable, one of the best platformers back then. So what's changed?
Well the first thing you'll notice is the graphics, they have been slightly improved and HDified. They are crisper and brighter aswell and most of the collectables and creatures have new sprites. It makes the game look very clear cut and is a nice improvement over the original which looked good anyway. Drawback distance has also been dramatically imrproved, you can see items from a while away which can be quite usefull as before you would have to go right up to ito see if you had collected it or not. The music has also been slightly altered and sounds better because of it, the voice acting noise is still here and I know alot of people don't like it but I think it gives it it's own charm. So presentation wise its had a good improvement. However even if it is HD you still can't get rid of some of the games ugly textures.
Now the controls do take some getting used to, but thats only due to the controller layout compared to the original N64 controller, and things like swimming have been reverserd control wise which can be annyoying when you want to swim to the bottom of the water but instead you touch surface. Thankfully the dialogue has been altered to it shows the Xbox controlls not the N64's.
The game features some minor gameplay changes such as there are a few more Mumbo Token's and a few items have changed position. Musical Notes also stay gone once they have been collected, so if you say collect 50 notes, then die, you won't have to worry about collecting those 50 again. They ovoiusly thought that the game would be too challenging for todays gamers, it does make it easier but it does lose some of the challenge because of it making it alot easier and dying becomes an easy trip back to the start of the leval if you need to get to that side of the world. There are also some achivements to be picked up here, quite easy and can be all collected in just over 6 hours.
The infamous Stop & Swap Feature is actully in the game, I don't think I need to explain the feature as It is widely known. Anyway if you have a save file for Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts you can begin collecting the eggs and ice key as soon as you begin, no codes are needed as Sharkfood island is already rose etc. Once you collect them you can then get special blueprints and parts for Nuts and Bolts. You can also carry them on over to the XBLA Banjo-Tooie, but more on that in another review. All in all its good to see this feature being used.
They certianly have improved the game quite a good old chunk there, even if they improved nothing I still would have reccomended it. It shows that these collectable games really did used to be this days Modern Shooter, but somewhere along the line people lost interest in favour of shooters and racers and sandbox games. But this game really is a timeless classic and can still be enjoyed today, it's aged well. If you need your nostalgic fix look no further.
Thanks for reading :)