Банджо и Казуи: Приключение на Nintendo 64

1998 video game

Banjo Kazooie is a 1998 platform game developed by Rare and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. Controlling the player characters, the bear Banjo and the bird Kazooie, the player attempts to save Banjo's kidnapped sister Tooty from the witch Gruntilda. The player explores nine nonlinear worlds to gather items and progress. Using Banjo and Kazooie's traversal and combat abilities, they complete challenges such as solving puzzles, jumping over obstacles, and defeating bosses. Rare conceived Banjo Kazooie as a role playing video game, Dream, for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System following the completion of Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest (1995). The 15 member team, led by Gregg Mayles, transitioned development to the Nintendo 64 and retooled the game as a platformer after the role playing format proved too complex. Banjo Kazooie was inspired by Super Mario 64 (1996) and designed to appeal to a broad audience, similar to Walt Disney Animation Studios films. Grant Kirkhope composed the soundtrack; Banjo Kazooie was one of the first games to feature vertical remixing, where various sound layers fade in and out depending on the player's location. Released in North America in late June 1998 and in Europe the following month, Banjo Kazooie sold over three million copies, making it one of the bestselling Nintendo 64 games. It received acclaim from critics, who said it surpassed Super Mario 64 as the best 3D platform and adventure game. They praised the visuals, soundtrack, characters, writing, humour, and level design, but criticised the lack of originality and the camera. Banjo Kazooie received numerous year end accolades, including two from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences: "Console Action Game of the Year" and "Outstanding Achievement in Art/Graphics". In retrospect, Banjo Kazooie is considered one of Rare's best games and among the best Nintendo 64 games. It spawned a series which includes two sequels, Banjo Tooie (2000) and Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts (2008), and two spin offs, Grunty's Revenge (2003) and Banjo Pilot (2005). Following Microsoft's 2002 acquisition of Rare, 4J Studios developed a port for the Xbox 360 in 2008, later included in the Xbox One compilation Rare Replay in 2015. It was released on the Nintendo Switch for Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack subscribers in 2022, marking its first rerelease on a Nintendo console.

Banjo Kazooie is a single player platform game where the player controls the titular protagonists, an easy going brown honey bear named Banjo and a troublemaking female red crested "Breegull" Kazooie, from a third person perspective. The game features nine three dimensional worlds where the player must gather musical notes and jigsaw puzzle pieces, called Jiggies, to progress. Banjo and Kazooie are also aided by Gruntilda's sister, Brentilda, who provides information about the witch needed to defeat her, and Mumbo Jumbo, a shaman who used to be Gruntilda's teacher. As development progressed, the boy was considered by the developers to be generic; thus he was replaced by a rabbit for "two or three days," then a bear who wore a backpack, sneakers, and cap. Similar to the barrels in Donkey Kong Country, Banjo would have used balls from a variety of sports, such as a football, baseball, soccer ball, bowling ball, basketball, and a water filled ballon, that could be powered up by a balloon inflator, football boot, football helmet, and baseball glove. The enemy parts and hub map were also taken from the 1994 SNES platformer. Although the game was 3D, the sprites were flat and rendered from a perspective above them. They found executing this convincingly too complicated, such as when the camera angle shifted which would results in sprites interweaving. As Sutherland described the philosophy of the shift in plans, "Although we had a lot less polygons, we could still imbue some character into the characters and the world, even though that left us with a much smaller polygon count."