Banjo Kazooie Switch Review – Rare in Peak Form

Before being under Microsoft’s umbrella, Rare was a powerhouse for Nintendo, especially in the Nintendo 64 era. They made terrific titles like Goldeneye, Conkers Bad Fur Day, Jet Force Gemini, and Donkey Kong 64. One franchise that helped the N64 was Rare’s Banjo Kazooie. After releasing for the Nintendo 64 in 1998, it was also re-released onto the Xbox 360 and Xbox One.

Nintendo recently brought it to the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion service, so is it the best version of the game? How is the emulation? Let’s dive in and find out.

The story of Banjo Kazooie is simple. Grunty, a witch, asks her cauldron who is the best looking, and the pot comes back saying there is a bear named Tooty. Grunty then goes and kidnaps her. Enter Banjo the Bear and Kazooie the bird, who is now on a quest to Gunty’s lair to save Banjo’s poor sister.

While this simplistic story is very in line with your familiar Mario storyline, it works. There isn’t anything outstanding here as the story works primarily to get you from one world to another. Still, each character in Banjo Kazooie has a lot to them, like the fact that Grunty only speaks in rhyme or whenever you talk to Bottles, the mole who is blind but always is making fun of Kazooie. Each character seems fleshed out, and all of them are genuinely funny for the most part.

To travel to different worlds in Banjo Kazooie is a lot like how it works in Mario 64, except here you need to complete pictures with puzzle pieces you have collected from other worlds. How you get deeper in Grunty’s lair is by collecting musical notes in each level that let you open up doors to more worlds.

Each level in Banjo and Kazooie varies wildly from a pirate cove to Egyptian deserts to even a Christmas-themed level. All these stages show a great diversity in how each jiggy (jigsaw pieces) needs to be collected, usually a few that need to be collected using that level’s new ability taught to Banjo and Kazooie by Bottles.

For the most part, this is good, and it keeps the game from getting stale, although a few skills have not aged well in the control department. Specifically, Kazooie’s flight ability with no option for inverting and non-inverting the controls feels clumsy and rough while aiming eggs. This can be a nightmare since you can rotate once you are in the position to shoot eggs. Still, the rotation seems like you can only spin 90 degrees once your planted, making nailing those precision shots nearly impossible. Otherwise, the platforming still feels excellent and polished with all accompanying abilities like the chicken walk or glide aiding greatly.

In addition to collecting musical notes or Jiggys, there are a few other collectible items in each level. For example, Jinjos are one that if you can find and collect the 5 Jinjos, you are rewarded with a Jiggy and Mumbo tokens. Furthermore, once you have collected enough, they can be used in one of the few Mumbo huts located in certain levels to be transformed into other creatures like an Ant or a Walrus, to name a few.

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The emulation on the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion service has been an issue since its launch, with some titles being great and playable to others being more of a disaster. Last month’s release of Paper Mario was a markedly improved experience over the previous releases, and Banjo and Kazooie almost set it back. However, there is a bit of input lag, and the controller scheme does not feel good in certain situations. 

Overall, Banjo and Kazooie still hold up in a lot of ways. The music, gameplay, and humor are still shining examples of what Rare was putting out in the Nintendo 64 era.

Unfortunately, the controls can feel awkward at times, and there seems to be a bit of input lag on later levels, especially with a lot going on. Nevertheless, Banjo and Kazooie is still a lot of fun, and I think it is worth playing… just not here on the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion, preferably. Hopefully The Legend of Zelda: Majoras Mask, my favorite game in the franchise, can work out these minor issues.