Banjo-Tooie

About Banjo-Tooie

Banjo-Tooie (2000) is Rare's sequel to Banjo-Kazooie, in which the bear and bird take on Gruntilda and her two sisters across larger, more puzzle-focused worlds, with four-player minigames.

Banjo-Tooie in Depth

Banjo and Kazooie return to stop the witch Gruntilda and two of her sisters, who plan to vaporise the inhabitants of the game's island. Like its predecessor it is a third-person 3D platformer that carries over most of Banjo-Kazooie's mechanics, but its worlds are much larger and place more emphasis on puzzle-solving, alongside jumping obstacles, collecting items and defeating opponents. Challenges and exploration reward collectables that open later challenges and worlds.

The golden jigsaw pieces called Jiggies still open new worlds, but instead of hunting for incomplete puzzle boards in the overworld, players bring them to a single board in a temple belonging to Master Jiggywiggy, which can be used once enough Jiggies have been collected, followed by a timed puzzle challenge. A multiplayer mode lets up to four players compete in minigames taken from the campaign, and the game supports a widescreen format. Critics praised its graphics and the size of its worlds but criticised its inconsistent frame rate. GameRevolution found it less repetitive than Donkey Kong 64 and a worthy successor, and Nintendo Power called it "the perfect cross between Donkey Kong 64 and Banjo-Kazooie".

Making Banjo-Tooie

Rare developed it and Nintendo published it for the Nintendo 64 in 2000. Several new features were cut because of time and hardware limits. It sold 1.49 million copies worldwide by 2008, and later appeared on Xbox Live Arcade in 2009 via a 4J Studios port, in Rare Replay in 2015 and on Nintendo Classics in 2024, its first re-release on a Nintendo console.