Banjo Kazooie Arcade Mini Review - Same Same but Shiny

Feature from Samo - Friday, 16 January 2009 @ 1:42am

In between all the festivities, traveling and the ups and downs (my venerable old computer which has served me dutifully for the last 5 years finally kicked the bucket) of the last couple of weeks, I've managed to fit in broken spats of play with the original Banjo Kazooie, Rare's magnum opus reborn on Xbox 360 Arcade.

That's not a knife!!

I approached it with trepidation, questions of doubt circling in my mind. Will Rare faithfully reproduce the old game? How will the old N64 controls translate to the Xbox 360 controller? Have I got enough beer in the fridge to make it through a full 100% level completion?

Sweeet! Notes!!

I think all my doubts were gone in less than 10 seconds of play at the good ol' Spiral Mountain training ground. There it was, fitting beautifully like an old pair of jeans that had just been through the wash, Banjo Kazooie in full 1080 HD glory. The textures were clearly a higher res than the old game to make the game viewable in the HD age but otherwise everything is pretty much exactly the same as it always was.

The controls are beautifully mapped out on the xbox 360 controller and if I was forced to draw conclusion would say that it almost feels even more fluid than it did back in the day. The soundtrack still deserves special mention as it's still the catchiest soundtrack gaming has ever seen and I'll spend the next 4 years walking around whistling the Mumbos Mountain theme music.

If I have any criticism of it and I do, it's that in the old N64 version, level progess wasn't saved. If you wanted to find all 100 of those music notes, all five Jingos etc, you HAD to do it in one sitting. Now, if you're half way through a level and you leave it automatically saves your progress which on first thought is nice but in practice it rubs out some of the game's character and charm, it nullifies some of the challenge. But really, that's my one and only sticking point. Banjo Kazooie's gameplay still stands up against most current titles and even now I guarantee your 1200 points will buy you more than just one playthrough.

Watch out for old chop chop!

You might say 1200 points is a bit on the exxy side for an old game that really just needed its Nintendo logos wiped off for Microsoft ones or you could look at it as one of the greatest games of all time with a bit more polish on it sold at a bargain basement price. If you're like me and was a fan of BK back in the day, you likely fall into the latter group in which case your MS points will be well spent. One of the best, most fun, most tongue in cheek and most lovable games ever made now available in 1080p. What's not to like?