Banjo-Tooie

Banjo-Tooie is the sequel to Banjo-Kazooie. The game was again developed by Rare and came out for the Nintendo 64 in 2000. Banjo-Tooie takes place two years after Gruntilda was defeated by Banjo and Kazooie in the first game. In this game, Banjo and Kazooie have to stop Gruntilda's sisters, Mingella and Blobbelda, from restoring Gruntilda's body to its original form. This introduces darker elements to the series, such as the death of Bottles for example.

Plot
One dark night, two years after Grunty's defeat, Banjo, Bottles, Mumbo Jumbo and Kazooie are playing poker together at Banjo's house. Meanwhile, Klungo continues his ongoing two-year effort to free Gruntilda's now-rotten corpse from the boulder that crushed her in the previous game. Suddenly, Spiral Mountain experiences tremors, which disrupts the poker game. Mumbo goes to investigate, finding that the tremors were caused by Grunty's sisters, Mingella and Blobbelda, and their invention, the Hag 1. They use a spell to lift the rock off Grunty, but she comes out as nothing but a living skeleton with robes on. The Winkybunions and Klungo then plot to steal the life force from their enemies, namely, Banjo and Kazooie. Shocked, Mumbo bolts back to the house, with Grunty following, and warns Banjo, Kazooie and Bottles about the evil plot afoot. The bird and bear leave at once, but Bottles is skeptical, believing that Mumbo just wants to look at his cards. Mumbo leaves as he sees Grunty arriving. The witch throws a deadly spell at the humble home, taking Bottles with it. The witch sisters leave Spiral Mountain and move along to the Isle o' Hags, the game's hub-world. Banjo, Kazooie and Mumbo then observe the damaged state of Spiral Mountain, and realize what they must do.

The duo follow the Hag 1's tracks into a cave, encountering Klungo. After defeating Klungo, who leaves to be beaten up by Grunty, they move on to Jinjo Village, where the Hag 1 has also caused trouble. One of the ten Jinjo families (the grey ones) have been crushed by the Hag 1, along with their house. Banjo and Kazooie continue on, to find where the King of Jinjos, King Jingaling, resides. They warn him about Grunty's plot, and get a Jiggy to help with their adventure. Once the bird and bear leave, they discuss their problem, as Gruntilda and her sisters describe theirs in Cauldron Keep, their lair. The sisters introduced the B.O.B., Big O' Blaster, which can suck the life force out of any living thing. They intended to use it so that Grunty could restore her original form. Grunty decides to steal King Jingaling's life force, as he helped Banjo and Kazooie, and decides to deal with the rest of the Isle later. A beam is fired, making Jingaling's golden palace dead as a rock, and Jingaling into a zombie. Grunty reassures her sisters that with Bottles and Jingaling killed, Banjo has no hope of reaching Cauldron Keep in time. Banjo and Kazooie, still outside the palace and talking, see the beam narrowly missing them. They then realize that the situation is much more desperate then previously anticipated.

They move onto Bottle's house nearby, where his family are waiting for him. Kazooie has no problem telling the family about Bottle's death, but Banjo convinces her not to. Bottle's children open the passage for Banjo, so that he and Kazooie can continue on through the Isle O' Hags.

The two soon find the (closed) entrance to the first level, Mayahem Temple, and Master Jiggywiggy's temple. They learn that Jiggywiggy is a powerful sorcerer (with a Jiggy-shaped head), who will help them on their adventure (by opening worlds), but needs Jiggies to do so, as his race was cursed by Grunty, and cannot touch them. With the first Jiggy at hand, they can start, and Mayahem Temple is opened.

On their journey they collect a total of 90 Jiggies, and receive help from old and new friends. They often stumble upon Mumbo's hut, where he agrees to go out and use his magic to open up new passageways for them. They also encounter Drill Sergeant Jamjars, Bottles' army trooper like brother, who agrees to teach the duo new attacks (if, of course, they can present the proper number of musical notes). They also meet Humba Wumba, a female shaman and Mumbo's arch-rival. Who requests magical Glowbos in exchange for transforming Banjo and Kazooie into something else.

Finally, the pair reaches Cauldron Keep. After facing her henchman Klungo and taking her "Tower of Tragedy" quiz (where Grunty isn't afraid to kill off her sisters), they hurry upstairs to reverse the effects of B.O.B., thus reviving Bottles and Jingaling. They then rush to the top of the tower and face off with Grunty in her Hag 1 machine. The duo eventually destroy the Hag 1 with the witch trapped inside as it explodes. The explosion destroys most of her body, leaving her nothing more than a talking head. Banjo and Kazooie return to the Isle o' Hags to celebrate with their friends, as well as kicking around Grunty's head, much to her own disgust. She vows to have her revenge in the game's sequel, "Banjo-Threeie", now known as Nuts and Bolts.

Main Characters

 * Banjo the Bear
 * Kazooie the Breegull
 * Gruntilda Winkybunion
 * Mumbo Jumbo
 * Humba Wumba
 * Bottles the Mole
 * Drill Sergeant Jamjars
 * Klungo
 * Mingella Winkybunion
 * Blobbelda Winkybunion
 * Master Jiggywiggy
 * King Jingaling

Reception
Banjo-Tooie was critically and commercially successful upon the time of its release. The scores were consistently very high, rivaling its predecessor Banjo-Kazooie. IGN praised the multiplayer system and its characters but criticized the graphics for framespeed problems during certain points in the game.


 * GamePro - 4.5 of 5
 * GameSpot - 9.6 of 10
 * IGN - 9.4 of 10
 * Official Nintendo Magazine - 9.7 of 10
 * GameStats - 9.2 of 10
 * 1Up.com - 9.6 of 10

Xbox Live Arcade
Rare announced that an Xbox Live version of Banjo-Tooie will be released with a release window of April 2009. Just as with Banjo-Kazooie, the XBLA version of Banjo-Tooie will feature minor graphical refinements as well as increased screen resolution. The "original plan" of including Stop 'n' Swop will also be implemented. 4J Studios, the developer that worked on the Xbox Live Arcade version of the original Banjo-Kazooie game, was commissioned by Rare for the new version of Banjo-Tooie.