Banjo-Tooie

Banjo-Tooie is the second game in the Banjo-Kazooie series and is the sequel to Banjo-Kazooie. Development for the game started even before the original Banjo-Kazooie was released. The game was developed by Rare and released 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 game introduced some darker elements to the series, such as the death of Bottles.

Plot
On a dark and stormy night, two years after Gruntilda's defeat, Banjo, Kazooie, Bottles, and Mumbo Jumbo are playing poker together at Banjo's House. Meanwhile, Klungo continues his ongoing two-year effort to free Gruntilda's now-rotten corpse from beneath the boulder that crushed her in the previous game. Suddenly, Spiral Mountain experiences tremors like that of an earthquake, which disrupt Banjo and friends' 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".

Differences in game play from Banjo-Kazooie

 * 1) In this game, enemies actually respawn after a set amount of time passes.
 * 2) In this game, Banjo and Kazooie have infinite lives, as opposed to having to find Banjo statues in the first game.
 * 3) There are no Note Doors. Musical Notes are instead used to learn new moves from Jamjars.
 * 4) All of the notes are found in nests. Excluding Treble Clefs, they all have a value of 5.
 * 5) All of the Eggs and Feathers are found in nests in (excluding Clockwork Kazooie Eggs) multiple amounts.
 * 6) As opposed to the original way of opening new worlds, which was simply filling up jigsaw puzzles located at random locations, you now have to actually complete the jigsaw picture.
 * 7) There is at least one move to learn in each world.
 * 8) Instead of using color coded cauldrons to travel higher in the tower, you now have to use silos which all interconnect.
 * 9) There are now warps to help you travel from area to area inside worlds.
 * 10) Once you beat the boss in it, you can use Chuffy the train to travel between worlds and areas.
 * 11) Mumbo's Skull is in every level (except Cauldron Keep) and Isle O' Hags.
 * 12) You now have to collect Glowbos instead of Mumbo Tokens.
 * 13) You can now control Mumbo Jumbo outside of his skull once you give him a Glowbo.
 * 14) All of Banjos transformations are able to defend themselves, as opposed to the one in Kazooie.
 * 15) In each level of this game there is a boss.
 * 16) The levels are more connected than before, you would have to complete an objective in one level to get a Jiggy from another level, and in most levels it is impossible to get all the Jiggies in one go.
 * 17) The games graphics has greatly improved since the first game.
 * 18) All worlds are twice the size the ones from Banjo Kazooie.

Main Characters

 * Banjo the Bear - The game's hero, a honey bear wearing yellow shorts and blue backpack he is always ready for adventure and happy to help people out.
 * Kazooie the Breegull - A rude and sarcastic female red-crested breegull who resides in Banjo's backpack and helps out Banjo and others at times.
 * Gruntilda Winkybunion - The game's villain who has gotten revenge on Banjo and Kazooie and with her machine plans to suck the life out of many innocent characters.
 * Mumbo Jumbo - A friend of Banjo and Kazooie, Mumbo will help out the duo with his magical powers.
 * Humba Wumba - A new character introduced in the game and the rival of Mumbo, Humba will help the two by transforming them into many different transformations.
 * Bottles the Mole - Friend of Banjo and Kazooie, he was killed in the start of the game by Grunty and it is the duo's job to revive him.
 * Drill Sergeant Jamjars - Bottles' brother, Jamjars can teach Banjo and Kazooie new moves for the game if paid enough Musical Notes.
 * Klungo - Gruntilda's henchman, he assists Grunty in various things and fights the two heroes three times throughout the game.
 * Mingella Winkybunion - One of Gruntilda's sisters, she and Blobbelda built the Big-O-Blaster. By using her spellbook, she also removed the rock from which Grunty was under in the start of the game.
 * Blobbelda Winkybunion - Grunty's sister, she and Mingella built B.O.B.
 * Master Jiggywiggy - An ally of the duo, can open new game worlds if given enough Jiggies.
 * King Jingaling - King of all Jinjos, was turned into a zombie by Gruntilda very early in the game.
 * Targitzan - Boss of World 1.
 * Old King Coal - Boss of World 2, also the train conductor who helps Banjo and Kazooie travel around worlds.
 * Mr. Patch - Boss of World 3.
 * Lord Woo Fak Fak - Boss of World 4.
 * Terry - Boss of World 5.
 * Weldar - Boss of World 6.
 * Chilli Billi - One of the two bosses in World 7 (Lava).
 * Chilly Willy - One of the two bosses in World 7 (Ice).
 * Mingy Jongo - Boss of World 8.
 * Hag 1 - Final boss of the game in Cauldron Keep.

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 framerate speed issues 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

Banjo-Tooie was nominated for many awards - including a nomination for the "Moving Images Award" at the 2000 BAFTA award ceremony, and was also nominated for "Console Action/Adventure Game of the Year", "Console Game of the Year", and "Game of the Year" at the 2001 Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences awards.

Xbox Live Arcade
Rare announced that an Xbox Live Arcade version of Banjo-Tooie would be released on April 29, 2009. Just as with Banjo-Kazooie, the XBLA version of Banjo-Tooie features minor graphical refinements as well as increased screen resolution. The "original plan" of including Stop 'N' Swop was also 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. A trailer for Banjo-Tooie was added to the Xbox Live Marketplace on April 10. The video, entitled "Happy Easter Banjo-Tooie" shows more of the game's Stop 'N' Swop features with Heggy and the eggs. It was released with gamer pictures featuring the six eggs and ice key, including three new eggs: silver, brown, and orange. On April 11, a premium theme was also released.

The game has also introduced Stop 'n' Swop II, using the N64 cartridges and other methods. It has been suggested that these are for use in Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, but nothing is fully confirmed as yet.