Time to Bear Up: RARE REPLAYS

FINALLY
The last of my first five video game remakes blog posts is in the process of being completed! I thought I had already hit this goal, but I was actually looking at my side-tangent post, so I've got one more post that I nearly forgot.

TITLE: Rare Replay: Banjo-Kazooie, Banjo-Tooie

Old...New!

Uh-oh! The bear and bird! Subjects of a life-time! The greatest 3D platformers of all time! Okay, maybe they're not ALL that, but they are really great. I loved these games when they first came out, played them both into the ground. Sadly, I never beat them. Some issues presented themselves and I never made it to the final levels. Since then I've tried emulation of the games once or twice, but really emulation is terrible. When the opportunity presents itself I'll have to play right through them in the Rare Replay pack, along with trying out some of the other games.

I think I'm just too much of a fan-boy for Banjo and Kazooie, supposedly the third game in the main series, Nuts-n-Bolts was a complete mess, but I honestly really enjoyed it. I was upset that the game wasn't a straight platformer, but the vehicles and their customization did add some very different experiences into the game. Plus, there was some semi-platforming going on, in the cheating one could perform anyway.

But seriously, these original games were brilliant, taking the format of Super Mario 64's success and reproducing it with an entirely new cast, new mechanics, and a...new...plot, Banjo-Kazooie stormed the N64 and basically owned it. Rare Replay brings back a lot of successes created by Rare as well. Unfortunately, since Nintendo owns the rights to Donkey Kong, what we don't get in Rare Replay, despite massive success, is Donkey Kong Country, and the Donkey Kong 64 game. Too bad really, those would really top off an amazing list.

Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie have delightful soundtracks that really stick out on their home console, and their graphics aren't nearly as terrible as you'd expect, but, with the Rare Replay update even those graphics are refined. Their gameplay is far more innovative than Super Mario 64, introducing a series of maneuvers utilizing the team's unique abilities, and the the second game only further expands on this!

Anyways...yeah, really looking forward to eventually ripping through these games!