Originally under the development title of "Project Dream," Banjo-Kazooie was Rare's first venture into the 3d platforming venue. The only other true competition at the time was Nintendo's own Super Mario 64. Banjo had some mighty big shoes to fill, yet amazingly enough, many now consider it to be on par with the jolly plumber in every way. And who could blame them?

First off, Banjo-Kazooie sports some of the most fantastic visuals on the N64 to date. It's not especially the polygonal models or lighting - it's the textures that set this game apart. The worlds and characters are fantastically detailed, especially in places like Clanker's Cavern, where you experience the insides of a giant shark firsthand. But the textures aren't the only things that make this game soar visually. Water transparency effects are gorgeous. Interestingly enough, BK's water effects are better than those of Donkey Kong 64. The textures are better too. Kinda makes you wonder what the DK64 team was doing all that time, eh? But enough of that. This isn't a Donkey Kong review.

The greatest part about the graphics is that I've never seen them slow down the system. You can look far into the distance and nothing's fogged out as you smoothly gaze from side to side. It's something that isn't seen in many video games on the 64. Partially responsible is the fact that all non-background objects can't bee seen unless you're a certain distance from them. This lowers the poly-count when you look around, making everything all that more smoother.

Another thing BK's got going for it is the music. Forget the fact that it's all really catchy and entertaining (the overworld theme is a parody of "Teddy Bear's Picnic"). The real kicker is that it's dynamic. This means that as you move from one place to the next in a level, the music won't stop and change - it'll just smoothly change the instrumentation. A happy version of a song could become ominous as you approach something dangerous. It's something that streaming CD music simply couldn't do, and is one of the beauties of midi.

Banjo-Kazooie starts out with Banjo the bear and Kazooie the breegull (some sort of bird� don't ask�) going on a quest to save Banjo's little sister, Tootie. As you leave Banjo's house, you can't do anything but jump. No rolling, no attacking� just jump. Then Bottles the mole pops in. As you progress through the game, he teaches you all your moves. Some objectives can't be completed until you learn an attack later on, so it makes for some interesting depth. The area outside Banjo's house is a glorified training arena for your new moves. Most are the basic jump, roll, and butt smash that you might finding Mario 64, but some of the more interesting ones have Banjo and Kazoooie working together. Kazooie lives in Banjo's backpack (!?) and can attack with eggs and such from within. It's all very inventive.

Once you're done outside, you go into Gruntilda's Castle, the game's overworld. From here you can access all of the levels, much like Peach's Castle in Mario 64. The overworld itself is huge beyond belief, and dwarfs most levels. There's an overall sense of mystery as you go through the place, as many things seem to lead to places that you can't get to yet. You collect two integral items in the game, which are used to access parts of the overworld. Jiggy pieces are puzzle pieces that you use to unlock the levels in the overworld. There are a total of 100 in the game. Musical notes are used to unlock the note doors that block parts of Grunty's castle. There are 100 of them in each level. You have to keep track of these thingies if you want to get anywhere in the game.

The levels themselves are quite impressive. You find yourself in many different locales, ranging from deserts to pirate coves to the guts of a gigantic mechanical shark. The objectives in each level are to get the jiggies and notes that you need to unlock the next level. It sounds mundane at first, but the methods for getting jiggies are quite entertaining. You have to solve puzzles, outwit enemies, help other characters, find Jinjos, and transform into other creatures (with the help of the always tenacious Mumbo Jumbo) to get what you need. It never really gets boring at all. My favorite level by far is Click Clock Wood. It's a forest based around a giant tree, and the four seasons come and go as you progress. The environment for each season is the same, but the contents of the level change appropriately. For example, you feed a baby bird worms throughout the seasons, and watch it grow up and fly away. You plant a seed in the spring, it grows into a giant flower in the summer, and it dies in the winter. A beehive is tiny in the spring, you can go in it in the summer, the bees are preparing for the winter in the fall, and when winter comes, the hive is wreckage. I think you get the picture. It's entertaining as all hell.

Every once in a while, Grunty will pop up and say something nonsensical to your bear/bird duo. She's usually mocking your attempts, but sometimes there are some pretty funny comments in there. Sexual innuendo, potty mouth� the blokes over at Rare really had fun with this game. At the end, you beat Grunty's game show, rescue Tootie, watch the credits, and then someone realizes that they never actually fought Grunty! So back into the game you go. Hehe� in the real ending, you can see Mumbo Jumbo barbecuing Banjo's fish. Then a woman walks by holding two big melons in front of her chest. It's all hilarious.

And speaking of the ending, there's one more thing I have to mention. After the credits roll, Mumbo will reward you with a glimpse of things to come if you got all 100 Jiggies. Apparently, the sequel, Banjo-Tooie, will interface with BK in some way, unlocking secrets that are buried deep within the first game. In my opinion, that's absolutely ingenious. It's a great way to extend the replay of the game. However, no one knows how the interface will work. I guess we'll just have to wait and see�

The Bad...