Simply phenomenal. A marvelous display of textures done right, with no slowdown and vast areas. The characters have personality and animate fluidly through a very detailed world. Some might complain about the cutesy look, but that's no reason to subtract points. The visuals were great when the game first came out, and they still compete with the newest N64 releases.
	The object of the game is to get to the top of Grunty's Castle. Luckily, it's not that cut and dry. You must collect Jiggie pieces (puzzle pieces) and musical notes in the levels to unlock new courses and areas of the castle. You get these by traversing the levels and solving puzzles and defeating enemies. There are tons of ways to get a hold of the little buggers, and it never really gets all that monotonous at all. Some complain that it's "too much collecting," but I say "bah" to them. It's fun, dammit!
	Banjo-Kazooie's music can be best described as "dynamic." The same song plays throughout a level, but the instrumentation and tempo changes on the fly depending upon where you are in the level. It's very well done. As for sound effects, it's the usual whoops, bangs, and bonks that we've all grown to expect from a Rare game. Plus, each character has it's own unique garbled voice. Keep in mind, this includes all non-player characters and items. That's a lot of different voices. Bravo.
	Decidedly cutesy, but very well done. The whole game has a cartoonish attitude to it, and everything is light hearted. Menus are very easy to understand, and your entire inventory is shown on one screen. A very tight package.
	Very nice overall, but there are a few pitfalls. Swimming and flying are somewhat shabbily done, and it takes a very long time to correct any mistakes. Plus, the camera gets stuck occasionally, giving you a less than adequate view of your surroundings. Other than that, though, the characters control superbly.
	Once you've beaten the game, there isn't much else to do. You can't go back and fight any of the big enemies, or even complete any of the big objectives. There's no multiplayer, so BT falls short in that respect as well. So why the hell am I giving it a 9.0 in this category? Simple. The future interaction with Banjo-Tooie will bring gamers back to a 3 year old game and possibly help them rediscover how much fun they had playing it the first time. I'm just wowed by the whole situation in general.
	Banjo-Kazooie received far too much comparison to Mario 64. Factions formed, and gamers either loved or hated the game, based solely on its similarities to Mario. That, in my opinion, is simply ludicrous. Mario is a 3D "platformer," while Banjo-Kazooie is a 3D "adventure" game. I recently whipped out Mario and noticed how different the gameplay was from BK. The emphasis is on jumping and maneuvering through the levels, while BK is based upon the exploration of each level and the completion of certain objectives. Either way, I think that Banjo is a worthy companion to Mario, rather than an alternative. People have complained about its cutsey look, but in the grand scheme of things, who gives a damn? It's fun! And in the end, that's all that matters. Review by Cory Faller