EDITOR’S NOTE: It would probably be beneficial to have played Banjo Kazooie on the Nintendo 64 in order to put this review into proper context. It’s not a review of the old title, but the remake, so I don’t go into great detail about the game itself. Instead, I focus on the quality of the remake, but just in case: Banjo is a bear who carries a bird (Kazooie) in his backpack. The game is largely comparable to Super Mario 64, due to its one mega-level and branching sub-levels. Throughout the game, you collect puzzle pieces and music notes to unlock new areas. There are other characters, like Mumbo Jumbo, a witch doctor who can transform Banjo and Kazooie into various absurdities. There’s also Gruntilda, the big bad witch who stole your sister Tooty in order to make herself look more beautiful. At the end of the game, if you collect all 100 jiggies, you are teased with an ice key and some eggs which (seemingly) have no purpose. Finally, there is no lava level.

At long last, one of my adulthood dreams has come true. Banjo Kazooie has been remastered and the kid inside me couldn’t be more pleased with the light-hearted romp, now presented with oh-so-pretty high definition graphics. The vibrant colors do a lot to detract from the somewhat underwhelming textures, and the gameplay mechanics haven’t changed a bit. Roaming Gruntilda’s lair with the comfortability of the Xbox 360 controller provides the all-too-familiar Nintendo 64 experience but may end up fooling your friends into thinking Bubblegloop Swamp is a stage straight out of Nuts & Bolts – the bear and bird’s latest outing.

It’s true that remakes can become tiresome after all the minor tweaks and additions and other assorted forms of classic brutalizing of nostalgic titles. “Yeah, here’s a remake of Super Mario 64, but in this version, you can play as Yoshi!” Awesome, right? “Well, you can also play as Luigi!” Get right outta town, guy! What else? “Wario is a playable character! Oh and select stars are now character specific… And there are more of them. Also there are more of those golden rabbits everybody loved so much… Yeah!” That’s about where my Super Mario 64 DS disinterest set in. For some people, it’s awesome to have a punched up version of a childhood favorite, but that’s not what I’m in to.

What I wanted was Banjo Kazooie, ripped straight from its beefy N64 cartridge and served up to the Xbox Live Marketplace as is. That’s one front the powers that be had no problem delivering on, so what makes this revisit worth the cash? Well, to be completely honest, if you disagree with my sentiments about injecting old titles with steroids so that they fit in with the rest of today’s more chaotic complexities, save your money. For all you old-fashioned types who can appreciate the “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it” rule of thumb, you’ll still need to be a pretty die-hard fan to throw down 800 MS points. Don’t get me wrong; the game is as great as it was over ten years ago. The tricky-to-navigate main area branches off to the same (un)discoverable areas, wherein you’ll place your collected puzzle pieces to unlock new worlds and progress towards the notoriously absurd endgame gameshow and subsequent appearance of the almighty Jinjonator.

Alas, somehow, traversing levels like Freeze Easy Peak and Gobi’s Valley felt more constricted than it did when I was twelve. Of course this is due to fast progress and exponentially larger areas to explore in present-day games, but still, I didn’t get the full experience I was hoping for until I stopped playing. That’s when the urge kicked in, and my gripes flew out the window as my desire to get back in the game entered my front door. Some jiggies may be easier to nab now that you’ve acquired years of knowledge and practice with the latest and greatest video games, but I can guarantee you’ll experience moments of frustration. That’s because Banjo Kazooie, at times, can be likened to Super Mario 64 in terms of how demanding it can be. Banjo Kazooie implores you to be skillful to the point of platforming mastery if it’s your desire to seek out every last collectible. So it’s not necessarily the game that will frustrate you, but how rusty you’ve gotten over the years.

The fact that Banjo Kazooie is shy of any major improvements or changes doesn’t mean there are no subtle differences between the N64 and Xbox 360 versions. For starters, completionists and sufferers of the dreaded OCD will actually be rewarded for collecting all jiggies and music notes with a gamer picture and an achievement, respectively. I have to admit, the achievements are really what drove me to complete this game in its entirety. As a kid, I managed to grab all the puzzle pieces without issue, but those damned honeycomb pieces always managed to elude me. I could comb over an entire level, sure I had check every nook and cranny, only to be disappointed by the “0/2″ on my totals screen. This time around, proper motivation enabled me to locate all but two of the little buggers. GameFAQs.com helped me find the rest.

If you enjoyed the egg-shooting, red feather flying, eyeball-poking rat-a-tat rapping extravaganza that was Banjo Kazooie on the Nintendo 64, treat yourself to a few good memories, and expect to create at least a dozen more. Rare’s sense of humor hasn’t deviated far from its roots, and believe it or not, after all these years, they haven’t forgotten about the legendary ice key or secret eggs. Years ago, after an intensely disappointing end to a fantastic Nintendo 64 game, I wondered why the developers would bother waving such a meaty steak in front of my face if they weren’t going to let me take a bite. I’m happy to say that the wait was entirely worth it, and now, with a Nuts & Bolts save game, you’ll be able to make use of those infamous snatchables. Now that I think about it, I’m genuinely shocked that this issue was fixed without a trace of different movesets or new levels. Truly this iteration of Banjo Kazooie can be considered 100% complete, and it’s definitely worth sharing with any rug rats you have gallivanting about the house.