POTW: Choose your favourite Banjo

PALGN Feature | Or is it all just Mumbo Jumbo?

This week, the old Rare classic Banjo-Tooie is coming to the Xbox Live Arcade.

Following in the footsteps of the original 1998 hit Banjo-Kazooie, Banjo-Tooie saw the bear and bird return to tackle their old nemesis Gruntilda.

After their adventures on the Nintendo 64, Banjo and Kazooie struck back in two Game Boy Advance games, Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge and Banjo-Pilot. Interestingly, Grunty's Revenge was actually set in between the two N64 games. Banjo-Pilot was a stand-alone racing game, and one that some may say is best forgotten...

Bringing us up to date, only late last year we saw the duo return in a somewhat different guise, in Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts.

So where are we going with this? Simple. Tell us your favourite title in the Banjo series, huzzah!

The question's posed, it's really smart, standby for next week's great pie-chart!

Vote | View Results

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14 May, 2008 It really does sound rather unique.

19 Comments

Joseph

4 years ago

Glen wrote

The question's posed, it's really smart, standby for next week's great pie-chart!

Hahaha, I laughed at that. Someone's been paying attention to their Banjo quotes!

I went with the original Banjo-Kazooie. While I loved Tooie and Nuts & Bolts, the original will always have a special place in my heart simply because it set the characters and franchise.

Grunty's Revenge was a little meh to be honest. I enjoyed it, but it was very short. Haven't played Banjo Pilot, and I doubt I ever will.

Glen McLeod-Thorpe

4 years ago

It's all for you J, it's all for you!

Karai Pantsu

4 years ago

Banjo Kazooie, for the exact reasons given above by Joseph, with N&B coming in second I'd say. Never owned the game myself, but spent a good deal of time playing it with my cousin. Good times!

Buttmouth

4 years ago

Banjo-Kazooie.

It's still the only game in the franchise, right? I wonder if they'll ever make a sequel. If they did, I'm sure they'd only ruin it.

/jerk

I played through BK once a year since its release until last year when I sold my Nintendo 64. Still one of my favourite games of all time. Ch'yup!

DogMan

4 years ago

I really love Nuts and Bolts. Rare did an awesome job with it. Funnily enough I was never really worried about the '80% vehicles' gameplay, but I was freaking out over whether or not they'd get the humour right. When ever they make anything to do with Banjo I've always got this fear in the back of my mind that someone will decide smart (albeit crude) humour actually aimed at grown ups isn't mature enough, and they need to add your cliche hyper-active PG-bad-boy shill in order to make the real money. Banjo-Pootchie: Extreme Escape From Babe Mountain!
Luckily my paranoia was misplaced and N&B was funny from start to finish.

Still, I had to vote for the original. I got it Friday night after school, played it until 5AM, went to sleep, then woke up and next morning and played until it was done.

Spanca

4 years ago

I gave Tooie some love. It was at least as good as the original IMO and deserves recognition when BK is getting all the love at the moment.

So who's providing the free XBLA codes this time around?

Ken_Gooner

4 years ago

Banjo Kazooie is the only Banjo game I've ever really played. So it'll have to be that.

I'll probably download Banjo Tooie and see what that is like when I get a 360.

Still, Banjo Kazooie was incredible, I was five years old when I played that. Absolutely incredible game.

admeister

4 years ago

I've only played the first one properly, Tooie I've only played a small amount of. I'll definitely pick it up off the XBLA once it gets released, it's a good excuse to finally go through it. As for the other games, I'm with Buttmouth.

Mush Man

4 years ago

Edit (28/2/2011): This post was stupid. It is now removed.

sobriquet835

4 years ago

Am i supposed to have played a Banjo-kazooie game? I never have. Honestly, they have just never looked interesting.

unlachs

4 years ago

had to go with the original. tooie had some pretty awesome moments, but it had a lot of dud ones too.

never played the rest.

bobboblaw

4 years ago

I have to go with the original solely because it was the first game I ever bought myself. I remember back in 1998, there were TV ads for it nonstop, and I wanted to play it badly (and an N64 for that matter). For my B'day, I got given money from my grandparents, and my Mum took me to the shops, and I was the happiest kid alive when I picked up an N64 along with Banjo-Kazooie. Then we got home... this being 1998, the crappy TV I had didn't even have composite inputs, so I had to wait until we got an RF Unit. Anyway, I did go off on a tangent. BK will always be a favourite of mine, I would've played it at least a few dozen times, I can still remember where every jiggy, music note and jingo etc is.

Besides, Treasure Trove Cove is the best level out of the Banjo games. Lens Flare!

Benza

4 years ago

I went Nuts and Bolts, I used to love the original but after playing it again on x-box arcade it's just not as great as I rememberd.

I don't think it aged that well.

Infested Jibbs

4 years ago

Yeah, well i don't think you aged well.

BURN.

Banjo 1 ftw, tooie was good, but an unstable framerate(original), lacklustre locales(that sky level was the crap) and a total letdown with the ice key and stuff left a bitter aftertaste.Still good....but.

mrbign

4 years ago

Banjo Ka-WHO?-ee. I've been playing games for 20 years and I couldn't even tell you what sort of games they are or what Banjo is.

ObsoletE

4 years ago

i prefer the 6-string zither banjo personally. allows for much faster strumming, i ain't never lost a dual using one of these babies, and sounds just devine when i'm intimidating youths before i violate their innocence. yeehaw!

Buttmouth

4 years ago

bobboblaw wrote

I remember back in 1998, there were TV ads for it nonstop, and I wanted to play it badly (and an N64 for that matter). For my B'day, I got given money from my grandparents, and my Mum took me to the shops, and I was the happiest kid alive when I picked up an N64 along with Banjo-Kazooie. Then we got home... this being 1998, the crappy TV I had didn't even have composite inputs, so I had to wait until we got an RF Unit.

Aghhh. This exact story happened to me too!

Total glitch in the matrix.

I remember I was so annoyed that our TV was all crappy and old, but my sister just magically knew I'd need the RF Unit, and when she came to visit me she brought one with her.

Or maybe my Mum just called her and told her I was really upset.

Qbert

4 years ago

Banjo Kazooie for me. Didn't dig N&B and have yet to play Tooie but from many reports it's not as good as the first. And what are the other two, GBA games? Meh.