When I first experienced Banjo-Kazooie in 2023, I had absolutely no memory of the original release; therefore I approached the title entirely fresh and unbiased. What I was expecting, was a nice, nostalgic relic of the past of gaming, the type of game that is “good for its time” but that, when compared to today’s design standards, will likely feel old-fashioned. As opposed to my expectation, I found myself experiencing a game that is simply “good,” full stop. Even more significant, I developed a perception about how quickly the collectathon style of games immediately became worse after Banjo-Kazooie defined the prototype.
Since Banjo-Kazooie — and I mean literally every single collectathon that has been released since — added additional things to collect. Every game added additional items, additional worlds, additional complexity. They took Banjo-Kazooie as the example, thinking, “this works, so let’s add more.” No developer looked at Banjo-Kazooie, and said “the key to the successful design is that the number of collectibles should equal the available space and challenge level.” Additional collectibles does not equate to better design. Better design is better.
What Banjo-Kazooie Really Did
You are Banjo, a bear, and Kazooie, a bird that lives in his backpack. The witch Gruntilda has kidnapped your sister Tooty because she is vain and Tooty is prettier. Yes, that is actually the story line. Yes, that is a little silly. Yes, that was intentional. The game is not trying to take itself too seriously, and I think that is really great for a platformer.
The gameplay loop is simple – you have a hub world (Banjo-Kazooie’s house) that contains painting that serve as portals to different worlds. Each world includes a number of items to collect such as Jiggy pieces, musical notes, honeycombs, and Mumbo tokens. Collect enough Jiggies and you can unlock new worlds. Collect enough musical notes and you can unlock special areas in each world. The progression is limited enough to encourage exploration, but not so limited that you feel restricted.
The reason the collectathon economy is successful is due to how many Musical Notes are located throughout the game. Ten worlds contain 900 Musical Notes. At first glance that could appear to be tedious. However, finding Musical Notes never appears to be grinding because finding Musical Notes involves doing anything from obvious walking to solving puzzles or navigating through the world in a specific manner. Finding some Musical Notes is a reward for collecting all of the Jiggies in a particular world.
Each world is unique. Treasure Trove Cove is a beach with a pirate ship and underwater caverns. Clanker’s Cavern is a mechanical dungeon containing machines and gears. Gobi’s Valley is a desert with an Egyptian theme, including actual Sphinx that pose riddles. Dire-Dire-Docks is a water based world with submarines and underwater areas. Click-Clock-Wood is a seasonal world where you navigate the same geography, but face vastly different challenges in Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter.
The Design That Is Respectful Of Your Time
One of the most important aspects of Banjo-Kazooie that other collectathons lost sight of — is designing a game that respects the player’s time means providing the option for the player to choose what they want to collect, and not requiring the player to collect every last piece. There are no Jimjam pieces that must be collected. Musical Notes are optional. Honeycombs provide a slight advantage, but are also optional. While you can likely defeat the final boss with approximately 50-60% of the collectibles, collecting 100% will require a dedicated effort. Banjo-Kazooie never demanded you collect every single item to proceed to the next area.
In comparison to many collectathons that are released later, none of which actually allowed you to complete the final boss until you collected every single item, Banjo-Kazooie trusted that players would want to engage with the game’s content, and not because they needed to collect everything in order to continue progressing in the game.
The transition effects in Banjo-Kazooie are excellent. In each world you’ll find Mumbo the Shaman’s hut where you can spend your Mumbo tokens to transform into various animals. From a crocodile to a walrus to a pumpkin to a bee to a termite to a dragon, each animal has abilities that allow you to approach that world differently. The ability of the crocodile allows you to break cracked walls. The ability of the bee allows you to reach high places. The pumpkin is tiny and can fit through small openings. The abilities of the various animals in Banjo-Kazooie are not random, but rather solve specific problems in each world.
What impresses me from a design standpoint is how effectively Banjo-Kazooie utilizes its mechanics. Using the various animals to solve environmental puzzles, is not additional complexity, but rather a solution to those puzzles. The skills that Banjo learns (such as the various types of attacks and mobility maneuvers) are taught through level design, rather than through tutorials. You attempt something, it works, you move on. You attempt something else, it does not work, you figure out another way to do it.
The Charm Without Nostalgia
The humor in Banjo-Kazooie hits the mark without becoming annoying. The characters in Banjo-Kazooie have personalities. Banjo and Kazooie continually banter back-and-forth between themselves, but it is actually funny rather than grating. Gruntilda asks riddles and tells bad puns, and surprisingly, that is actually funny. Mumbo speaks in third-person (“Mumbo does this for Banjo”) and it is endearing. The British sense of humor is evident throughout the game.
This is important, as many modern games believe that charm is achieved through constant jokes and quips. Banjo-Kazooie understands that charm is generated through consistent behavior. The characters in Banjo-Kazooie behave consistently and naturally to who they are, and thus the humor is generated organically from their interactions. This is vastly different from games that are attempting to generate humor through constant breaks from reality or through reference to current pop culture.
The boss battles in Banjo-Kazooie are creative and fun. Clanker in his own world. Gobi the Camel. The Sphinx that provides riddles. Gruntilda’s final challenge that is essentially a trivia contest about everything you’ve learned in the game. None of the bosses are excessively difficult — they are challenging in the sense that they test if you truly understand the world you are in and the abilities you possess. Defeating the bosses is rewarding and enjoyable rather than frustrating.
The Technical Polish That Goes Unnoticed
The animation in Banjo-Kazooie is truly exceptional. Banjo’s idle animation demonstrates his personality — he is always moving, he becomes bored, he stretches. Kazooie responds to her environment. The transformation animations are extensive and clearly communicate exactly what is occurring. The enemies in Banjo-Kazooie have unique movement patterns that you can predict. The animation in Banjo-Kazooie is used to support game design, not merely to look visually appealing.
The sound design in Banjo-Kazooie is fantastic and largely unheralded. Each world in Banjo-Kazooie has unique music that sets the tone for that world without dominating it. The transformation sounds are unique to each transformation. The sounds made when collecting items are satisfying. The music for the boss battles is epic and fitting, yet not overly long. Sound design in platformers often goes unnoticed — players are unaware of how much they are learning about the game from the sound design.
The camera system is solid. It is not nearly as innovative as the camera system in Mario 64, but it performs very well with the levels it is designed to work with. You can manually control the camera and it will not fight against you. The targetting system for fighting is intuitive. The controls are responsive. These basic quality-of-life features that may seem obvious today, were implemented very well in 1998.
Why Later Collectathons Failed
The moment every collectathon began adding more items to collect, developers lost sight of what made Banjo-Kazooie successful — constraints create creativity. Working under the constraint that a given world should have exactly this many items to collect is elegant design. Removing those constraints merely adds bloat.
Donkey Kong Country 2, has an abundance of secret areas and collectibles, however, they are strategically placed. Banjo-Kazooie builds upon that idea, by ensuring every item you collect serves a purpose. You are not collecting items solely to achieve 100%, you are using the items you collect.
Can Banjo-Kazooie Still Be Played Today?
Yes, Banjo-Kazooie holds up completely when played in 2023 — fresh. The platforming is tight. The controls are responsive. The level design is fantastic. The pacing is never slow. The optional content is not padding.
A couple of minor complaints — the camera occasionally struggles to function properly in some areas (nothing excessive). The Turbo Talon Trot maneuver is extremely difficult to execute, and probably didn’t need to exist.
But again, these are minor quibbles to an otherwise great experience.
The graphics in Banjo-Kazooie are reasonable for holding up. Pre-rendered backgrounds offer a wealth of visual variation while reducing the technological burden. The character designs are charming. Each world has its own unique aesthetic. Nothing in Banjo-Kazooie appears technologically outdated because the artistic direction is strong enough to overcome any technical limitations.
Conclusion
Banjo-Kazooie is the ultimate collectathon. It is not “great for its time” — it is perfect. The level design in Banjo-Kazooie is superb. The character charm in Banjo-Kazooie is authentic. The progression in Banjo-Kazooie respects player choices. The optional content in Banjo-Kazooie is truly optional, rather than locked behind the requirement to collect every item. The controls in Banjo-Kazooie are responsive. The world design in Banjo-Kazooie is elegant.
All collectathons since Banjo-Kazooie have attempted to build upon Banjo-Kazooie, by adding more items to collect. A better design strategy would be to follow the core principles that made Banjo-Kazooie successful — constraints, elegance, and respect for player time.
Play Banjo-Kazooie if you have never played it before. Try Banjo-Kazooie if you have played collectathons since, and are interested in understanding why the collectathon genre went downhill immediately after Banjo-Kazooie set the standard. Study Banjo-Kazooie if you develop platformers, as Banjo-Kazooie is a tutorial on how to create efficient design.
Rating: 10/10 — the ultimate collectathon, that every collectathon since has attempted to improve on, and failed. View our full list of the top N64 games here
Timothy discovered retro gaming at forty and never looked back. A construction foreman by day and collector by night, he writes from a fresh, nostalgia-free angle—exploring classic games with adult curiosity, honest takes, and zero childhood bias.
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