Banjo-Kazooie (XBLA)

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Banjo-Kazooie

Release Date	December 3, 2008
Microsoft Points	1200
Genre	Platforming, adventure
Rating	^ESRB:E (Everyone)
Players	1
Xbox Live	Supported (Achievements, Leaderboards)

Banjo-Kazooie is a port of the Nintendo 64 game of the same name to the Xbox Live Arcade. The porting of the game was handled mostly by 4J Studios. It was first released to the Xbox Live Marketplace on November 10, 2008 to people who pre-ordered Banjo-Kazooie : Nuts & Bolts . It was later released to the general public on December 3, 2008.

This article mainly covers the additions and changes made to the Xbox Live Arcade port. For basic information about the story, gameplay, and characters, see the main Banjo-Kazooie article.

Differences from the original

Comparison between the talking head icons of Banjo and Kazooie in the Nintendo 64 version (left) and the Xbox Live Arcade version (right). The icons in the XBLA version are revamped in a higher resolution.

Banjo-Kazooie XBLA features a few changes from the original Nintendo 64 game. First and foremost, the game now runs natively in 1080p HD resolution. Many of the 2D images in the game such as the talking heads, item icons, and the portraits in Banjo's house appear in a higher-resolution (and in the case of Banjo's pictures, completely recreated). The actual 3D models of the game feature little change, however. The text is also rendered in a slightly different, larger font. Most of the speech in the game remains the same, save for that which refers to the Nintendo 64 controller (changed to refer to the corresponding Xbox 360 gamepad buttons). The controls have also undergone a slight change. For example, the camera is controlled by the right analog stick, but moves that were tied to the Nintendo 64's C-Buttons remain on actual buttons. The game's draw distance is also vastly increased, preventing the fading-in and fading-out of objects found in the original version.

The game features, as standard with Live Arcade titles, Achievements and Leaderboards. Menu changes have also been made to accompany new options such as "Help & Options," "Achievements" and "Leaderboards." Finally, Stop 'n' Swop functionality has been added that will allow players to get the secret items, which will then unlock secret vehicle components in Nuts & Bolts and other unlockables in Banjo-Tooie XBLA (see below).

In addition, BKXBLA changes the way the Musical Notes work. In the original version, Notes were tied to the world, and dying before collecting all 100 in a world meant that all the previously collect ones had to be recollected for a complete Note score. BKXBLA changes this by making all collected Notes permanent. This change also applies to the Jinjos.

Direct references to Nintendo have also been removed; for example, the walking Nintendo 64 logo in the game's introduction is removed, and Mumbo's xylophone now says "Microsoft Game Studios," rather than "Nintendo." Instances of Rare's older "Rareware" logo have been updated to feature the Rare logo used from 2003-2010.

The game also features two free unlockable gamerpics. The first, which is of Banjo, is unlocked when all of the Jinjos in Treasure Trove Cove are collected. The second, which is of Kazooie, is unlocked when all of the Jinjos in Click Clock Wood are collected.

The game's credit sequence is also noticeably longer, and thus the game's first cast list repeats itself up for a second time up through Loggo.

Bugs

Initially, BKXBLA featured a glitch relating to the Bottles' Bonus puzzles, where the automated puzzle Banjo would collect Musical Notes. Since the Notes do not respawn in this version of the game, the Notes were "picked up" but did not count toward a player's total, making getting all of them impossible if the Bottles' Bonus puzzles were finished prior to collecting all 900 Notes. This has since been fixed in an update. However, for safety, it is still recommended that players not attempt the Bottles' Bonus puzzles before collecting all the Notes in Mad Monster Mansion and Click Clock Wood.

A similar glitch to the above involves the Jinjos: if the player collects all five Jinjos on a world and then dies before collecting the Jiggy, that Jiggy becomes impossible to collect, due to the Jinjos remaining collected and not respawning.

The game's final cutscene displaying the Stop 'n' Swop items is also glitched: Banjo frequently falls off before jumping to the top of Sharkfood Island, causing that scene to abruptly end and move on to Wozza's Cave.

Stop 'n' Swop

Banjo standing next to the Ice Key in a promotional screenshot of BKXBLA.

BKXBLA features Stop 'n' Swop functionality with Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. If a Nuts & Bolts save file is present on the hard drive, the Stop 'n Swop areas will automatically be opened. After collecting the secret items in BKXBLA, Stop 'n' Swop Crates containing secret vehicle components will become available in Nuts & Bolts.

BKXBLA also features Stop 'n' Swop connectivity with the Xbox Live Arcade port of Banjo-Tooie. As with Nuts & Bolts, having a -Tooie save file on the same hard drive as BKXBLA will unlock the secret areas (if not previously unlocked), allowing the secret items to be collected. -Tooie then reads the save file for BKXBLA, recognizes the items, and swaps them over, allowing them to be used to unlock content.