Banjo Thought Thread

[The Colonel]

gruntilda's counter attack

[Mandolin]

Originally Posted by CaptainDredlokk

I don't think you're nuts as I totally misremember things about old games I played all the time (I totally forgot Chuffy was the "correct" way to get inside Grundy's Industries) but yeah it definitely only gave you infinite fire eggs I'm pretty sure.

Well, that doesn't make any sense! Why does a scaly dragon need feathers?

[qwertykins76]

I like how in Banjo-Tooie, golden feathers are balanced combat-wise and ensured to not be OP, not because of any gameplay reason but simply because the player is liable to forget they even exist

[Mr. Airplane]

Banjo Tooie does have too many options, yeah

[LoMoNoCrAt]

Originally Posted by Mr. Airplane

Is anyone upset that Grunty's Revenge isn't in Rare Replay do you think

I hadn't noticed but now I'm upset.

[qwertykins76]

I am in awe of the internal consistency of Grunty Industries. I sorta already knew this but looking at the map again, it's insane how hard they worked to ensure everything lined up on every floor.

Every single service elevator is on the west side of the building, every normal elevator on the east. Every single screw panel you unscrew with the Bill Drill corresponds logically with the side of the building it should be on in relation to the floor above/below. The boiler chimneys on Floor 3 face the same direction as outside, and one of the boilers is lit just to explain WHY only one of the chimneys has smoke coming out. Those 2 walls on the outside of the factory (where the 2 Fly Pads spawn) are there because they're the tunnel the train uses to get into the building---that's why there are train tracks suspended above the Quagmire, to be logically consistent.

The metal pipe in Quagmire that comes down from Cauldron Keep goes into the wall, then you see it on your left when you walk into the level where it connects to the factory. Likely the factory produces the electricity for B.O.B., although judging from the consistent exterior/interior windows it might also transport toxic waste. Every window leads to the correct side of the building inside. The fire exit on Floor 2/1 WOULD be inconsistent, except no they thought of that, so they intentionally made the transition between floors include a staircase that curves 90 degrees. The warehouse rooms of Floor 5 are consistent and I think the reason we never see the 3rd warehouse room is because it's actually the very top of the elevator shaft, where the 2 help signs are.

It's not literally perfect, there's a couple cartoonish imbelishments (Why is there a sewer on the 4th floor??) and there's at least one minor error in that the fire exit on Floor 4 is technically pointing 45 degrees from where it should be. Still though. The Banjo series is illogical and they did NOT need to design the building to be carefully consistent the whole time, but they goddamn did it anyway and it's great.

[Pies]

It is Banjo-Tooie Day.

Hurray!

My first and favorite Banjo game. The different levels interconnecting with each other made the world feel so massive to me. Good times.

[qwertykins76]

Everyone always gets to Cloud Cuckooland and then either says it looks like they slapped leftover game assets together or that they had to be on drugs to design this. I don't like how this discredits the level designer. Creative people can be very....well creative, don't downplay it! Creative people can think of insane stuff if they really try, that's just talent at work. The ability to be highly skilled in synthesizing abstract information is a precious and rare gift that ought to be recognized.

Also I have begun to suspect that the phrase "cloud cuckoolander" is actually not a term most people are familiar with. I always assumed it was commonly known but perhaps I was wrong about that.