For those of you who can remember back to last year, you may recall that Rare released only one title to
grace 1998. For Rare-fans, this was excrutiating, but they could at least take comfort in knowing that it
was a superb game: none other than Banjo-Kazooie. If you follow Rare's website at all, you've known
that the sequel has been in development for quite awhile, but only recently has Rare released any
screenshots or substantial information. Now it's starting to come out: here comes Banjo-Tooie.
First of all, for those of you who loved Kazooie, don't despair: she hasn't been replaced by some crap bird
named Tooie; that's just Rare's "clever" way of saying "2" as in, Banjo 2. Get it? Two? Tooie? Ha! With
that out of the way, on to the real game information. Returning for this trip are of course Banjo (yellow
pants and all), Kazooie, and the crazy-masked guy Mumbo Jumbo, which also means Banjo will also
change shapes this time around. And here's the kicker: all three of these characters will be
playable--individually! Who knows, Banjo may have complained about a sore back, but he can now toss
Kazooie out and leave the red-feathered friend to wander at the player's discretion. Mumbo Jumbo is
also a playable character, but in what capacity is not certain.
Eight worlds are packed in for these characters to frollic about, try out new moves (not seen in the
original), complete tasks, smash enemies, play mini-games, and defeat bosses. Along the same vein
as Donkey Kong 64, multiplayer games (up to four players) have also been included. Of course, other
non-gameplay improvements abound as well. Here's the listing as provided by Rare so far: "realtime
lighting, refined textures, widescreen and surround sound options, expanded interactive soundtrack and
a more intelligent camera system." Wow. While Banjo-Tooie will probably be shown off at E3, the release
date has been kept to the very ambiguous "mid-2000," and even that may change. Oh well, at least it'll be
worth the wait.








The cheats
Probably what everyone wants the cheats of the game |