Banjo-Kazooie looking sharp on XBLA

by Ludwig Kietzmann { Sep 25th 2008 at 8:30PM }

Not to berate or belittle the big, bouncing buffoon's bygone birth, but the backpack-packing bear (from Rare) clearly benefits from blatantly bettered visuals in his XBLA bash. Whether you're a boy bedridden or babe bored in your boudoir, you'd best be aware that this bear with a bird in his backpack is worth both a care and a stare.

(Also, alliterations are annoying.)

Gallery: Banjo-Kazooie (XBLA)

Tags: Banjo-Kazooie, Banjo-Kazooie-3, Banjo-Kazooie-Nuts-and-Bolts, Rare, XBLA

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

Fish @ Sep 25th 2008 8:37PM

That comment was probably the best thing I've ever read on Joystiq.

willie @ Sep 25th 2008 8:39PM

WOW.

SO MANY waves of nostalgia right now XD

Ken Seang @ Sep 25th 2008 9:48PM

Same here, as soon as I hear the music all of these memories just came back.

Tiptup300 @ Sep 26th 2008 9:13AM

I totally forgot clankers cavern. Only level I really disliked. Well, those 100 jiggies aren't gonna get picked up on their own.

Neebs @ Sep 25th 2008 8:41PM

I just had a rose tinted nostalgia-gasm, and I wish I had a 360 so I could buy this.

Or I could just play the RO*gets shot*

Lone Starr @ Sep 25th 2008 8:48PM

My nostalgia-gasms are usually white and creamy. You might want a doctor to take a look at yours.

Josh @ Sep 25th 2008 9:55PM

RO... = ?

Vegnagun bwf @ Sep 25th 2008 10:06PM

Revolver Ocelot...and by the looks of it Revolver Ocelot shot him just after he typed that final sentence.

Shadow Hog @ Sep 25th 2008 11:28PM

Could be worse. Could've been Candlejack. Ocelot we at least know shoots people, but we're still not sure what Candlejack does to pe

xGeneral DEATHx (Mr ESC Resurrection Force) @ Sep 26th 2008 8:37AM

Or maybe he got cut off whilst saying ROM? We'll never know, since Revolver Ocelot killed him.

Kamizar @ Sep 25th 2008 8:43PM

"Not to berate or belittle the big, bouncing buffoon's bygone birth,...a bird in his backpack is worth both a care and a stare."

And you may call him Banjo...

BPMOmega [gamertag] @ Sep 26th 2008 1:23AM

BAAAAAAAAANJOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!

BlissX @ Sep 26th 2008 3:52AM

Remember his first debut in Diddy Kong Racing?
I'll never forget his tagline.

"I'mmmmmm Bannnjooooo.... WHOOOAAAA" :')

Kizzle @ Sep 26th 2008 9:52AM

BPMOmega - "Why do we always hurt the ones we love??"

knighty (GT: ZeraKnight) @ Sep 25th 2008 8:45PM

Never actually played it on the N64 but sadly this just looks like the same game + higher res, better texture filtering and AA. While nice of course, it's nothing you can't do on your pc....Once again, not saying it's a bad thing, just not really "updated visuals".

why not the LS2LS7? @ Sep 25th 2008 9:17PM

Agreed. Joystiq must have been viewing an alternate feed. The one I saw had the same polys, the same textures, with just the things you get automatically like better AA and shading.

Other than moving the onscreens a bit for 16:9, it looks like they did nothing. Which isn't the end of the world, but I don't think I'll buy it again when I still own an N64 and the original.

J.Goodwin @ Sep 26th 2008 12:37AM

Better filtering helps a lot. Pull out that N64 though and you'll realize that everything is presented in smear-o-vision. That's the biggest thing that you'll notice has been fixed, the horrible, horrible excuse for anti-aliasing.

Vidikron @ Sep 26th 2008 1:41AM

Sure, you can do it on your PC, but I don't consider piracy to be valid point in a discussion like this. Plus, playing it on your PC isn't going to unlock shit in Nuts & Bolts.

Anyway, the game does look pretty much the same, though it doesn't have the practically trade marked N64 blur. That's always a plus.

Haggard (Mr.ESC resurrection force) @ Sep 26th 2008 3:11AM

I saw some frame rate drops as well.. don't know if it's Joystiqs video, the capture card they used, or whether my PC is too infested with viruses to display flash videos properly, but it didn't look right in parts.

why not the LS2LS7? @ Sep 26th 2008 4:53AM

J. Goodwin:
Agreed, the biggest problem with the N64 was its messed up AA. If I could have it the best way possible, I'd have liked these fixes back when I played B-J the first time.

But do these minor improvements represent enough reason to buy this game again? No. Not to me.

Mr French @ Sep 25th 2008 8:50PM

someone.. please help me... why doesnt this video player work for me? i have firefox 3.

vidGuy @ Sep 25th 2008 9:21PM

Use flashblocker? Have flash? I have firefox 3 and it works fine.

Mr French @ Sep 25th 2008 9:31PM

yes i have it, and viddler video player works fine when watching vids from other sites, so its joystiq specific, and not making me very happy...

Josh @ Sep 25th 2008 10:03PM

Reinstall Windows.

In A World (XBL) @ Sep 25th 2008 10:42PM

Unplug it and plug it back in.

Kevlar @ Sep 26th 2008 12:33AM

Flick the on/off switch a couple of times. If that doesn't work, it's usually time for a brief visit from Kodiak "Steel-toe" Boot, PhD.

Vegnagun bwf @ Sep 26th 2008 12:33AM

Is your computer on?

Mikeymike @ Sep 26th 2008 8:47PM

Blow into it

holyice7 @ Sep 25th 2008 8:53PM

It looks pretty much the same if you had your N64 hooked up with S-Video instead of composite. That said, any acknowledgments about BK's dated look today shouldn't compare it to the graphics of today, but should instead show that quality gameplay can be achieved regardless of graphics or generation. This is truly a classic game, and although I'dve been happy to see it on Virtual Console, closer to its original home, at least this way it'll be connected to the latest game in the series.

*listens to all 185 songs in his Banjo-Kazooie soundtrack* ^_^

jynxycat @ Sep 25th 2008 9:13PM

Graphics are definitely bumped up in terms of polygons. Playing the demo on the dev XBLA right now, and it's fairly pretty =p

Josh @ Sep 25th 2008 10:04PM

"It looks pretty much the same if you had your N64 hooked up with S-Video instead of composite."

Yes, if you're legally blind.

bm @ Sep 26th 2008 1:05PM

"Graphics are definitely bumped up in terms of polygons."

Dude. No.

I've yet to come up with a name for this illness that some people have, but it's kinda like "reverse rose-tinted glasses". Where people see an old game and go "no wai it looks this good, it must've been updated, graphics back then were all so crappy lol!" while being totally wrong. Maybe they have some sort of insecurity where they need to feel their current game system looks absolutely revolutionary compared to anything the past. Maybe it's something else.

Green-colored glasses? Idunno.

bm @ Sep 26th 2008 1:10PM

Purely talking about the polycount comment btw, before anyone starts about the screen resolution.

Bahamett @ Sep 25th 2008 8:58PM

Any one else remember those 'big secrets' in game, of getting those Giant Eggs that didn't appear to really do anything. And then the in the 2nd game you got some N64 cartridges that didn't do anything.

I remember doing everything I could to get 'em.

So much time wasted. Can't wait to waste more on this game.

why not the LS2LS7? @ Sep 25th 2008 9:42PM

That was "Stop n Swop". This has that working supposedly.

Bahamett @ Sep 25th 2008 9:57PM

If it is working. I will buy it for that reason alone.

Their 10 year plan to take as much money from me as possible has worked!

J.Goodwin @ Sep 26th 2008 12:38AM

It's working, you'll need Banjo: Nuts and Bolts to use it though.

Derek @ Sep 25th 2008 9:01PM

I remember back when MS bought Rare when Nintendo declined the offer, I thought N made a stupid move...Ah, how time has shown otherwise....Rare has lost so many employees, the Goldeneye team quickly splintered, hell, even the founders left!! Rare is just a name, they suck complete cock anymore, their past is the only thing they have for a meal ticket anymore...Maybe the fact that Rare was a second-party developer had something to do with the quality of their past games with the big N...

Samuel D. Lockhart @ Sep 26th 2008 2:36AM

DO they suck cock? Or do they just make good games that don't match the standards of their pre-Microsoft output.

InvadrZIM @ Sep 25th 2008 9:08PM

Awesome!! i have this game and my original N64 still, but with this version ill be able to play with a responsive controller that wasn't destroyed by Mario Party

w000000!!!!!!!

EMilt @ Sep 25th 2008 9:08PM

Never felt this game at all. I bought the first one and was so upset at it's sillyness I sold it to the local game store for another game (NFL Blitz I think it was). Anyway, if you liked it before, you should love it now for all it's high-resness (yes, I made that up). But a brotha like me has to say the no to Banjo.