# Chapter Select, [[S3E4 - Banjo-Kazooie - Grunty's Revenge]] Transcript This transcription was completed on March 4, 2026 with the application MacWhisper on macOS. This was done automatically, without human input during the transcription process. The transcription used the Parakeet v3 model. My hope is that by offering this transcription – however accurate it may be done by a machine learning/AI – will help you, the listener. I’d love to offer full, proper transcription some day, but that is not feasible at this time. Thank you for listening and reading. I hope you enjoy the show and that this document was helpful. Enjoy. --- I picked up my headphones and they were hot, you know? *00:00* Yes. *00:04* I do know. *00:07* We we uh you text you text that t picture of your eight attempts to me and I went, wow. *00:08* We are recording in the same the same environment. *00:14* That's probably a good thing. *00:21* S we're both equally miserable. *00:23* We'll be d dealing with the same distractions, yes. *00:25* Uh I totally borked the wrong doc. *00:29* Did I send you the right document? *00:33* Um does it say Granny's Revenge show notes at the top? *00:38* Is that the It says Too we at the top *00:43* Like are is the document name Grunty's Revenge? *00:47* I'm sorry. *00:52* No. *00:52* It's Tui. *00:53* I sent you the wrong one. *00:54* My bad. *00:56* Alright, I'll help you with this. *00:57* Uh welcome to Chapter Select Developer Rare Game Boy Advance *01:01* Uh uh September twelfth, two thousand three. *01:13* Yeah, you do that. *01:16* I'll do Game Director if there is flood. *01:17* I don't think such a thing exists unless you want to go pull up the credits *01:21* Yeah, go to like Moby games at all. *01:26* Music. *01:30* Not by Grant Kirkhope, Jamie Hughes. *01:31* Metacritic. *01:38* I'll find I'll find Metacritic if you want to look for producer stuff. *01:39* I'm looking *01:42* Oh wow. *01:48* They hated this game. *01:50* They loathed it. *01:52* Ten out of tens? *01:54* Can't say that's what it was. *01:57* So All right, ranking the levels. *02:06* We gotta do it one last time. *02:10* It's at least short. *02:13* It is short. *02:14* What are the levels? *02:16* Here's um only like five or six of them, I think. *02:18* Yeah, the here's the fan wiki, but it was the farm, the beach, farm, beach, and bog *02:21* The main place. *02:31* Main uh that's that was Spiral Mountain. *02:33* Yeah, Spiral Mountain. *02:36* Here's here's where I'm at. *02:39* Farm Beach *02:41* Um bog, um the swamp, yeah. *02:45* And then the volcano slash granny industries *02:51* Um and there's one more I'm forgetting. *02:57* Greg Mails was the designer, I guess. *03:01* Okay. *03:03* That's what this says. *03:05* Is that what this wiki says? *03:06* Yeah, it says he was the designer. *03:08* Sure. *03:10* It was the first game in Banjo series net to not be released in Japan. *03:11* Wow. *03:17* I see special thanks, which has Chris, Tim, and Greg in it. *03:19* GBA team is like *03:24* Seven, eight people. *03:27* Characters, items, move, learned, worlds. *03:29* There we go. *03:32* Brigal. *03:33* Alright, we'll give you the I'll type in the fancy names for all *03:34* These here. *03:38* Spiral Mountain, the farm was Cliff Farm. *03:40* When did it come out on mobile? *03:43* June of two thousand five. *03:46* Bad magic by you. *03:50* I'm like trying to remember this game because it's been so long. *03:55* Spoilers *03:59* Harbor. *04:02* What was at that level? *04:03* Spiller's Harbor s was the a place with the arcade and the ice eggs. *04:04* Ah, yes, I remember. *04:11* It was like Beach 2. *04:12* 0. *04:14* Yes. *04:14* Yes, yes, I remember it now. *04:15* Freezing Furnace and then Grunty's Castle, which doesn't really count, but I'll try to *04:17* Um bancho. *04:26* So all I have is a list of one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. *04:34* GBA team, like I don't want to list all those people out. *04:42* We can link to it. *04:45* There's a special thanks to Greg and them. *04:46* There is a VP of production from THQ, one Philip Holt. *04:49* So I'll put that our bonus content for this episode is going to be us creating. *04:57* Not necessarily, but yeah, probably. *05:03* This is sometimes this happens. *05:06* Uh rare it was the seventy two. *05:09* Uh yes. *05:14* Okay. *05:15* And is this the *05:16* Flow, the show we want. *05:20* History experience. *05:22* World's rankings, gameplay, music, sure. *05:25* There's our *05:31* Levels. *05:32* Um can Is there anything else we can think of? *05:33* There's one thing I wanted to share with you, because I'm gonna mention it just because I think it's interesting and it *05:38* Uh it's contextual, it's like there's a group of some people or a one person who's remaking this game with like N64 assets. *05:45* So I just I think that's kind of cool. *05:55* Interesting. *05:58* So I'm gonna link to it just so people can keep an eye on it if they so feel so inclined. *05:59* But *06:06* Actually looking at it having just played the game, it's kind of cool. *06:08* Like I see the harbor level in one of these pictures and *06:11* I'm pulling it up now. *06:19* Yeah, it's kinda neat. *06:21* But I'm gonna I'm definitely gonna mention it, want to mention it and I'll link to it *06:23* Dang, banjo fans are wild. *06:32* They're so desperate for a game they're remaking games. *06:36* They're remaking a Game Boy Advance game *06:39* Let's copy Wicked. *06:46* This looks really cool though. *06:48* Right? *06:49* It's kinda neat idea. *06:50* I was kinda hoping all day there would be a blog post about *06:52* Gotta war. *06:57* Gotta war. *06:58* I do like that he came back and the first thing he did was he dunked on Jaffy. *07:00* And then he just started retweeting a bunch of pictures of his wife. *07:05* And then he tweeted to Neil. *07:09* And Neil's like, you're back? *07:12* It was pretty good. *07:15* I don't think he like was like troll dunking on Jaffy. *07:18* He was like I think the two of them are still fr like friends or at least friendly. *07:24* Yeah. *07:30* That's totally what I meant, yeah. *07:30* He wasn't being uh mean or anything like that. *07:32* Yeah. *07:37* Do you see the stuff between Shuhei and Colin today? *07:39* I did. *07:43* I was like, one of my friends sent me a tweet and was like, look at this. *07:44* I was like, wow, Greg won't respond to that. *07:48* Greg, Greg will. *07:51* Or Andrew. *07:53* I don't think Andrew would respond either. *07:53* Colin did, which is surprising because Colin doesn't even t talk on socials anymore. *07:56* He uses Twitter, he only uses Twitter for business. *08:01* And come on, getting shoehei on your podcast is business. *08:03* Um I loved it though, the Shue responded to someone. *08:07* Someone was like, why don't you go? *08:10* He's like, his show's too long. *08:12* I'm like, it is too long. *08:13* It's a four hour podcast. *08:15* It's insanity. *08:16* And then and then Dustin responded to it and was like, oh no. *08:17* The but it was nice the fan did comment back and say Sacred Symbols Plus is generally an hour long or something, like which sounds more shoehei speed. *08:23* Sounds like more sane person speed. *08:31* But it I would love it if they got Shu He on. *08:34* I don't know if Colin was trying to get just Shu Hei on or if he was saying like it's time to get the whole gang back together. *08:37* I think he either way. *08:43* I mean I would love I think Colin would be open to it though. *08:49* Oh Colin Colin would be. *08:53* If if there was a world if there was a world where you could get a beyond *08:54* Crew reunion, I'm there for it. *08:59* It never happened at this point. *09:02* Which is so it's so weird. *09:04* The thing that I think is weirdest about that is that like *09:06* They've had this huge falling out over, at least publicly, again, we don't know these people's whole lives, but publicly over the dumbest thing imaginable. *09:10* Like *09:21* It really feels Like it's so it's so weird that this thing like and I and I get that it's not just one thing because Colin was very vocal and *09:21* Colin, even after Colin left kind of funny, he was still friendly with a lot of people, but he also had a lot of spats and things like that. *09:30* And I think over time that is kind of what soured people on him. *09:35* Sure. *09:39* Um like *09:39* People like I think of people like Brian Altano that he used to be friendly with and stuff like that that I know he doesn't speak with anymore, at least to my knowledge. *09:40* It would be Yeah, that sucks. *09:48* Again, I just *09:50* So I don't think he's friends with um well maybe he's friends with, but he definitely is not publicly interacting with that one political guy he did a bunch of stuff with after he left. *09:52* Um *10:01* I like I like homeowner Colin and Colin energy. *10:02* He just he has a house. *10:07* He got his lazy boy. *10:09* They have a pool now. *10:11* They got some dogs. *10:12* Yeah. *10:13* His girlfriend lives with him. *10:14* I love homeowner energy Colin. *10:15* I actually I do *10:17* I listen to their show. *10:19* Their show's the only show I actually like kinda want to listen to each week. *10:20* I think it's fun. *10:23* I I think they've got a good little rapport there. *10:24* I just tuned in for the first time in a while. *10:27* Uh because of state of play and the game fest and Last of Us and stuff. *10:30* Yeah. *10:34* But it's a four hour podcast. *10:35* So I just started skipping around. *10:36* Well that one specifically probably was *10:38* Two because it was state of play. *10:40* I think it's usually more like three and a half ish or so. *10:42* He's been tweeting like, here's your four hour, here's your three and a half hour podcast. *10:46* I'm like, this is a lot, dude. *10:50* Um but I think I've I would I probably would approach that show if I got back into a weekly listening just picking the chapters I wanted to listen to. *10:52* Cause there's just *11:02* It takes them an hour and a half to get to what they're playing. *11:04* I'm like, alright, let's calm down everybody. *11:08* But they have good discussion. *11:11* I like their show *11:13* I just reached back out, actually, to see if I could get Colin on my show. *11:15* Because Micah I talked to Micah last year. *11:20* And she said, I put you on the list for follow up. *11:23* Like I like what I heard and stuff. *11:26* We're just taking a break right now from guest spots. *11:27* And then Oh, because she does his like managing, I guess. *11:29* I reached out to Colin on Patreon. *11:33* He said *11:34* Sounds good, like reach out to Micah. *11:35* She's the coordinator now. *11:37* Which is great. *11:39* She responded and said, I'll follow up with you. *11:40* She never did. *11:43* I never followed up. *11:43* I'm not mad or anything about that. *11:44* Whatever. *11:46* Um but I just sent her an email yesterday 'cause I was thinking I was like one of the things I wanted to talk to Colin about was his the part five of his rising to greatness, Naughty Dark History that never came out. *11:47* Like I just want to know about *11:59* What he was writing what he had and like why it didn't come out. *12:00* You wanna trade notes as historians of those I'm just *12:03* Well that was one of the things I was fascinated about was that that never came to light. *12:08* And he obviously has great insight beyond into PlayStation in general. *12:12* And so I I was thinking, you know, with the part one remake coming out, I was like, this might be a good time to like *12:16* try and have that discussion again. *12:22* So you know, we'll see if she responds in a few weeks or whatever. *12:24* But I think that would be a fun thing and I know that would get attention you know, if Colin was on the show, that would be good for my own type of traffic. *12:28* in the end if he was, you know, gracious enough to come on the show or whatever. *12:37* And we could get him on well, we could get him on a Fast and Furious episode. *12:40* I don't think he'd watch those. *12:44* Family. *12:46* Family. *12:47* Family. *12:48* I love how that's I love how that's your interpretation of this uh franchise at the moment. *12:49* That's all you do is video of myself. *12:56* The first thing I did when I woke up this morning as I went downstairs, I made some oatmeal and I recorded that video of myself running around my house screaming, family. *13:00* that I posted in the Discord. *13:07* I saved that video. *13:09* I need that. *13:10* Uh did you like my buckle up tweet? *13:12* Yeah. *13:16* I didn't r realize anything about it for at first and then Ricky said, I see what you did there. *13:18* I was like, oh, I do too now. *13:22* Yeah, I thought that would be a cute subtle nod. *13:26* I like teasing secretly *13:31* Um, alright, let's get moving if we're gonna get it. *13:34* Yeah, let's do it. *13:36* So we got Pokemon. *13:37* Your bonus content's over, people. *13:38* Thank you for subscribing. *13:41* Get out of here. *13:43* Listen to the real show. *13:43* Keep paying us. *13:46* Hello everybody and welcome to Chapter Select, a seasonal podcast where we bounce back and forth between a series of games exploring their evolution, design, and legacy. *13:48* For this season 3E finale, we are here talking about Banjo Kazooie's Granti's Revenge. *13:58* I am one of your hosts, Max Roberts, and I am joined as always by Logan Moore. *14:05* Hi, Logan. *14:10* They put the witch in a robot. *14:11* It's a great concept. *14:14* I It's it's it's like a concept from that one SpongeBob ep SpongeBob episode where Plankton threatens to put his brain in the robot, except they did that here with *14:16* Grunty and she's off to get her revenge even though it's not really her sort of anyway, hi. *14:26* Hi. *14:33* It's her soul *14:33* And you know time travel also involved. *14:35* It's just the great fusion of things that Max loves. *14:38* Time travel, robots. *14:42* prequels. *14:45* It's all the good stuff. *14:46* It's this is hashtag max content. *14:48* It's very, very much. *14:52* It's weird that we are uh I I feel like our final episodes are always weird with how these seasons work out. *14:54* Like our Paper Mario season it was the 3DS game. *15:01* What was it? *15:04* Uh uh Sticker Sticker Star, which is kind of like the *15:05* black sheep of the Paper Mario family amongst many black sheep in that series. *15:09* Uh God of War we moved things around, I think, intentionally so that we wouldn't end on like *15:13* Uh I think Blades of Olympus. *15:19* Chains of Olympus or something like that. *15:23* I think it's Chains of Olympus is the name of the game. *15:25* Originally I think that that order would have been one *15:30* Two. *15:33* Spoiler alert, but we're doing future seasons as well and we know how those plan out and some of the ones that we're ending with on those seasons are also kind of funny. *15:37* Anyway, It would have been Ghost of Sparta. *15:45* Okay, so maybe not that weird. *15:48* I mean, but Ghost of Spar is still a PSP game. *15:49* It's yeah, it's weird. *15:52* Yeah. *15:53* It's funny how some of these back and forth ones kind of work out, but anyway, uh *15:53* Banjo Kazooie Grunty's Revenge, this is our final episode of season three E with the Banjo series. *15:58* Uh obviously if you're listening to this we have past episodes about Banjo Kazooie, Banjo Tooie, and Banjo Kazooie nuts and bolts. *16:05* But for Grunty's Revenge today, let's get into the history of this game. *16:12* Once again, like all the other banjo games in the series, it was developed by Rare. *16:17* It released on the Game Boy Advance, which is the big difference with this entry compared to all of the others. *16:21* It is not a home console game. *16:27* It is a *16:28* Uh it's weird to say mobile, and I guess it's kind of a mobile game. *16:30* It did actually come to mobile as well. *16:33* So so I guess it is technically a mobile game. *16:36* Uh it released on September twelfth, two thousand three on the Game Boy Advance, and it came out on in June 2005 on mobile devices. *16:39* Uh the game director of this one *16:48* We don't know. *16:51* Uh it's harder to find it's actually kind of strange that some of these Game Boy games are harder to find uh like credits for people on *16:52* Um obviously we could watch the credits themselves. *17:01* Well I They were all they're just all clumped up even in watching the credits. *17:04* It's just Game Boy Advance team. *17:08* Yeah. *17:10* Testing team. *17:11* So it's the hierarchy is not clearly established. *17:12* And I wonder if there's a specific reason for that. *17:16* Like I if there was not like a general like *17:20* single singular vision person with a vision behind this, like we're gonna bring Banjo Kazooie to Game Boy and here's my vision for doing that and everybody listen to me. *17:24* Uh maybe it was maybe these Game Boy games were much more of a team effort, but *17:33* Anyway, uh the producer on the game was Philip Holt, and the music, the composer, was uh Jamie Hughes rather than Grant Kirkhope. *17:38* Uh Max, one thing you just wrote there, which is something I was actually going to mention, this game, as we said, was developed by Rare, but the big difference here was that it was published by THQ *17:49* Uh which is interesting for a couple different reasons. *18:02* I think most notably because this was post-Microsoft acquis acquisition, correct? *18:05* Yes. *18:10* It was bought this was after *18:10* Microsoft purchased Rare and the reason that they still put out both Grunty's Revenge and Banjo Pilot on the Game Boy Advance was because Microsoft wasn't in the mobile space. *18:13* Uh portable gaming or mobile phones. *18:24* And so they were able to like cook up this deal with THQ at the time to publish it on the Nintendo platforms. *18:27* even though Nintendo is a competitor to Microsoft in that traditional sense. *18:36* And that's something that uh w I don't know if we've mentioned this on other episodes, but looking back at the history of Rare, that's something they really continue to do for *18:41* a while in the early portion of the two thousands um up until I wanna say like like two thousand nine or ten that really kind of felt like it's came to an end when they started doing connect games and then they eventually *18:50* Uh definitely by the time Rare Replay came out, I want to say in like 2014, they were totally done doing that stuff. *19:04* Uh but a couple years before uh in the decade leading up to that, they were still releasing games in some different avenues every now and then. *19:10* Yeah, most notably they did the Donkey Kong Country ports to Gateway Advance. *19:17* Um that was post-Microsoft acquisition. *19:23* Um *19:26* Yeah, Sabre Wolf they ported to the GBA. *19:28* It's Mr. *19:31* Pants. *19:32* So they took a lot. *19:32* It's Mr. *19:33* Pants, I think, was originally a *19:34* Some sort of other notable IP puzzler. *19:37* Yeah. *19:41* But then that got switched for licensing issues. *19:41* Um *19:45* You know, so most notably is the Donkey Kong games, like a lot of GBA stuff. *19:46* Yeah. *19:51* Oh, and they did DiddyCon Racing on the DS. *19:52* Yeah. *19:55* Which would be a good idea. *19:56* And they did uh I forgot that they were the studio that made that. *19:57* Like on the DS port. *20:01* They also did, please don't forget, uh, Banjo Pilot. *20:03* I didn't I don't I didn't I mentioned Banjo Pilot at the top. *20:06* Did you mention Banjo Pilot? *20:09* Yeah. *20:10* They also apparently had a Viva Pinata game on Nintendo DS. *20:10* They did in 2008. *20:14* Yeah, this all really continued up until about 2008 with nuts and bolts, and then it became Kinect stuff. *20:16* And then from there they were totally exclusive. *20:23* Yep. *20:26* They were totally exclusive to Xbox from about Viva Pinata and nuts and bolts onward is when they really tied themselves to that platform. *20:26* Yep. *20:35* Anyway, back to Grunty's Revenge. *20:37* Uh the last notable thing about the game itself is the Metacritic average. *20:39* There's not many reviews of this game out there. *20:43* There's only 21 to pull from on the internet, according to Metacritic. *20:46* Uh the game scored a 72 out of 100 overall. *20:50* Um which is not terrible. *20:55* I think actually is that the low I'm pretty sure that's *20:58* the lowest uh in the entire series. *21:00* The only one that may Oh it is. *21:03* It's one point lower than Banjo Tui's *21:08* 360 port. *21:11* Banjo Tui on 360 is a seventy-three. *21:12* Sounds about right. *21:16* So this is the lowest rate game in the series, which is weird because jumping off point *21:17* I don't think this game is that bad. *21:24* Um it's not. *21:26* It's really not. *21:28* It's a handheld Game Boy version of Banjo Kazooie. *21:29* It is exactly what they pitch it to be. *21:34* Uh obviously that does not mean it is a 3D platformer by any means. *21:36* They have to go with the sort of top-down isom isometric viewpoint. *21:41* Um but it works and it gets the job done and a lot of the same moves that are in all the other banjo games are in this game. *21:46* Um the experience is much shorter, for sure. *21:53* I think I beat this game in about four hours. *21:56* What about yourself? *21:59* Same. *22:00* Yeah, like three and a half, four hours in there. *22:01* Like I I messaged you when I started playing it and I was like, oh. *22:03* I I played it for like an hour and an hour and a half and I was like, oh, I've already got like 35 or 40 jiggies. *22:07* And you're like, you're flying. *22:12* I'm like, I'm not *22:13* Trying to. *22:14* It's just this game is small. *22:15* Uh, which was kind of nice because I just knocked it out in a single weekend and *22:18* Played a lot of it on a plane. *22:22* Yeah, I don't know. *22:24* What's your general impressions on this game up front before we get too deep into talking about some of the more specific aspects of it *22:25* My my impressions of this game are I love it because I had this game as a kid. *22:33* This was the own this is the only banjo game I ever owned before rare replay. *22:39* like made it a feasible thing. *22:46* I'm trying to find like a rough time. *22:48* Yeah, I was like three and a half, four hours. *22:50* I I was obsessed with finding the specific number. *22:53* But uh this was one of the few Game Boy Advance games that I convinced my mom to buy me while shopping at Costco. *22:56* I and why I saw it was because I knew Banjo from Banjo Tui neighbors, just like I talked about in that episode. *23:04* And so I thought, I like these characters, I have a Game Boy Advance, this will be a good game. *23:12* Turns out is a good game. *23:17* And so bought it and I put I played that game for five, six hours as a kid. *23:19* Um before I would have beat it according to the save file and stuff. *23:25* So I I remember this game quite fondly and I like the idea of Grunty as a robot. *23:29* Th with a childlike sense of humor, I like it, not, you know, narratively or whatever. *23:36* It's fun. *23:42* It was a fun game. *23:43* And I *23:44* replaying so playing the other games first before replaying the one banjo game I truly owned and beat *23:45* I kept wondering in Kazooie and Tui, not Tim Boltz is but didn't doesn't count, but where's the backpack whack? *23:53* Like where why am I not throwing my backpack down? *24:02* Eventually you get it *24:05* Well you get a version of it in Tui, like when you're oh solo split from Kazooie and you can spin your backpack around. *24:07* But I kept wondering I was wondering why Grunty's Revenge wasn't implemented sooner in the series, some moves. *24:14* So *24:20* Yeah, well this game tears away half of its namesake for what is it, a level two levels? *24:21* Level and a half. *24:29* You get easily halfway through the word. *24:30* Uh yeah, on uh Brigle Beach, which is I guess makes sense because she's a *24:33* Uh bird. *24:40* Yeah. *24:42* Let's get into just talking about the different worlds and stuff. *24:42* I I feel like that's usually a good jumping off point and we'll do our typical thing we've been doing the rest of the season here, which is ranking all the levels. *24:45* Obviously we have way fewer levels to rank *24:52* this time around, which is probably a good thing, uh in all honesty. *24:54* Uh but how did you feel about the levels in this? *24:59* Because my general *25:03* Take was that most of them were a little too similar to levels we've seen in some of the other banjo games. *25:07* Um which makes sense. *25:14* I mean again you got Spiral Mountain making a return here, which *25:15* It just feels like it has to happen to some degree that levels in every banjo game. *25:19* But even outside of that, uh, you know, you got your beach level, which is reminiscent of uh *25:23* Uh what's the level? *25:28* Yeah, you got your treasure trove cove style level with Brigold Beach, you got your swamp style level, you've got uh your harbor level where you're swimming around and stuff like that. *25:30* And then you've got your Fire Nice sort of world mixed into one. *25:39* So this game very much plays the greatest hits of the Banjo Kazooie series, I think. *25:44* And I wouldn't say any of the levels are bad, but. *25:49* None of them really stood out to me in a major way. *25:53* The farm at level is honestly maybe the most unique because it's farm. *25:56* It's wholly original. *26:00* Yeah. *26:02* Yeah. *26:02* I *26:03* It's interesting, I think, in two ways. *26:04* It's a fusion of Kazooie and Tui. *26:07* It has that ability of coming after those games to mix and match from those games together. *26:10* Specifically the I think the biggest example of that is the Freezing Furnace where it is like hailfire peaks but also a little bit of Grunty's Revenge kind of meshed together. *26:16* And then the other thing is, as a weird sort of prequel, it's I find it easy to imagine these are the same places, just *26:26* earlier versions of them before they are decimated or changed over, you know, however long this time gap is. *26:38* You know, it's it's easy for me to see Spiller's Harbor turning into um *26:46* What is that Kazooie level that's really bad? *26:52* Um The ship. *26:56* Uh yeah, yeah, yeah. *26:58* I can't remember the stuff. *26:59* Oh my gosh, why can we not remember? *27:00* The second to last level of the game. *27:02* Uh Rusty Bucket Bay *27:03* Yeah, it's easy to see them as related and I understand development-wise they chose that 'cause it's it's like Rusty Bucket Bay. *27:04* Bad Magic Bayou is like bubble gloop swamp. *27:12* but also a haunted house in there. *27:15* So it's cool for them to mix and match those levels and let the imagination kind of go with *27:18* Well, this is where this came from or that or whatever. *27:25* But it's also not too heavy heavily tied into the lore. *27:27* It's not obsessed with being this is the origin of *27:31* um Clankers Caffern or anything like that, you know, this is where uh King Cole came from, you know, it's just f *27:36* I I almost feel like uh not to well, yeah, let's just get into the talking about the story here, but we'll come back to the levels in a bit once we rank them. *27:47* Uh but you mentioned how the game does take place in the past, but it doesn't choose to introduce certain things way ahead of time. *27:55* I feel like that's almost a way more interesting idea though that this game should have gone for in some ways. *28:02* Because *28:07* As it stands, I really don't understand what the point of the whole going back in time thing is. *28:08* Like, is there a purpose to this? *28:13* Like, you just kind of go back in time to *28:15* So that I get that narratively the purpose is for Grunty to be like, oh if I win in the past, then Banjo Kazooie will never exist and I win, uh ha ha ha. *28:18* Like, I get that point behind it, but there's really nothing *28:27* else to it besides that. *28:33* Like it feels very strange, I guess, to introduce time travel into Banjo Kazooie of all things, and then you don't really do anything with it. *28:34* Like it's just like, oh, we're in the past now. *28:44* And uh we'll do the same thing we always do, which is beat the latest version of this witch, and then we'll go back uh forward in time afterward. *28:47* Like that's about all it really does with it. *28:55* I I feel like they could have played around with some of the whole *28:56* time jumping elements, maybe a little bit more than they do. *28:59* It's weird when you when you think about it, it's weird on paper because *29:02* Having Grunty come in a robot suit is enough to like spark the plot of we have to fight this robot version of Grunty now, let's run around the Isle of Hags. *29:09* and fight the robot. *29:20* It's robot, but also we're time traveling now to fight. *29:22* Yes. *29:26* It's so that is kind of just this *29:27* Interesting, like this would be a cool idea. *29:30* Eh it also does help this game become entirely *29:34* Fr um not forgettable, but like rare can ignore it later on if they want to. *29:43* Because essentially, narratively, it's a wash because they time travel back. *29:49* And I guess like fifty banjos show up, so maybe it it isn't a wash, but like Yeah, that just kind of in the past. *29:55* That's why Nuts and Bolts doesn't have to acknowledge it. *30:00* And actually Nuts and Bolts doesn't acknowledge this game, which is a little surprising because it is a rare game. *30:03* Yeah, so it's it's cool. *30:08* It's key We demand answers about the banjo lore rare *30:12* Why why is Humble Womba not in this game? *30:17* Where is she introduced yet? *30:21* Because technically this takes place between games. *30:23* But she could have been there in the present. *30:25* She could have, but they didn't introduce her to until two e, which this game takes place before. *30:28* This is true. *30:34* It's like it's a pre-sequel. *30:34* It's a pre-sequel. *30:36* Yeah. *30:37* Where's baby bottles? *30:38* I think there's some more stuff they could have done, especially on the character front. *30:40* I think that this game is very much lacking. *30:43* Uh *30:46* with those memorable characters. *30:48* And there there is usually a character or two that shows up in each level uh per usual, but for the life of me *30:49* I cannot tell you any of them off the top of my head unless I am mistaken. *30:56* Is there anybody super memorable that you can remember in this game? *31:00* Dad or grandfather or whatever. *31:04* Yeah. *31:06* I remember there's a Brigle on Brigol Beach who's like, please help me do this thing, and then you got like There's a dolphin somewhere *31:07* Yeah. *31:15* And I only remember a dolphin because the dolphin was in Rusty Bucket Bay. *31:15* Yeah, and a game in a series with very *31:20* familiar or maybe not familiar, but very recognizable faces and very charming side characters that show up at all times. *31:23* That's not really included here. *31:31* And again, this is I get it, this is a Game Boy Advance game, so you it's not going to have the same sort of *31:32* charm and goofs that some of the other characters we've seen in some of the other banjo games. *31:38* But still, um yeah, I I don't know. *31:43* It it's just it's very *31:46* It's very strange that they have these big ideas with time travel and souls going in robots and things like that, and then they don't really have anything else going on with the writing that's ever *31:48* at any point all that interesting uh with the characters. *31:59* I didn't I I I didn't even think the writing for Banjo and Kazooie like is fine in this game. *32:03* I I don't know. *32:09* Did yeah *32:10* I will say they brought Grunty's rhyming back. *32:11* I think that's a big win. *32:15* Yes. *32:16* Very good. *32:17* It's she lost it at some I apparently when you beat up her soul, she loses the rhino. *32:18* I guess. *32:24* And that explains how it's lost in Tui. *32:24* Sure. *32:27* I do think this is definitely a more engaging *32:28* Or engaging maybe too strong of a word. *32:32* It's a more interesting plot than nuts and bolts. *32:34* Like, come look at my video game land and play games before Grunty boxes packages up. *32:37* So *32:43* It's at least unique and stands out in the banjo, you know, world and lore. *32:44* For sure. *32:50* Clung goes there, you know, he's he's the one that made the robot. *32:51* And he does his whole potion thing, which does come from Tui, so that's kinda neat. *32:56* Yeah. *33:01* The Jinjos kind of get slight *33:02* Jinjo Nader I suppose gets a bit more of a little bit of backstory there. *33:05* Yeah, if anything we kinda learn where that ginjo nader statue comes from out of nowhere at the end of the original Banjo Kazooie. *33:10* It just shows up out of nowhere. *33:19* It's like I am the Jinjo Nator. *33:20* Yeah, I will knock her off this tower now. *33:23* Let's talk about the gameplay here then a little bit. *33:26* Um before we go back to the worlds. *33:28* We'll we'll do the ranking of the worlds last. *33:30* Um because I feel like that's kind of how we've done things in previous episodes. *33:32* Um gameplay wise, again, I mentioned this uh before, but *33:37* There's really not a whole lot to mention here, I think, that's vastly different from the other games. *33:41* I think the thing I'm most impressed about is that *33:46* It didn't ever feel like they cut corners with leaving out certain moves that are in the 3D banjo games that are in this one *33:49* Um it's pretty much a one to one of all the moves that you see in those games appearing in this one, even with the various egg types and stuff like that. *33:57* Like they really go deeper than I thought they would before I started this game in terms of the moveset that they give you. *34:05* Yeah, I I too was surprised actually. *34:12* I d c I really didn't remember a bunch of moves from this game except the backpack whack *34:15* Uh I was surprised that things like the town trot, the back flip, uh were all here. *34:22* I it was cool the shooting. *34:28* I didn't expect shooting *34:29* to be here like it was. *34:32* It's cool too. *34:34* The green launch pads are back in it too. *34:35* Flying's really the only thing that I guess isn't in this. *34:37* Yeah. *34:40* It's and what's cool is they translate this all into a 2D isometric *34:41* view it reminds me a lot of Phantom Hourglass and the way that Phantom Hourglass took a 2D Zelda had been an established formula obviously up *34:46* When Phantom Aragos came out, this wasn't new. *34:59* But it was, you know, top-down, but all controlled with the stylus. *35:02* And the way that they translated traditional Zelda moves to a new way to interact with the game. *35:06* I always thought worked fairly well. *35:13* I enjoyed that game. *35:15* And spear tracks also mechanically. *35:17* And I think this is a similar design *35:19* like appreciation in the way that this is a Banjo Kazooie game. *35:24* It feels like it. *35:29* Yeah. *35:30* The moves are there, the worlds are there, the puzzles are there, the mini-games are there. *35:30* It really is *35:35* banjo condensed um or not even I guess condensed because just the scope of it is smaller, but it is the full *35:37* You would expect to find this in a full-scale banjo game. *35:45* And it's here. *35:48* And I I think that's really impressive. *35:49* That's the one thing that continued to surprise me about this game the whole way through. *35:52* Is that when I first picked it up and I started playing in front of you, I was expecting it to be something wildly different. *35:56* And I got about twenty minutes in and I'm like, oh no, this is just *36:01* This is just a straight up banjo game, like normal, like I've come to expect from all the other games in the series. *36:03* And I I don't know what I was *36:09* Like I said, I was expecting something else. *36:11* I don't know. *36:13* I just didn't know what to expect because I didn't think that they would be able to mirror that sort of formula this well on Game Boy. *36:13* And it's you know, that's a kind of a video game industry thing, especially when we were growing up in this era of Game Boy games and things like that. *36:20* uh movie tie-in games, like there y all sorts of stuff was fraught with is this good or is this not so good? *36:28* And how did they move this from one platform to another? *36:36* I mean other games that were also on the GBA *36:39* There were Crash Bandicoot games, Spyro games. *36:41* Yeah. *36:45* I and I I'm speaking, I haven't played those. *36:45* Those may not have translated super well to I can tell you the crash games were bad for sure. *36:48* Uh-huh. *36:52* Sure. *36:53* I'm sure yeah, I'm sure they were. *36:53* So that's one thing that's really *36:57* Uh that's a big accomplishment, I think, to successfully capture the feeling of a a well-established 3D game and translating it to 2D. *37:01* Kind of an inverse of Ocarina of Time in that way of *37:11* Going from 3D to 2D instead 2D to 3D. *37:15* Let's talk about some of the other aspects of the gameplay, which I guess would just be like mini-game. *37:18* Let's let's touch on minigames here for a second because I think *37:23* Yeah, there's not a lot of them, uh, and I don't think any of them are particularly good. *37:28* Uh they were more often than not *37:33* I I wanna say easy, but the fishing game, terrible. *37:36* Hate it. *37:40* Awful. *37:41* Fishing fishing got really bad when it *37:41* Yeah. *37:48* What is the point of that one? *37:48* It's just like blindly fish and good luck. *37:50* I think it was the speed of the shadow was at least how I was interpreting that. *37:53* That was not fun. *37:58* That's not a fair mechanic changeup. *37:59* But No. *38:01* I thought it was interesting that like the boating go-karting mechanic like that minigame is in other banjo games. *38:02* Where you are in a cart, a vehicle kind of coasting around shooting stuff at people. *38:10* But the slide and the fishing were entirely unique. *38:14* Slide wasn't too bad, but it was just straightforward and pretty yeah, I don't know. *38:18* Pretty pretty easy to understand and yeah, nothing much to I appreciate that they put mini games in *38:23* the game, you know? *38:31* Yeah. *38:32* Because that feels like something that would be cut, but they didn't. *38:33* They it found three types and *38:38* incorporated them and found enough variation between making the slide a race, between fishing different types of things or points and negatives, and then the the boating one was only a couple of times. *38:41* They had the shooting gallery one too. *38:53* Which is a pirate ship and stuff like that. *38:55* And Grunty, Grunt there was a boss fight like that. *38:58* Which is cool. *39:01* Those are yeah. *39:03* Nothing to write home about, but they're trying to do different things. *39:04* I think they just recycled things a little bit too much, especially for how few worlds are in the game in the first place, to have like three different instances of the fishing *39:07* game was like uh okay that's I mean how many jiggies is that I mean that five percent of the jiggies in that in that game are tied to the fishing it's a little too much I would say. *39:16* Yeah. *39:27* But yeah I also wonder *39:28* I I don't know this, but I wonder how much of that was mobile oriented too. *39:31* Like this would work well on a phone, so let's do it like this. *39:37* I would love to see the phone version of this game. *39:43* I'll find you a video. *39:45* I'll send it to you. *39:46* I'll put I'll put a link in the show notes. *39:47* It's uh it's a thing. *39:48* It's a site. *39:51* Yeah. *39:52* How did we used to play games on *39:52* Singular Razors. *39:55* Remember that company, Singular, before they were bought by ATT? *39:57* Oh my gosh, yeah, that was iPhone with Singular. *40:00* Yeah. *40:03* That was the thing back in the day. *40:03* I wanted to talk about the difficulty spike. *40:05* At least that I thought. *40:09* I died *40:11* the most in this game. *40:12* This is the banjo game I died the most in. *40:13* Really? *40:15* I didn't have many I died a lot. *40:15* Um I it was the last two worlds. *40:18* Visiting the bee lady and trading in your honeycombs? *40:21* I was. *40:25* I had but I just was I was very prone to death and there was um *40:25* The spike in Spiller's Harbor and Freezing Furnace, I thought was pretty aggressive. *40:35* The curve was pretty harsh. *40:42* Yeah, uh they definitely get more tough around that time the enemies do. *40:44* They hit way harder. *40:48* And if you do not have all of the honeycombs and you're not going to upgrade your health bar, it is pretty *40:49* Um it was pretty staggering how hard that they can hit you. *40:55* I didn't have I wasn't I mean I died a fair amount, but it wasn't anything where it was noticeable for me, I guess, where I was like, wow, this game is *40:59* kicking my butt right now. *41:07* Um so huh, that's interesting. *41:09* Did it I mean obviously it didn't inflate the amount of time that you played the game if you still got in around the same sort of time as me *41:12* But was it more just an annoyance for you then in that regard? *41:19* Yeah, I think a part of it was obviously later enemies hit harder, so two or three honeycombs. *41:23* But also the respawn rate in this game is super fast. *41:30* If you just like walk a little bit off the screen, everything's back. *41:35* That was particularly frustrating. *41:39* Yes. *41:41* The wall of fire that surrounded the switch to Grunty's little castle launcher. *41:41* Yes. *41:49* And so if you *41:49* even nicked a fireball, you've uh you lost health, and if you walked away, it was bad. *41:51* Did you get the jiggy in Spiller's Harbor in the top part of the map where you have to start a *41:56* Timer, do it fast run to the middle, jump on top of that building, start another timer, and then you have to run up other more buildings, and it's like all timed and you all have to do it you have to do it super quickly. *42:05* That *42:17* Took me a while. *42:18* I would get within you know, a frame or two away and it would disappear. *42:19* That took me a bit. *42:25* I eventually got that one, but that one was probably the hardest jiggy in the game for me, for sure. *42:26* Bosses is the last aspect of gameplay I did want to touch on. *42:31* Um I think for me, uh one of the things when we played Tui, I don't know if we really talked about it too much, but Clungo, his boss fights obviously get *42:35* repeated and recycled a couple times throughout that game. *42:46* They do that in this game, but it's with essentially all the boss fights for the most part. *42:49* Or *42:54* To some degree, like even the final boss fight has elements that you've seen before in the previous grunty fights. *42:55* Um, and then all the Klingo fights kind of build off of themselves. *43:00* So there's really not a whole lot to say, I think, in regard to the bosses. *43:03* Uh luckily I found them all to be easy. *43:09* Like you're talking about difficulty. *43:12* I did not have any trouble with them. *43:14* I know I texted you and told you this, but I got to the final *43:15* boss and I got to the final phase of Grunty and I had one honeycomb left and she had her full health bar and I was like well this sucks I'm not gonna be able to beat this *43:19* And I did end up beating it without getting touched in that entire final phase of the fight, which, thank god, I would have been very upset if I had to restart it. *43:29* But uh *43:38* But yeah, I the bosses are, I don't know, they're fine, they're serviceable. *43:39* I guess I shouldn't expect ten different bosses. *43:44* Banjo Kazooie's never really been a boss heavy series in the first place *43:46* So it's not something I think of when I think of these games anyway, but yeah. *43:50* I don't know. *43:54* What was your thoughts? *43:55* I appreciate that Klungo is a boss. *43:56* Um *43:59* gives, you know, it keeps that consistency with Tui, I like that. *44:00* But it was all super easy. *44:03* The *44:05* Like the ghost? *44:08* Like why is there a pirate ship ghost? *44:09* I don't know. *44:11* Yeah. *44:12* That seemed like really weird and out of the blue *44:12* B and was that also the only like quote unquote additional boss? *44:16* It was Grunty Clungo and a Ghost *44:23* Like that just feels a little weird. *44:25* Um Grunty herself, everything up to her castle is super easy. *44:27* There's no hard phase or or what have you. *44:32* It's *44:35* All super straightforward, three hits, memorize the pattern and go. *44:35* Um the final boss version of her though *44:40* A little bit dragged out, a little long in the tooth, and again they hit pretty hard. *44:44* So the first phase is easy. *44:48* There's a quiz. *44:50* Can't forget that there it's a banjo game, so there has to be a quiz, right? *44:52* Yeah. *44:56* And then Clungo in the middle of it, in his most annoying form of invisible shield, and summons enemies that could only be killed by the gun. *44:56* At least in my experience it was only with the gun. *45:08* And then a v like a twelve hit final fight with Grunty. *45:12* I think they drag *45:16* For a game that has a pretty brisk pace, the final fight did not feel very brisk. *45:18* And I have to uh I have to admit here *45:23* I used save state because I was just so annoyed with Did you get did you have trouble with the final boss? *45:27* Did were you not in my camp of being able to beat it in one try? *45:32* I was not. *45:37* I c uh would get to Klungo *45:37* And he would take all of my health. *45:41* And it's not because Klungo is hard, it's because I'd get cornered by those floaty ghost things while trying to s find ammo that would hurt them and *45:43* take two damage and then Klungo would throw a thing so I'd go into Grunty like you with one thing and I wanna I couldn't last. *45:53* So um *46:01* When I got too grunty with a decent chunk of health, I used the analog pocket save state feature. *46:02* Nice. *46:08* And just did it until I won. *46:09* Um *46:12* So, you know, game shame or not, I don't know. *46:13* I couldn't have the skills childhood max had. *46:16* So I I used safe states to get through that fight. *46:19* But I did beat it. *46:23* Credits rolled. *46:24* I win? *46:25* A win's a win. *46:26* I used safe states back in the day on Millennial Gaming Speak when we played uh Mega Man 2, because there's no earthly way I was going to beat that naturally by myself, so *46:28* All is forgiven. *46:38* Um That's that's funny though. *46:39* The power of the analog pocket. *46:42* Otherwise you wouldn't have been able to beat the game. *46:44* Regarding the final boss fight too though, we have to bring up uh the quiz. *46:46* Because of course, as Log says in Banjo Kazooie Nuts and Bolts, it's not a real banjo game unless we put a quiz in it at the end. *46:50* Uh I really did not think one would be in this game though. *46:58* I guess I should be is there one in Banjo Pilot? *47:02* That I mean, I feel like there has to be somewhere. *47:06* Uh it's quite possible *47:09* What did you think about the quiz showing up? *47:12* Did you like it any more did you like it any more than the other ones? *47:14* Or I I don't know. *47:19* It felt very forced in this time around compared to the other ones for sure. *47:21* More forced than two-eyed with it being in the middle of the boss fight. *47:26* Nuts and bolts was kind of forced too with how they splice it in in between the like *47:33* sections of that yeah. *47:38* I don't mission you're doing. *47:39* I wish there were more questions. *47:41* It was only three questions. *47:43* Yeah there's not many. *47:45* Well I think if you get them right you move on. *47:46* If I'm correct. *47:49* Yeah. *47:50* I just I wish there was more. *47:51* Honestly. *47:53* It was fun. *47:54* I like that it showed up. *47:54* It kept again *47:56* It's not a banjo game without a quiz. *47:58* It's part of that experience. *48:00* So I'm glad that they at least put some effort into it. *48:01* It was not particularly it's definitely the easiest quiz of the bunch, just because it's so short and the depth of it wasn't tough. *48:05* You know, where is this? *48:12* What is this sound? *48:13* You know, things like that. *48:15* But there's a quiz in it, which makes it a real Banjo game. *48:16* Uh would you like to talk about the music briefly and the sounds and all that stuff before we go back and rank the levels here right quick? *48:20* Do you have anything grand that you want to s declare about the music? *48:28* Cause I really don't. *48:32* I think the soundtrack in this game is good. *48:33* Uh these Game Boy era soundtracks have like this *48:35* This vibe to them that I I I mean maybe it is just limited by the hardware itself and what you can do on it. *48:41* But *48:48* It r it really pulled that out of me. *48:48* It made me remember some of those older Game Boy scores and what those sounded like on the hardware more than it really made me think about *48:51* banjo as a whole or anything like that. *48:59* Um that was kind of my feelings on it. *49:01* But the music is totally different for the most part. *49:06* They don't they don't lean on *49:08* uh the music from the other games, which I think is actually kind of interesting because the other games I mean there are I think there are homages to it. *49:10* Yeah, there are for sure. *49:20* And then it calls back to it. *49:21* The only thing I really wrote down about sound was the sound effects and where some of them were deeper *49:23* Then you would expect, but others were spot on. *49:31* Uh I found that a little bit interesting. *49:35* I don't know if that was the emulation on the pocket. *49:37* Uh it's that's quite possible, but I feel like that's it was fairly authentic there, because the rest of it seemed pretty fine. *49:40* It was just weird that, you know, some sounds from Kazooie or moves or banjo would sound deeper *49:46* And then a jinjo would have the perfect pitch of Jinjo. *49:53* So I it's interesting. *49:57* It I think they caught the spirit of it while being limited with artwork. *49:59* Which again is kind of the theme of this game. *50:04* It's the spirit of banjo unlimited hardware. *50:06* I wonder what the mobile game sounds like. *50:10* That's a good point. *50:13* I didn't think about that. *50:15* I d maybe they had to come up with a soundtrack that worked on both the Game Boy and Razorphones of the day. *50:16* Yeah, I mean looking at the footage of this, the mobile game is wildly different. *50:23* Um like shockingly different *50:29* Is it does it look better or worse than a God of War? *50:34* I think betrayal. *50:41* I think God of War betrayal looks way better than this. *50:42* I mean you can tell from the thumbnail. *50:45* Cut of war betrayal was only played on the most top tier of Sony phones. *50:47* Um *50:52* I'm watching this now too, and uh yeah, that's quite the different game. *50:53* Well, it looks like it has to move on a singular axis other than it's not isometric in that traditional way. *50:57* Up down left. *51:05* But man, some of these even like wow. *51:06* Some of like the writing in this game looks like it was just like pasted on very strange. *51:09* Yeah, this game's wild. *51:16* I think this is a whole different game, honestly. *51:19* Maybe we need to play this for our fifth and final episode. *51:22* Talk about this version of the game solely. *51:26* Um it's pretty crazy. *51:29* Alright, let's let's do our let's do our due diligence here one last time and rank the levels. *51:32* Uh again we've got Spiral Mountain, Cliff Farm, Brigle Beach, Bad Magic Bayou, Spiller's Harbor, Freezing Furnace, and Grunty's Castle. *51:37* I say let's not count Grunty's Castle, because you know that's just *51:46* I would like to say let's count Spiral Mountain though, because this is a pretty fleshed out level on its own that they put ten jiggies in. *51:50* And a hundred notes and five. *51:58* And a hundred notes, yeah. *52:00* It's totally a level. *52:01* on its own. *52:04* So I do say we include it with the proper group here. *52:04* Uh so of these six, which ones *52:09* I I it's to be honest, they all are very clumped together for me, more so than normal. *52:13* I *52:20* Whatever however whatever way you are feeling most passionately, just the tell me which ones you're thinking. *52:25* I think Breagel Beach is the best level in the game. *52:33* And this is why. *52:37* Because I think the environments are diverse. *52:39* There's a quarry, the *52:41* Dilapidated castle with the pirate ship. *52:44* There's the underwater portion. *52:47* This game has underwater segments that are actually not too terrible and short. *52:48* Then there's the beach stuff and saving uh the Brigals. *52:55* I think Breagle Beach is the most diverse. *52:59* It also features, you know, part of the level is without Kazooie. *53:02* And then you get Kazoe through it. *53:06* So I think that's mechanically pretty interesting. *53:08* So I think Brigo Beach is the best. *53:11* I mean going off of that, I was going to say I think Cliff Farm should be near the top as well because it is another level without Kazooie. *53:14* Um I which I think is interesting in some ways because *53:22* The series has never done that before, so it's kind of interesting to see what things they throw at you. *53:25* Um I also think that that level compared to all the others is, like I said before, the only really unique level in this whole game that I can't think of that's from anything else. *53:30* Uh it's more short, it's compact, but I think the way that they segment everything is a lot better. *53:40* Spoiler alert *53:47* I think the worst level in the game is Bad Magic Bayou because I don't like how everything is segmented in that level. *53:48* It feels like things are too yeah, it's too it's all too it's very disjointed compared to a lot of the other levels in the game. *53:53* And I feel like Cliff Farm everything kind of feels naturally like you don't ever feel lost, you know where to go. *54:01* Uh I'm fine with putting Brigle at one because I do agree with a lot of things you said on that one. *54:07* So you want to put Cliff Farm at two. *54:12* Yeah. *54:15* And I say throw bad magic at the Dead Last, you wanna put that six? *54:16* Yeah, is it six? *54:21* Yes, *54:22* Because yeah, I do not I mean we can talk about that one a little bit more. *54:23* I think the haunted house stuff is cool there that they throw that in there. *54:26* And I think that's because it is tight. *54:29* Like that that l portion of the level makes sense. *54:32* It has a flow. *54:35* I like that Mumbo turn we haven't talked about this at all. *54:37* I like that Mumbo turns you into a candle, which is probably one of the more unique things you can turn into in the whole series. *54:39* What else can you turn into? *54:47* A tank is one of the other months. *54:49* An octopus is the other which yeah, there's not a lot of that one. *54:51* Mouse, him. *54:54* Um, I think that's it. *54:56* There's I think there's all tank, mouse, candle, octopus. *54:58* And then you can turn back into a bear. *55:01* Yeah. *55:04* So it's nice that Banjo I mean yeah, he does get transformations. *55:05* Mumbo's pad has like a Simon says thing in the middle and some fur rugs. *55:09* Seems pretty comedic. *55:16* Mumbo. *55:18* I like the candle and the octopus the most. *55:22* Yeah. *55:26* Uh yeah. *55:27* I just wish there was a little bit more to do with the octopus. *55:28* I can't think of anything that you really do with it. *55:31* You can just jump higher out of water when you're *55:33* That and then you can get in dangerous water. *55:35* Yes. *55:38* And you can get in dangerous water too. *55:38* Yeah. *55:40* But there's not a whole lot to do with it. *55:40* I think you can also backtrack with the transformations. *55:42* So I wouldn't be surprised if you can. *55:45* So like you could go back to Brigle Beach and probably swim *55:47* with unlimited air as the octopus or something. *55:49* Um I would put I think I would put Spiral Mountain third, personally, because I think that that's a pretty solid overworld. *55:53* Again, it's larger than all of the other ones. *56:01* And it's a little harder to maybe not it is kind of difficult to get around at times, but as far as overworlds go, I was actually pretty *56:04* impressed by how it keeps you engaged that the little tasks tasks that they throw around in between going from level to level *56:15* Um, and I was more impressed by that compared to the things in Spiller's Harbor and Freezing Furnace by comparison. *56:23* Yeah. *56:33* I I agree with you. *56:34* I think the cool thing about Spiral Mountain is is the further you got in the game, the more of it opened up. *56:35* It's like an ogre, you know? *56:41* Then you got layers. *56:43* There's onion like an onion. *56:44* Exactly. *56:46* So the further you got in, the more there was to explore, things to discover. *56:46* Jinjos, Jiggies, all to pad out and help you unlock more levels. *56:54* I think it was a pretty well designed overworld that was also fairly *56:59* Easy to remember, like g the farm is right next to the Jiggy Temple, and then the beach is further up. *57:05* And so like you just progressively get further from the temple. *57:13* So you always kinda know where you need to go. *57:17* So I I like Spiral Mountain. *57:19* It does a it does a good job of having you move out. *57:21* Like like I said, the world is very big, but it doesn't uh *57:23* It doesn't inundate you with information up front. *57:27* It's like just go here first and then we'll go to this world which is the farm and then we're gonna make you go a little bit further out and then a little bit further out. *57:30* It kinda slowly introduces to you just how big this *57:36* world is and it obviously gates those things off because you don't have moves to access them Spillers Harbor and Freezing Furnace I *57:40* I think Spiller Harbors is five and freezing furnace is I think I'm fine with that because Spiller's Harbor has the most annoying jiggy in the game, which is the one we talked about before, which is that timed one. *57:49* Uh I also think Spiller's Harbor, uh like I mentioned with Bad Magic Bayou is just there's too many different things going on. *58:03* There's a huge pool of water in the middle of the level, but then you can go north and there's a bunch of random *58:10* houses and things like that and then but if you go off to the side there's another beach area and a sand castle and the other thing with this one too, and maybe this is kind of cool or *58:16* Kind of not. *58:26* Uh but you mentioned how you can transform into some of the other creatures that Mumbo can turn you into. *58:27* This level requires for a couple of the jiggies that you do that. *58:32* Like you have to go turn into a mouse and then you can go to the sand castle and then *58:36* Which is kind of cool but also like I I I like it when these games only only make you turn into the *58:40* creature that is confined to that certain level if that makes any sense because I feel like they do some more interesting things with it. *58:47* And that's not to say that that this level doesn't, because there's a whole sequence with the octopus where you're swimming down the *58:53* Uh River Thing. *59:00* Yeah, the sewer pipe. *59:02* So they do things with that in this, but also *59:04* I don't know. *59:08* I I don't I don't th there's something in my brain that's broken with the idea of like I'm gonna transform into this thing I learned three levels ago and then go do other tasks that that involve that. *59:08* Um *59:19* It's yeah, yeah. *59:20* It feels too disjointed and freezing furnace I think the ice part of it feels disjointed. *59:21* But the fire, lava, volcano industry part I is pretty is fairly straightforward. *59:31* Yeah, I like the grunty industries part of it. *59:37* I the *59:39* Icy stuff not so much. *59:40* Um But also it's the last level in the game and you only need fifty or I fifty or sixty, I forget, whatever jiggies. *59:42* I think fifty. *59:50* To fight and so it's one that at least I felt fine not finishing all the way. *59:51* So I would just *59:56* I just made sure I had enough jiggies to go do the fight. *59:58* So it that helped alleviate the pressure of *01:00:01* It feeling disjointed. *01:00:06* Yeah. *01:00:08* So that makes our official list then. *01:00:09* Uh number one, Brigle Beach, two, Cliff Farm, three, Spiral Mountain, four, freezing furnace, five Spillers Harbor *01:00:12* Six bad magic bayou. *01:00:20* Turns out the bad level is the bad one. *01:00:23* Is it the bad one, yeah. *01:00:26* I'll give it to Rare though. *01:00:28* They *01:00:30* They have good names for all of their levels. *01:00:30* Like all these levels that we've been naming and ranking throughout all of these games have all largely been pretty good. *01:00:33* Maybe nuts and bolts notwithstanding because there's some. *01:00:39* I mean I like Terrarium of Terror. *01:00:42* I think that's a really good name. *01:00:44* That one's okay. *01:00:45* Except the terror part of it, I'm not really sure what they're *01:00:46* I I I don't know. *01:00:50* That level's weird. *01:00:51* It's a good name, but I don't know how it applies to the level. *01:00:53* Um Yeah, that's kind of everything about *01:00:56* Grunty's Revenge, I think we wanted to talk about here, unless you had anything else. *01:01:00* Uh with this being our final episode of the season, we are going to have kind of a full wrap-up discussion for the series as a whole, but did you want to say anything else about Grunty's Revenge here *01:01:04* Apparently there are two versions of the mobile game as well. *01:01:13* I didn't know how deep this mobile game rabbit hole went. *01:01:16* We should have researched way more about the mobile game. *01:01:20* We should have just played the mobile game. *01:01:22* It's the there's Banjo Kazooie Grunty's Revenge Mobile, which is like a way cut down version of the game. *01:01:25* both in size of worlds and like there's no mini games. *01:01:34* But then there's also Banjo Kazoe Grunty's Revenge Missions, which is a mobile port of the eight mini games originating from the Game Boy Advance. *01:01:38* So they like double dipped there. *01:01:46* But it's there are only 500 notes, 28 jiggies, 15 jinjos, and 10 moves *01:01:48* The best thing about me watching this mobile footage over here is that every time Banjo in this video picks up a note, the game like freezes for about half a second. *01:01:56* And then it continues from there. *01:02:06* That uh to be fair, that could be the emulator that is being used in the footage. *01:02:08* It could, but I could also 1000% see just being the *01:02:13* I mean Apparently there's like no mumbo transformations in the game. *01:02:17* Like the entire lava section of freezing furnace is just gone. *01:02:22* This sounds wild. *01:02:27* Um, and it was so this says this was developed by Sabiko *01:02:30* But then like another developer. *01:02:39* But another page, the Grunty's missions, at least says it was developed by Rare. *01:02:40* That is wild, man. *01:02:47* I'm my mind is being blown by the depth of this, so. *01:02:49* Maybe we'll do a surprise bonus episode where we just play this game, this version of the game. *01:02:53* Possibly. *01:02:59* Spoiler alert, we really won't. *01:02:59* Okay, so let's uh as I said, this is the end of *01:03:02* Season three of our banjo season here at Chapter Select. *01:03:06* If you've listened to all these episodes, thank you so much. *01:03:10* Uh we appreciate it. *01:03:12* But before we go *01:03:14* Let's do what we normally do here when we wrap up a season. *01:03:16* Just talk about all these games as a whole and this whole franchise and uh Banjo Kazooie's legacy and things like that. *01:03:18* Uh I mean I guess, yeah. *01:03:27* Keep it simple, move uh out of the gate. *01:03:29* What do you think is this franchise's lasting legacy at the moment? *01:03:32* It's so strange because it's clearly beloved. *01:03:38* I mean Yeah, by time the the when we're recording this is uh you know, we're here in June now of twenty twenty two. *01:03:43* Microsoft just had their big E3 summer showcase, but like going into it, there were rumors of Banjo and Kazooie will return here. *01:03:53* It was trending the day of the showcase and people love these characters and this world and some of these games. *01:04:03* Uh no banjo game showed up at that summer showcase, which probably also leaded to part of its trending. *01:04:13* But I can't really there are few series. *01:04:20* I can think of maybe not few. *01:04:25* Maybe if I sat down and like came up with a list. *01:04:27* But it is definitely one of those series that has few games. *01:04:30* Like the game to appreciation and love ratio is like very low game count, but super high fan base and appreciation. *01:04:35* And I think that is probably its legacy in the sense that this is a this kind of paved the way for character-based 3D platformers, which was huge. *01:04:46* obviously on the N sixty four, but also going into the PS two and GameCube era and things like that. *01:04:59* And now we're sorta getting a renaissance of that it with indies in *01:05:05* ukulele, Hatt and Time, like these types of it's the influence of this type of game is still ongoing. *01:05:10* Yet there's there hasn't been a quote unquote proper banjo Kazooie game since 2000. *01:05:19* Twenty-two years. *01:05:29* And so I think that's *01:05:31* It's kind of shocking. *01:05:33* And the the other shocking thing I just want to say again is that I'm surprised at how much nuts and bolts actually is kind of a banjo game. *01:05:35* When you really think about it, it's just weird with this it should have been a different game, but it does have that banjo spirit. *01:05:47* It's just *01:05:57* Yeah, it's muddied by a really great creation system. *01:06:01* It's you know three different types of games at once and it it muddies those waters. *01:06:05* But I am surprised at how *01:06:10* Not as terrible nuts and bolts was, so it's I it's good. *01:06:13* I think I think for me, my the more surprising revelation here as we've played all of these is that Tui was bad in my opinion. *01:06:19* Uh like Tui put Tui finally playing through Tui changed my perspective of this franchise. *01:06:27* Like in the moment we're recording this *01:06:33* Uh E3 things just happened. *01:06:36* Not really E3 things, but uh whatever. *01:06:39* Summer Games junk just happened. *01:06:42* Xbox just had its 2022 *01:06:44* uh briefing the other day. *01:06:47* And uh before b before it happened, like the day before there was rumors and reports circling that uh oh there's gonna be a Banjo Kazooie game revealed this year. *01:06:49* And I feel like we hear this every year in some capacity, but this year it seemed like it was actually uh like possible and it was maybe going to happen. *01:06:59* And *01:07:08* Usually when I see those types of reports every year, I get super excited and I'm like, oh my gosh, maybe this is the year. *01:07:09* It's finally happening. *01:07:14* They're saving the banjo Kazooie. *01:07:15* This year when I saw it though, I was like *01:07:17* Hmm, yeah, I don't know, man. *01:07:19* Because I think playing through all of these games just made me realize that I don't know how you bring this back *01:07:22* And currently I think that's the big, I don't want to say it's Banjo's legacy, but where we're at currently in time, one of the lasting *01:07:29* things that surrounds Banjo Kazooie at this point in time is when is there gonna be a new game? *01:07:37* Because it's been roughly 15 years since the last one. *01:07:41* And *01:07:45* Having played through all of these now, I don't know what a banjo Kazooie game in 2022 looks like. *01:07:46* We and you and I talked about it the other day. *01:07:54* I feel like the thing that makes the most sense is to just like remake the original game and then go from there and maybe try to do something new afterwards, but *01:07:56* Like even with ukulele which came out a couple of years ago, that was a really faithful Banjo Kazooie game in a lot of ways, and people kinda trashed it in some ways. *01:08:04* They're like, no, this isn't good, this isn't like Banjo Kazooie at all, this isn't what we like, and *01:08:13* That game did have problems that uh like again it it kind of had some of the two e problems where it was a little too big and kind of cumbersome at times. *01:08:17* Um *01:08:25* Some of those levels just are not good in that game. *01:08:26* But outside of other than that, I thought it was pretty faithful, but people were pretty uh lukewarm in risk in response to it. *01:08:29* So I *01:08:36* I think the legacy of this is yes, this is one of the forefathers of character-based platforming franchises for sure. *01:08:37* Uh this game sparked or this this series sparked *01:08:44* the craze of those in the early two thousands and late nineties. *01:08:48* Uh the the original Banjo Kazoe I stand by is a better game than Super Mario sixty four for my money. *01:08:52* I think it is really one of the best platformers ever made. *01:08:59* Um and so uh by that accord I I I think that it definitely deserves its status as one of the platformer one of the titans of the genre or what or whatnot. *01:09:02* Um *01:09:15* But yeah, I also don't know how they bring it back at this point in time. *01:09:16* And that was the thing I was going to throw to you next is Do you think we'll see Banjo come back? *01:09:19* And if so, how do they do that or approach it or like *01:09:24* Should it come back at this point? *01:09:29* Like have your opinions changed on that? *01:09:31* Like, because before the before we did this season, I know you and I were very gung-ho about hoping that Microsoft would bring it back. *01:09:32* And now I'm *01:09:39* less convinced unless they do it right, but I don't know what that looks like. *01:09:40* I think it can come back. *01:09:45* Um and I say that because it's been *01:09:47* It's been done for some character platformer franchises, specifically, I think, of Sly Cooper. *01:09:51* Sly four Thieves in Time. *01:09:56* truly is a great successor to the original Sly trilogy. *01:09:59* Super capture the spirit and made by a completely different development team. *01:10:04* Look at Crash 4. *01:10:08* I know *01:10:09* You don't like the Crash Bandicoot games, but Crash 4 is praised for being in the vein of that original trilogy, which is really hard to do twenty years later. *01:10:10* And it can be done. *01:10:22* The other thing is I feel like 3D character action platformer type games *01:10:24* are kind of not just making a comeback in the indie scene, I was kind of thinking about it more. *01:10:30* Look at Astrobot, not only rescue mission in VR, but the packing game on PS5. *01:10:36* Yeah. *01:10:43* Uh *01:10:44* That's a fantastic little game. *01:10:44* It feels great, literally in the hands, but it's a it's a rock solid character platformer with fun moments and *01:10:46* Beautiful graphics. *01:10:54* It can be I think a lot of that too, sorry to chime in with AstroBot specifically, I think that's because that game has more narrowed focus. *01:10:55* Obviously, so much so that the game itself is very short. *01:11:01* But I think it shows that if you keep things a little tight and don't allow them to become so blown up like Tui is or like ukulele is, I think people will would love a concise six to seven hour Banjo Kazooie game that's got maybe *01:11:05* seven to eight worlds in it or something like that that you can not beat in an afternoon and just collect every like that's what people want it. *01:11:19* Like the first game. *01:11:29* It just needs and I'm not a remake would be a good starting place just to be fresh with it and look, you know, even better. *01:11:31* But it's gotta be in that vein of frankly, Banjo Kazooie and Super Mario Odyssey. *01:11:41* Now, Super Mario Odyssey is massive because it has a ton of worlds, 900 moons to collect. *01:11:48* Which doesn't feel overwhelming when you go back and uh when I think about that, that quantity doesn't seem insane. *01:11:54* I don't want the 30 hour Banjo Kazooie game that's Odyssey. *01:12:03* I want the shorter one, but the vein of design. *01:12:07* You know, there are some worlds in Odyssey that are super small and tight. *01:12:09* I think that sort of approach for banjo would feel great and can be done. *01:12:14* Other platformers are popping up in my head. *01:12:20* Super Lucky's Tale, which was VR and normal 3D. *01:12:23* There is space for this, and Banjo and Kazooie paved the way for these types of games, and I think that having it come back into this space. *01:12:28* an understanding what makes it good would uh it can be successful that way. *01:12:39* The pr the question is who would make that? *01:12:46* Is it rare again? *01:12:48* Rare could do it. *01:12:49* Rare doesn't want to do it. *01:12:50* That's I don't think they do. *01:12:51* They're they're on Sea of Thieves, Everwild. *01:12:53* Well the whole studio is just different. *01:12:55* Like that's why Platonic went off and was like, We're gonna make ukulele because we're the people that made banjo, so we would like to keep making this type of game. *01:12:56* Rare is different now. *01:13:03* Um and even if there are people there that have been with the company for life or whatever, they are it they're just in a different era. *01:13:05* Um so yeah, another studio would need to come along. *01:13:13* Heck, maybe even Platonic would get the license and do it or something like that. *01:13:15* I don't know. *01:13:19* Uh there the thing is, Banjo is such a beloved franchise that *01:13:20* Uh like we're talking about like which developer would do it? *01:13:25* I don't know. *01:13:27* There is one thousand percent developers out there that are fully capable of taking this on and would jump at the opportunity to work with Microsoft in a second party fashion. *01:13:28* to create a new banjo game. *01:13:39* And if the right pitch came along, I have to believe that Microsoft would green light such a project because *01:13:41* They know that people want to do it. *01:13:47* They or they know that people want a new game that I just think they don't want us expend a lot of resources towards it, especially with one of their own internal studios. *01:13:48* I'm sure *01:13:57* Phil doesn't want to go to Rare and be like, hey, we need you to make a new banjo game or something like that. *01:13:58* And that's not even how they operate anyway, because again, it seems like most of the studios just kind of pitch what they want to make and Xbox is like, okay, sure, make that game then. *01:14:02* Um *01:14:11* Yeah, I guess the one last thing I want to say in regards to any potential revivals, if any future developers that are going to make a Banjo Kazooie game are listening to this for some reason and are wanting to know what real fans want *01:14:12* For the love of all that is holy, even in a potential remake of the first game, just use the use the uh character model *01:14:26* That is in Smash or something very similar to that. *01:14:37* Because that character model is great. *01:14:41* It is different, but it is a million times better than nuts and bolts. *01:14:43* Yes. *01:14:47* It is different, but it is true to what the characters are. *01:14:47* And it like my fear is that if they remake this game or something, they're like they're gonna be like, let's put 4K textures on everything and make Banjo have real hair that flows in the wind. *01:14:51* No, nothing like that *01:15:03* Use the cartoon character models and make them look cartoony and stylized and again the Smash character model is perfect. *01:15:05* I don't want to see real hairs on Banjo's face. *01:15:14* That's not something I want. *01:15:20* It's like when it's like when Nintendo's like our technology is getting so good you can see the strands of hair on Mario's mustache. *01:15:22* I'm like, no one wants to see that. *01:15:28* He's a cartoon character. *01:15:29* Um *01:15:31* Yeah, it'd be like if they made Mickey Mouse like all hairy and they're like he's a real mouse, he's got hair all over him. *01:15:32* It's like no one wants to see this *01:15:39* So yeah, I the I think the last thing to really put a cap on the legacy before we wrap up here is um *01:15:42* The the Smash Reveal. *01:15:53* If you watch that Smash Reveal at the Nintendo Store in New York *01:15:55* The hoopin' and hollering, the jumping up and down. *01:16:00* If you watch it in the E three press room in two thousand and nineteen while sitting next to me. *01:16:02* You would have heard some sounds come from my mouth. *01:16:10* And that I think is what's so cool about Bandun Kazooie is that it's still so beloved even twenty plus years later. *01:16:13* It's that's remarkable. *01:16:22* And I think that's uh I think that's why we did this season. *01:16:25* I think that's what's so special about it. *01:16:28* Uh, you know, the duo is the reason. *01:16:31* Yeah, for sure. *01:16:36* For people to still be clamoring every *01:16:37* summer around June saying Xbox please make this the year you bring back banjo and that we haven't had a core banjo game in fifteen years I think really speaks to how much people do like this series. *01:16:40* Would people buy it? *01:16:53* I don't know, but it's surely something that would uh it's surely something that people would play and be excited about. *01:16:55* Again. *01:17:02* Double find is owned now. *01:17:03* If you want to give it to an internal studio, there you go. *01:17:05* Double find banjo. *01:17:08* Do it somebody. *01:17:10* Do it. *01:17:11* Um that would be honestly, if if rare's not gonna make it, that would be my dream dev to make it *01:17:12* But you know how much they like double fine. *01:17:16* I don't know if I would want like Tim Schaefer's team making it, but if like a smaller team within that studio was like, hey, we're gonna make this banjo game now, they totally could. *01:17:19* They did fine with uh Psychonauts, that game's great *01:17:27* That's Banjo Kazooie. *01:17:29* We've played all the banjo games. *01:17:31* I hope you played them along with us or at the very least you enjoyed our conversations about these games. *01:17:32* Uh *01:17:38* Yeah, that's season three of Chapter Select. *01:17:39* Thank you so much for joining us this time around. *01:17:41* Uh we will be back *01:17:44* In the fall of 2022 with uh season four, which we are about to enter production on here in the coming months, uh, we've got that all planned out now. *01:17:46* Max and I just finalized *01:17:58* Max and I have finalized to give you a peek behind the curtain, not to say too much, but we have now finalized plans for seasons four, five, and six. *01:18:00* So uh we have things coming at you *01:18:08* Uh then we know what they're going to do. *01:18:12* Yeah. *01:18:14* We know we know we know where the show is heading. *01:18:15* Uh and we're excited about it and we hope you are too. *01:18:18* Uh the only thing I'll say about season four is that it will be a little bit different. *01:18:20* So *01:18:25* It's gonna be good. *01:18:26* Prepare accordingly. *01:18:27* It will be very, very good. *01:18:29* It'll still be a show where we talk about come on the show and talk about a certain certain things every week, but what those things will be, who knows? *01:18:30* Maybe we're gonna talk about every book in series of unfortunate events novel, and we're gonna read them back and forth. *01:18:38* That would be quite delivery. *01:18:47* In the middle at the AirSatz elevator. *01:18:48* That's a good book. *01:18:51* And to keep up with what season four and then season five and season six are, uh, you can follow the show on Twitter at chapter select *01:18:52* You could also go to chapterselect. *01:19:03* com. *01:19:05* That's where everything is kept up to date. *01:19:05* You could follow Logan on Twitter at Moreman12. *01:19:08* You can find his writing over at comicbook. *01:19:12* com. *01:19:14* You can follow myself on Twitter at maxroberts143 and my writing over at maxfrequency. *01:19:15* Thank you so much for listening to this season 3e, and we look forward to the future of the show and sharing that with you very soon. *01:19:22* Until next time, adios. *01:19:30* Chapter Select is a max frequency production. *01:19:33* This episode was research, produced, and edited by me, Max Roberts. *01:19:36* Season 3 is hosted by Logan Moore and myself. *01:19:40* Season three is all about Banjo Kazooie. *01:19:44* For more on the season, go to chapterselect. *01:19:47* com forward slash season three. *01:19:49* Follow the show at Chapter Select and check out previous seasons at ChapterSelect. *01:19:53* com *01:19:58*