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#5. Banjo-Kazooie (1998)
Total Points: 73
List Appearances: 26
First Place Votes: 3
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Write-up provided by Kamekguy
Banjo-Kazooie was the last game I played with my mother before she completely stopped playing video games. The 3D camera of games like Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time made her motion sick very easily, but for whatever reason, Banjos follow-behind camera was comparatively okay, so this was the last adventure I remember having with her before I became the one who plays video games. Because of that, theres probably no world in gaming that I have memorized more thoroughly, able to picture pretty much every room in the game in my mind, all the jingles, all the characters - it was my mission to savor this experience as much as possible.

Fortunately, Banjo-Kazooie might have been one of the best possible games to do that with.

If Mario 64 is a celebration of 3D movement, Banjo is a celebration of 3D space. The bear and bird are quite a bit slower than Mario is at navigation, but to compensate, nearly every inch of Gruntildas Lair has something to it. Be it a collectible, a character, or a small little challenge, theres a very deliberate, adventurous spirit about Banjo that injects personality into every one of its worlds. Every NPC has a stupid name and voice, every tiny little area has a different musical motif of the stagea main theme that you might hear for less than a minute, every move adding to your repertoire in an attempt to give every single button on the N64 controller a place and function (with apologies to D-Pad/L Button control enthusiasts). There is an earnest desire to maximize both the players options and every bit of real estate to make each world matter, from the almost puzzle box like nature of infiltrating Mad Monster Mansion or Rusty Bucket Bay to the way the seasons change the world in Click Clock Wood to how transformations let you traverse the smallest nooks and crannies of Bubblegloop Swamp, and even extra bits of Gruntildas Lair! Banjo is a game that actively rewards every bit of exploration a player can give with a wide breadth of collectibles and secrets, so much so that the penultimate boss fight is a trivia contest challenging you to remember it all! Everything in Kazooie is tightly and neatly designed around the idea of collection, but everything is left compact and purposeful in ways that many other 3D platformers and adventure games in general following in its footsteps would struggle to reach.

The moment that I first took flight in Kazooie was indescribable. Id felt Mario fly around, Id seen Pilotwings, I knew how it was supposed to feel. But when I could keep mashing the button to make Kazooie fly higher in Treasure Trove Cove, and the music faded out, and I found a lighthouse towering over the stage that, in any other game Id encountered to this point, would be a totally different zone? I felt Id somehow cheated the game. It felt like this wasnt how platformers were supposed to work, they couldnt be this big or congruous or densely made. And, in that regard, I think BK might be the most N64 game on the N64. Its not the biggest, its not the most ambitious, its not the best controlling, most technically impressive, or funniest. But it earnestly builds around all of the wonder that being in 3D space can provide, with purpose and elegance, and achieves all of the ambitions it sets out to capture with a cheeky grin and some pretty dang good jumps ice keys rendered uncollectible by future hardware updates excluded!

Write-up provided by MrSmartGuy
I actually typically straight-up dislike platformer games. But Banjo Kazooie is 64-bit collectathon platforming perfection. The characters are goofy and their jokes land pretty well. The levels are beautiful and full of things to find (something the sequel had a lot of trouble with). And it just feels awesome to play. Banjo and Kazooie have dozens of moves to keep from ever feeling stale, and just in case it was, you have Mumbo Jumbo turning them into an alligator or a honeybee to really switch things up. The missions are tons of fun, and totally varied from level to level, and you can explore to your heart's content, because it doesn't rip you out of the level when you get a jiggy and ruin the pacing!

I used to casually speedrun this game back in the 2010s on XBLA. It keeps track of your best times for you and has a leaderboard to push more competition. I think my best time ever was just shy of 3 hours, but its been a few years since Ive hopped on to see, so I may well be exaggerating on that. I didn't know any of the tricks, but I just had so much fun playing it that I loved playing it over and over.