Ah, Super
Nintendo, you have brought me much joy back in the day when you decided to put
Mario and his collection of friends and foes on karts for racing action that
made it almost seem as if the SNES controller was glued to my hands. I found
similar joy back when Banjo-Kazooie was released, making my love affair
with platform games a true obsession (yes, I admit it, I have a problem). So you
see, when THQ and Rare decided to combine a kart-styled racing game with
Banjo-Kazooie characters I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it. How good is
Banjo Pilot? Let’s just say that people think I glued my Game Boy Advance
to my hands – sigh – some things never change.
The last time
we saw Banjo and his feathered friend Kazooie on the GBA was Banjo-Kazooie:
Grunty’s Revenge, so seeing them out of their usual platform element is a
nice little change. Instead of karts, Banjo and his crew (as well as baddies
like Gruntilda) are behind the steering wheels of airplanes. There are five main
modes: Grand Prix, Time Trial, Jiggy Challenge, Quickrace and Champion
Challenge. Grand Prix, the game’s main mode, consists of four races starting
with the Honeycomb Cup then moving on to the Gold Cup. Time Trial has you racing
against the clock to beat the best lap time. Jiggy Challenge has you racing
against Bottles (who happens to be a mole) but the catch here is that you not
only have to beat him but collect all six jigsaw puzzle pieces scattered
throughout the track. Finish Grand Prix mode and Champion Challenge mode opens,
which has you dueling against the current champion. There’s also a multiplayer
mode fit for up to four players.
The races are
three laps long and the tracks themselves offer plenty of Speed-Up Rings for
extra speed bursts and weapon power-ups for when you want to get the upper hand
on the other racers. While your airplane is armed with bullets, its the weapon
power ups that do the most damage. There are power up that leave frozen eggs for
you opponents to slam into and one that sends a flying saucer that takes down
the lead racer. Gain enough points and you’ll even be able to buy secrets and
extras from Cheato, Gruntilda’s spell book.
Control-wise
the game is not any different from any other Mode 7-styled racing game. Banjo,
Kazooie, Mumbo Jumbo and even Jolly Roger have similar airplanes but some are
able to go just a bit faster than the others do and some can even make sharp
turns. The simplistic controls allow you to make sharp turns and even make a
barrel roll for when you want to dodge enemy fire. In short, it’s perfect and it
allows you to concentrate on winning races. To top it all off, the game also
offers a multiplayer mode that allows up to four players (using GBA Link Cables)
to race each another. Really, this is quite possible the best multiplayer game
you’ll find on the GBA since the Four Swords multiplayer mode in The
Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.
Visually
speaking, Banjo Pilot is a great-looking game with backgrounds straight out of
the Banjo-Kazooie world. Spiral Mountain is a track composed of a forest
area while Freezeey’s Peak is composed of an icy tundra and Jinxy’s Dunes is a
desert track … and that’s just the Honeycomb cup tracks. The good news is that
each of the characters is distinguishable while racing so you’ll know who has
the lead and who is struggling to fly right past you. The bad news is that while
the game is able to display multiple racers on the screen at once you’ll often
find that occasionally the lead racer might block your line of sight. This
really isn’t a constant problem but when it does get in the way it becomes
something of an annoyance. Still, this is great work.
As for the
sound, the soundtrack is not only hilarious it matches the game’s theme
perfectly. You’ll find an assortment of tunes as well, which isn’t bad at all.
Even more hilarious is the voice work that’s made up of the usual funny babble
from past Banjo-Kazooie games. While you won’t hear the characters during
the races, the game does possess some really good sound effects.
Banjo
Pilot isn’t anything new or original
but it’s still one of the most addictively enjoyable racing games you’ll find on
your GBA this year. The game shines as a single-player game, but the multiplayer
mode will knock your socks off so do share this one with a friend or three. So
if you like Banjo and you love kart-racing games, you’ll love this one.
|
#Review |
Gameplay: 8.5
Banjo Pilot
controls like a dream, we’re talking solid
controls that fits well with the Mode 7-style racing. While the game will feel
like your average Nintendo kart racer, going airborne just adds more of a
challenge. The single-player mode is great fun, but it’s the multiplayer mode
that wins big points.
Graphics:
8.0
The backgrounds look great on the
GBA and the effects are particularly eye-catching. You’ll find that the game is
able to display multiple racers on screen at once and while an opponent might
cross your line of sight it doesn’t get bad at all. There’s even an instant
replay of the entire race! It’s great stuff, indeed.
Sound: 8.0
The collection of tunes work well
with the Banjo theme and it never becomes an annoyance. I still find the
character’s weird language hilarious – especially Banjo who sounds so goofy it
won’t fail to make you smile. The sound effects are actually pretty good as
well.
Difficulty: Medium
There are plenty of challenges to be
found the more you advance and if that weren’t enough Time Trail and Jiggy
Challenge will keep you on your toes. The AI opponents are also pretty quick to
recover so you’ll really have hustle in this one.
Concept:
8.2
Banjo-Kazooie
characters in airplanes might not be an
original concept but if you consider how charming the characters are, and how
true to the kart racing style of Mario and Friends (the game was originally to
be called Diddy Kong Pilot using Donkey Kong Country characters),
you have a game that just as hard to put down. There are plenty of characters
and enough challenges to go around.
Multiplayer: 8.5
While the single-player mode is
nothing to sneeze at it’s the game’s multiplayer mode that makes this one a true
joy to play. Grab three other friends (with their own GBA and copies of their
games, of course) and hook up those GBA Link Cables because this is racing
action at its most fun.
Overall:
8.2
Banjo Pilot
is one of those games that isn’t big on
originality but it excels in what it set out to do: bring us a racing game
that’s truly addictive in every sense. So you’ve played a racing kart game like
this before but with plenty of replay value and a killer multiplayer mode you’ll
love what Rare did with this one.
