British games developers took different approaches to the upheaval of the second half of the ‘90s as we went from home computers to consoles being the dominant type of game platform. Many carried on making PC games to diminishing returns (or even to increasing returns for a while, like Sports Interactive with the Championship Manager series). Some refined an existing niche that threaded the needle between the two audiences, like Codemasters and their racing games. Others managed to strike out in bold new directions accessible to both and reaped the rewards, like DMA with Grand Theft Auto and Core with Tomb Raider.
Then there were the few British developers who were already firmly based in the world of consoles before the PlayStation came around. Argonaut reached success in at least the commercial sense with Croc, and we will be meeting them again soon. Their fellow SNES hit developers Rare, though, put that in the shade with Goldeneye 007. And building on the innovative triumphs of that and Donkey Kong Country, they were now trying something equally ambitious in its own way – taking on Nintendo at their own game.
Banjo-Kazooie is a bright cartoon 3D platformer starring the duo Banjo (he’s a bear) and Kazooie (she’s a bird). Its approach to the genre makes very clear that it wouldn’t exist without Super Mario 64. It has a lot of the same moves, the same set up with hub location and sprawling worlds, with some similar concepts and the same kind of challenges to get golden puzzle pieces instead of gold stars. Rare stick closely to the formula to the point where they can lampshade and undercut the similarity. To access each new world, you have to put puzzle pieces in place to complete a framed portrait of the level, and the portraits look the perfect size and place to jump into like Mario. Instead, though, completing them triggers an opening with a sparkle somewhere else.
That is typical of Banjo-Kazooie’s relation to Super Mario 64. It is more complex, with some new twists, like more complete transformations into different animals which allow you to reach new areas. It features some breathtaking views, like from the tower at the very top of Treasure Trove Cove, and its looks are more detailed and polished in general. It seems to be designed for people who already played Super Mario 64, not least in its steep difficulty curve, which partly comes from taking collectamania to a new level even compared to Donkey Kong Country.
Banjo-Kazooie’s worlds have something to do everywhere, and it has someone to talk to you everywhere. Not just the other characters chirp up, but things like eggs and oranges. They don’t do so with actual worded speech, but in text with nonsense noises arranged musically. That fits with a wider theme of the game, with sound and music at its centre from the name on in. There is so much of it and it’s so well done. One I particularly enjoy is the trilling sound when you get the red feather that lets Kazooie fly higher, which is also surely one more reference, to Super Mario Bros. 3.
The in-your-face constancy of the dialogue and noises ties into another way that Banjo-Kazooie is distinctive, and distinctively British. Rare’s idea of a cartoon platformer includes the sidekick spending the game exchanging petty insults with the tutorial-supplier. It includes a cackling witch antagonist who intervenes in terrible verse at relevant (and irrelevant) moments throughout, and her sister who tells you all her disgusting secrets. It includes her plan to swap beauty levels with Banjo’s sister, outraged at someone being prettier, and they’re keen enough to make sure that you watch this play out in its grotesque… glory(?) that even if you just save and leave the game you get treated to the game over sequence. Banjo-Kazooie is family entertainment in one particular, and very British, tradition: it’s pantomime. I don’t know if anyone actually says “she’s behind you!” or “oh no you didn’t!” at any point, but it would fit perfectly.
All of that is not completely to my taste. The combination of fairytale simplicity and emphasis on female physical beauty is uncomfortable, with or without the associated bad taste jokes. The hunting of collectibles quickly gets past the level I really enjoy it. But I can recognise an impressive achievement in that this is a game which stays closer to Super Mario 64 than many of its rivals and yet has more of its own identity, and is far less likely to prompt the thought ‘why don’t i just play Super Mario 64 instead’. And there is something enjoyable in a game with so much pantomime in it becoming such a success in America. Rare got where they were by looking outwards early on, but even as they reached out ever more to the wider world, they were keeping a space for niche British culture.
