Banjo and Kazooie are not really what I remember them to be. I got Banjo-Kazooie on the XBLA yesterday and played a bit with it. I almost fully completed three whole worlds in about two or three hours. Something is wrong here.
It came out originally 10 years ago when I was still a little 10 years old boy with big open eyes in front of the wonders of 3D. In my memories, the worlds were huge and it would take hours just to collect everything in them. Yesterday, I rolled through Mumbo's Mountain in 15 minutes. Now, is it because of the nostalgia that makes everything bigger and better, my memory that fails me, the fact I was young and that 3D was so new, is it because I remember collecting all of those ten years ago, or am I just a better gamer ? I think that there is a little from all of the above that makes the experience different. Don't get me wrong, I still enjoy the game a lot, but it makes you take some distance and wonder. If a game like this (albeit with better graphics) came out today, what kind of score would it get, what would the critics and reviewers think of it ? What would I think of it ? Would I give it a try or just let it sit there on the shelf and look at the new shooter that just came out. I can't really judge since nostalgia is clouding my judgement, but maybe my opinion would be different about the game.
To para-quote my movie history teacher, Marie-Christine Breault: "The historical context around a movie is very important". The same applies to games. Banjo-Kazooie came out in the last leg of the platformer genre era before it's death around mid 2000, with some of it's last representatives being Super Mario Sunshine and Vexx. It all felt new and shinny, but today it can only appeal to the ones that remember that little twinkle in their eyes they had in their youth playing with a shorts wearing bear with a bird in it's backpack.
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