Glen-i

Can't help but feel the SMB 3 box art would look a bit tacky as a poster with that text on the side, but eh, they're pretty cool.

Player's Choice tonight at 8pm.

Saying this as someone who thinks that Xenoblade Chronicles is one of the finest series of RPG's we've ever had. This game sucks. And no amount of improvements is gonna change that. Enjoy faffing about with that menu with no Gamepad!

Wow, I don't know why there's been a sudden increase in the pace of NSO releases, but I'm not complaining! Hey, now there's enough in the naughty N64 app to fill up the whole screen! Turok 2 isn't totally surprising, what with the first game already being there, but Shadow Man is a nice surprise. Might give that one a go. At this point, Turok Rage Wars has to happen eventually. It's too much of a good fit for NSO.

Ah, but now you have new abilities. Might be able to go places you couldn't before. I said this in the Gaming Diary. But it's better to think of Tooie as a Metroidvania, rather then a platformer. Also, when you're flying/swimming, holding R while turning will make you turn sharper.

I'm gonna hazard a guess here. Was it Mr. Patch? If it is, my advice would be to go to Spiral Mountain, and have a fly around there, you might be able to find a couple of things that will help you out. And while you're there, there's a rock outside Banjo's house, that you should definitely look into. It's worth it.

We've had this conversation before, and we're never gonna agree with this. But I'm gonna have to remind everyone that me, a person who just two days ago, beat Tooie's final boss while only getting hit twice, couldn't even beat it on the XBox because Breegull Blaster's controls were that bad. EDIT: No, actually, there is something that confuses me. What do you mean by "smoother controls"? The most complex button combination this game asks is holding the crouch button, pressing a different button, then continuing to hold crouch while moving around. Which is exactly the same as what the XBLA version asks of the player.

To give a real sense of just how well it runs, @S.C.G recorded three of us playing the multiplayer mode. Hopefully, the timestamp is during our first Squawkmatch. But three player split screen? With Wide-screen enabled? The original version would never be able to pull off 30 FPS there!

...That's a trick question, right? Banjo-Tooie is a 3D platformer game developed by Rare that originally released on the N64 in 2000. It's the sequel to Banjo-Kazooie, and was just added to the N64 NSO app. It's quite important that you know I played that version, by the way. 2 years have passed since Banjo (The bear) and Kazooie (The bird) pushed an old woman off of a tower. Said old woman is Gruntilda, and she's been trapped under a boulder outside of Banjo's house for the past two years. This can't possibly be a bad thing, so Banjo is playing Poker with his pals. But oh no! Bad thing! Two of Grunty's sisters break into the Spiral Mountain area with a massive tank and free her from her rocky prison. Her skin has kind of decayed, and now she's a skeleton. Being the calm, non-vindictative type of person, Gruntilda decides the best course of action is to total Banjo's house, and kill Banjo's friend, Bottles. That last bit isn't very important, he was no-one's favourite character in the first game anyway. So it falls to Banjo and Kazooie to traverse the nearby Isle o' Hags, find Grunty, and make sure we don't get a third game. *sigh* Now I'm sad. Being a Rare game from the 90's, the game is naturally chock full of jokes and a crapton of innuendo, even by 90's Rare standards. I still find it funny. The characters are great, and the dialogue is a joy. The humour is also noticably darker then it's predecessor. The main goal of the game is to explore 8 different worlds and collect golden Jigsaw pieces (They're called Jiggies), there are other things to collect as well. Music Notes are used to learn new abilities for Banjo and Kazooie, and then there's less important ones that offer various benefits. Banjo-Tooie is a bit of a deceptive game. If you've played the first game, you'd be forgiven for thinking that Tooie is similar fare. But the surprising (and most divisive) thing is that instead of the more straight forward progression of Kazooie or Mario 64, Banjo-Tooie is more like a Metroidvania. Even in the first world, it's impossible to get every Jiggy on your first visit (Normally), as you'll need abilities from later stages to complete some tasks. As well as this, the worlds are noticably larger, and they even connect to each other at times. People give it a lot of flack for this, but I much prefer it this way. I find it weird that in this era of massive open worlds, Banjo-Tooie is seen as inferior to Kazooie for this reason, but Tooie has far better level design anyway. Every Jiggy feels like a more signifcant achievement compared to Kazooie, and Banjo has an impressive repertoire of abilities (They start with every ability from the first game, Samus would be appalled). The reason that I said that me playing this on the NSO app is important is because Banjo-Tooie is a very ambitious game. It really pushed the N64 to it's limits, the lighting in particular is amazing for the time, and it didn't utilise the Expansion Pak. This meant that the framerate was prone to cratering all the bloody time. The emulator used in the NSO app means that games with uncapped framerates or drops run a lot more smoothly. Banjo-Tooie really benefits from this, as almost the entire game now runs at a steady 30 frames per second. Eurgh... no, you can keep that game. To be fair, the Xbox Live Arcade version of this also has an improved framerate, but that was an amateur job, as this meant that cutscenes (Which utilise musical cues) desynced. The NSO version doesn't suffer from that issue, as it restores the original framerate in cutscenes. Also, the NSO version's HUD isn't ugly as sin, the controls aren't borked, Breegull Blaster sections that require you to aim up aren't literally impossible, you're allowed to use in-game cheat codes and still save, and it has online multiplayer. Yeah, it's no contest. The NSO version is the definitive Tooie experience. It's beautiful. Canary Mary is still the literal worst, though... Special shout out goes to the many, many ways that you can sequence break certain things, mostly courtesy of the "superbanjo" cheat, a deceptively simple cheat that makes Banjo run faster. I love this cheat, it makes the game even more fun! Here is just some of the nonsense you can do. Fair warning, there are some spoilers here. Speaking of, the bosses are so much better then Banjo-Kazooie! Like, I honestly think they're among the best of the 3D platformer genre. The minigames are also really great too. Anyway, that's my 100% completion time. Pity I didn't break 10 hours... So that's Banjo-Tooie, my favourite single-player N64 game ever, and it's been an utter joy to play such a good version of it. Give it a chance. Go in expecting more of a 3D metroidvania than a 3D platformer, and you might just like it.

Highlight for me last night was what we decided to dub the "Terry Surprise"

Yeah, it does once you reach the first proper level.

Banjo-Tooie's so good, it's worth the risk of tearing apart the fabric of time! EDIT: In case you were serious, it did release yesterday, but at around 2 am. Insomnia has some silver linings.

And the evil witch has been defeated! Hmmm? Oh no, not Gruntilda. I'm talking about someone far, far worse. Canary Mary. If you know, you know. Spent a literal hour trying to get that last Cheato page off of her, which meant that I went over 10 hours because of her. Would've been even more if I didn't end up resorting to cheating and using save states for the Cheato page race. Again, if you know, you'll agree I was utterly justified! No regrets! This sums it up perfectly. Despite that minigame (Because believe me, it's BS of the highest degree) I still love this game, and I still believe it's the best Single Player game the N64 has to offer (Pretty great multiplayer one too). It's great to finally play it at a great framerate, with no compromises. No borked controls, no cutscene desyncing, no impossible final boss, and the Nintendo references intact. It's perfect! Oh, and if you follow me on Twitter, you might have noticed me going absolute ham on unintended tricks and sequence breaks courtesy of "Superbanjo", I've got loads! It's fun to pull those shenanigans.

Ah, yes, you did imply that last week, but I wasn't certain. Alright then, assuming you're not overuled by the other two, we'll try normal this time.

Stamina format tonight. 7:30 for custom stages. Right, forgot to ask @S.C.G and @BowserBasher. As you might remember, I mentioned @RedShell wanting to have the Custom stage half hour session stick to one set of rules each week. Simply put, Time format with every item on, including the S Flag, and set to high frequency. Are you two fine with that? Because if you think there's too many items, have your say and I'll set it down to normal. Or hell, if you prefer it it to follow the frequency I use for the main Smash session, I could put it down to low.

At first, I was impressed, but then I found out that the 3 day early access thing (ugh) wasn't even available on Switch. So those sales numbers are just when the Switch version became available. Considering Nintendo is consistently the best performing platform for Sonic, I have to imagine that number is about to get another boost.

Fair point, but I wouldn't buy it in that case. Mario Party is built on multiplayer. Hell, I haven't bought it, seeing as multiple people can play online from the same Switch, there's no need.

That said, you're right, the side modes are truly excellent this time! Even if the rhythm one just cribs on the similar mode from Super Mario Party.

"Superbanjo" might just be one of the greatest cheat codes in gaming history. So simple, so effective! You can't do that on the XBox version (Unless you don't want to save). Anyway, @BowserBasher and @S.C.G. The mini games are all unlocked from the get-go. So we'll be playing Tooie tonight at 8:30pm. It's got it all; quiz shows, Mario Party style mini games, a Goldeneye rip-off... I don't think @Dcubed can make it tonight, so there's a free spot going if anyone wants it.

Banjo-Tooie's available now. My only advice? Don't forget to talk to all of Bottle's kids at his house. There's a minor optional move there that you can't go back to get after a certain point. EDIT: Oh, and don't forget widescreen. Select the TV on the file select screen. It shouldn't tank the framerate like the original version.

Are we allowed to post music from something that isn't out yet? Ah, screw it, I'll go ahead. About as hype as getting a 40% cooldown reduction! Honestly, spending 3 quid on this DLC, and then just using it to listen to the music would still be a bargain!

I think you mean "Doesn't Cappy resemble the Googly Eyes enemy from Yooka-Laylee?"

Player's Choice tonight at 8pm.

Woah, you unlocked a memory I had all but forgotten! I've played this game! It was when you listed some of the powerups, specifically the one that rockets the ship upwards, that it all came back to me. I think it was the PlayStation version I played, because I don't remember there ever being an N64 port. I was rubbish, so I never got very far.

You're mixing them up with Typhlosion there.