Banjo-Kazooie

Zones, giant landmarks and clear doorways let players remember where they've been. Banjo-Kazooie has nine compact, separate levels split into distinct zones, like Gobi's Valley's oasis, sphinx and pyramids, with big landmarks visible from anywhere. Sub-rooms always sit behind identifiable doorways, such as the boat in Rusty Bucket Bay.

Some levels use a hub and spoke layout: Bubblegloop Swamp fans five zones off one central area. The landmarks "provide a consistent visual guide, no matter where you are in the stage."

Transformations gate areas and give players a reason to return. Slippery slopes on Mumbo's Mountain stop Banjo until he becomes a termite, and a walrus form survives icy water. Once transformed, you go back to blocked areas and make progress.

Leaving a level while transformed also solves hub puzzles: the termite scales a steep hill outside Mumbo's Mountain, and the pumpkin from Mad Monster Mansion squeezes through a small gap.

Links between levels are few and run mostly into the hub. Each level has a button that makes a jiggy appear in the hub, and annoying Gobi the camel makes him show up in a later level. Otherwise what happens in a level stays there.

The only real exception is one Freezeezy Peak jiggy that needs the Turbo Trainers from Gobi's Valley. Unlike Super Mario 64, you are not booted out of a level after finding a jiggy, a change Mario only made in Odyssey.

One level revisited across seasons lets puzzles span time. Click Clock Wood is one tree visited in spring, summer, autumn and winter, each opened by a button that unlocks a new hub door. Puzzles chain across seasons: plant a seed in spring, water it in summer, collect a jiggy in autumn.

A bird hatched in spring and fed caterpillars becomes an eagle in winter. A rock broken while the lake is dry in summer reveals a path you can only swim up once autumn's water returns.

A clever concept can still frustrate when players fail and repeat. Gregg Mayles says Click Clock Wood took twice as long to build as the other stages, yet it divides fans.

Critics cite the verticality, the same tricky platforming in every season, and having to redo it all after one fall. "It's easy for a clever idea to stumble due to implementation."

Expand a few elements in a sequel, not every axis. Banjo-Tooie added more moves, characters, bosses, bigger worlds, harder challenges and interconnected levels, and the result felt overwhelming and less replayable. Designer Gregg Mayles said Rare got the balance right the first time and made the common mistake of wanting more.

The 15 to 20 hour game can be finished without backtracking yet still feels overwhelming. "It's sometimes best to focus on expanding out just a few elements."

Interconnected worlds made the world feel real but rarely made good puzzles. Every level links to another through backtracking, shortcuts and knock-on effects, and about 20 new moves unlock jiggies in older levels. Saving Scrotty's three dino kids uses the whole map as one puzzle, but breaking a rock in Cloud Cuckooland fills Dippy's pool in Terrydactyland with no thought needed.

The tangle starts in the first level: a tunnel in Mayahem Temple leads into Terrydactyland, not explored properly until world five. A Mayahem Temple jiggy needs the Bill Drill from Glitter Gulch Mine.

Huge levels with weak orientation and constant character swaps became chores. Mark Brown got lost in Jolly Roger's Lagoon, Glitter Gulch Mine and Hailfire Peaks over two playthroughs, and powering one Witchyworld dodgems ride takes six trips between Mumbo, Humba Wumba and the ride. Most players spend double the time on Grunty Industries than on any other level.

Witchyworld is the exception: a big top tent as the central landmark with four distinctly styled zones fanning out. Rare agrees a decent in-game map would have helped Grunty Industries, where swaps are mostly permanent and one-way.

Music fades between areas and shifts tone underwater. Banjo-Kazooie's soundtrack transitions seamlessly as the player moves between areas and changes tone when diving, so exploration feels like moving through scenes.

Its world themes were fairly random, with no single organizing idea. Like other collect-a-thon platformers, Banjo-Kazooie picked themes without a unifying reason, in contrast to Psychonauts, where every level is set inside one character's mind.