Banjo-Tooie

Banjo-Tooie grew everything at once, and the simpler original came out better. Banjo-Tooie added more moves, characters, bosses, bigger worlds, harder challenges and more interconnectivity all at once. Designer Gregg Mayles said Rare got the balance right the first time and made the common mistake of wanting more for the sequel.

Banjo-Kazooie kept nine small, separate levels that were easy to read, with one exception: a Freezeezy Peak jiggy that needs the Turbo Trainers from Gobi's Valley. Mark Brown's takeaway: "it's sometimes best to focus on expanding out just a few elements."

Limit how many open states and loose ends players track at once. Multi-step jiggies, unreachable obstacles, muddled layouts and about 20 new moves that unlock jiggies in older levels piled up into chores across a 15 to 20 hour game.

The game can be finished without backtracking, yet it still feels overwhelming next to the first game. Brown calls it "an ever-expanding, multi-dimensional quest log of spinning plates and unclosed rings."

Witchyworld's central landmark and distinct zones made a big level easy. Witchyworld uses a big top tent as its central landmark, with four zones fanning out, each with its own signs, shapes and colour palette.

Orientation matters most in a game that asks players to re-explore space. Brown calls it "a breeze to explore and a sharp contrast to the rest of the game's more muddled levels."

Large levels of look-alike tunnels left players lost. Tooie's stages are much bigger than the first game's, but beyond four warp points per level little helps navigation. Brown could not remember which tunnels led where in Terrydactyland, Glitter Gulch Mine and Hailfire Peaks even over two playthroughs.

He also got lost in the maze-like underwater chambers of Jolly Roger's Lagoon. Banjo-Kazooie avoided this with zones, giant landmarks and clearly marked doorways.

Grunty Industries needed a map; players spent double the time there. The five-floor factory with a basement and rooftop makes players track many floors, doors and sub-rooms while swapping between Banjo, Mumbo and the washing machine. Most players spend double the time there of any other level.

Most changes are permanent and one-way, so it plays like unpicking a knot. Rare agrees "a decent in-game map would have helped things dramatically."

Transformations gate areas and give players reasons to return. In Banjo-Kazooie, Banjo can't climb Mumbo's Mountain's slippery slopes until he becomes a termite, and a walrus survives icy water. Tooie gives every level a transformation, such as a heavy snowball, so players plan routes around each form's movement.

Forms could also leave a level to solve hub puzzles, like the termite climbing a hill outside Mumbo's Mountain or the pumpkin from Mad Monster Mansion squeezing through a gap.

Slow form switching turned good puzzle ideas into chores. Powering one Witchyworld dodgems ride takes six trips between Mumbo, Humba Wumba and the ride. Some manholes teach a move only if you return as Banjo or Kazooie alone.

Forcing route planning is fine, but backtracking to change character discourages free exploration. Brown wants a button to undo Humba's spell or call your partner back: "the real culprit is the tedium of actually activating these transformations."

Linked levels make the game feel like one believable place. Grunty Industries dumps sewage into Jolly Roger's Lagoon, which supplies water to Glitter Gulch Mine, and rescued characters move to other worlds.

Brown compares it to Pinna Park visible in Super Mario Sunshine's skybox and the lake behind the rain in Hollow Knight's City of Tears.

Hidden connections create small moments of surprise. A tunnel in the first level, Mayahem Temple, drops you into Terrydactyland, which you won't properly explore until world five.

Even dead-end shortcuts charm players when they realise they've arrived in a different level.

The best puzzles use the whole world as the tool. Saving Scrotty's three dino kids takes Mumbo, a Witchyworld jail cell, and Banjo's taxi pack to ride Chuffy the train to the Isle of Hags for Mumbo's healing magic.

Hailfire Peaks' kickball tournament likewise needs you to become a stony in Mayahem Temple and come back through the connection.

Most cross-level changes just happened without player choice. Breaking a rock in Cloud Cuckooland fills Dippy's pool in Terrydactyland with no planning, and the Jolly Roger's Lagoon sewage fix only opens a dead-end switch room in Grunty Industries.

Brown suggests a visible clue that the sewage comes from Grunty Industries, then a deliberate trip to block it. "You don't have to think, plan, or consider how to get the water to Dippy, you just play the game and it happens."

Shortcuts added little because warps already made travel fast. The level-to-level connections were meant to speed backtracking, but Brown found it usually as fast to warp to a level entrance, leave and use the hub warps.

Signal whether a blocked puzzle needs a future ability. Tooie made inaccessible jiggies the rule, so players assumed answers lay elsewhere. Mayahem Temple's two sleeping guards only needed a gentle stick tilt to tiptoe past.

The jiggy tips page already tracks found jiggies and gives hints; Brown suggests also marking each as currently accessible or not. He made the same mistake with Baur the bear in Ori and the Will of the Wisps.