Rare

Banjo-Kazooie kept its levels small, separate and easy to read. Nine compact levels, from Mumbo's Mountain to Click Clock Wood, use zones, giant landmarks and clearly marked doorways so players always know where they have been. Links between levels are rare: the only real exception is one Freezeezy Peak jiggy that needs the Turbo Trainers from Gobi's Valley.

Some levels use a hub and spoke layout, like Bubblegloop Swamp fanning five zones off one central area. Transformations give reasons to return to blocked areas within a level, and the few outside links mostly reach into Gruntilda's lair hub, such as buttons that spawn a jiggy there.

Click Clock Wood's seasonal puzzles cost twice the time and split fans. One tree is revisited in four seasons, with puzzles spanning them: plant a seed in spring, water it in summer, collect a jiggy in autumn. Gregg Mayles says the level took twice as long to make as the other stages.

Critics cite its verticality and the repeated tricky platforming in every season, where one fall means doing it all over again.

Banjo-Tooie tied every level to another, turning the game into a Metroidvania. Rare made connecting every world a core goal: about 20 new moves unlock jiggies in older levels, and every level has a route or knock-on effect reaching another stage. A tunnel in the first level, Mayahem Temple, leads into Terrydactyland, which players won't properly explore until world five.

A Mayahem Temple jiggy needs the Bill Drill from Glitter Gulch Mine. The hub, Isle of Hags, and 10 jiggies per world work as in the first game.

Huge levels with weak orientation made re-exploring Tooie's worlds confusing. Levels like Terrydactyland and Hailfire Peaks are far bigger, and apart from four warp points per level little helps players find their way. Mark Brown could not remember which tunnels led where over two playthroughs.

Witchyworld is the exception: a big top tent acts as the central landmark, with four zones fanning out, each with distinct signs, shapes and colours.

Constant character swapping turned good puzzle ideas into chores. Every level has a Humba Wumba transformation, plus Mumbo and a split Banjo and Kazooie, and activating each change means backtracking. Powering one Witchyworld dodgems ride takes six trips between Mumbo, Humba Wumba and the ride, and most players spend double the time on Grunty Industries than on any other level.

In Grunty Industries the swaps, not the factory's size, are the real complication, and most changes are permanent and one-way, like unpicking a knot. Rare agreed a decent in-game map would have helped there.

Most of Tooie's cross-level connections just happen without real puzzles. A few links make strong puzzles, like saving Scrotty's three dino kids using the train, Mumbo and the whole map. Others need no thought, like breaking a rock in Cloud Cuckooland that fills Dippy's pool in Terrydactyland.

The connections do make the world feel real, but keeping them all in your head is overwhelming even though the 15 to 20 hour game can be finished without backtracking.

Expand a few elements in a sequel, not every axis at once. Designer Gregg Mayles admitted the team got the balance right in the first game and made the common mistake of wanting more for the sequel. Banjo-Tooie added more moves, characters, bosses, bigger worlds, harder challenges and more interconnectivity all together.

Rare won Sea of Thieves' green light by filming executives playing it. Rare had Phil Spencer and colleagues play a scrappy Sea of Thieves prototype and filmed them. The footage showed the game would produce cooperation, conversation and banter, proving the vision better than a pitch could.

Rare's Donkey Kong Country levels each centre on a single idea. Levels such as Stop & Go Station and Red Hot Ride each build around one mechanic, the same pattern Nintendo used in its own level design.