GRcade

Those two levels you mention were nuts, I'm looking forward to progressing to them again.

Also massively underrated - it has a widescreen mode! Widescreen! On an N64! It actually looks perfectly good on an HDTV, within reason. I'm sure in RGB it would look damn near acceptable.

The sheer vastness of Tooie put me right off getting very far into it. I loved Banjo Kazooie but Tooie was just overwhelmingly huge and I never really felt I was getting anywhere, like slowly chipping away at a huge chunk of stone.

Hailfire Peaks was the level that killed my interest - seemed to take ages to get anything done and was too frustrating. All this talk of the game though means I might fire it up tonight and remind myself where I got to/how much I have left to complete. Pretty sure I'd unlocked all of the worlds, it was just a case of tidying up some collectables and final jiggies before the boss...

Remi Dong wrote:But the daft thing is, having that little bit of my appetite whetted by that game led me back to a quick blast on B-T when I had a free half hour

Had to stop at this point and burst out laughing.

Half an hour? On Banjo-Tooie? Good luck getting anywhere.

Tooie is the sort of game I won't sit down to play unless I've got at least 90 minutes free in my schedule because it demands time. The levels are vast, sprawling and the game world is nigh-on colossal.

Remi Dong wrote:Since then I've played quite a lot of Tooie. It's a sequel unlike any you get nowadays of course; the difficulty and ambition of the levels suggest that you are literally picking up where B-K left off. It's as if they simply extended the length of the original game by 8 additional, increasingly harder, levels.

That is the absolute essence of Tooie. It's genuinely amazing what Rare managed (although the game did get panned slightly for the artificial duration extension and difficulty the incessant backtracking causes).

Remi Dong wrote:But Terrydactyland (shades of Click Clock Wood IMO) and Grunty Industries are easily the best levels of the game so far and I've really enjoyed them. (I've unlocked Hailfire Peaks too but TBH I'm a bit overwhelmed by the size and scale...)

Tooie fascinates me for a few reasons. For one, I played it originally when I was 13/14. I completed it once, and then played the Xbox Live release some years later when I was about 25. I found it just as challenging all these years later, which (for me at least) bucks the trend. Generally I find games I played in yesteryear somewhat easier now that I'm older. Whether Tooie's colossal world meant I just didn't remember much of it, I'm unsure, but it's the only game to have that effect on me.

The other thing it stands alone on, is that I've never really done a total 180 on a level as much as I did Grunty Industries. I absolutely loathed it on the N64. I can still remember my 100% completion time for that level alone: 6:32:43. Fast forward to when I replayed the game on the Xbox, I was obviously dreading heading back to it... But to my eternal surprise, I grew to love it very quickly and soon began to appreciate how much of a genius level it is. It isn't my favourite level in the game (Hailfire Peaks is, IMO, undeniably the best level in either of the Banjo games), but it is my second favourite level in B-T.

GC collection update, now with VJ2.

Drumstick wrote:GC collection update, now with VJ2...

That's a lovely collection, Drum - and a cracking (alphabetically arranged ) photo! Forty-five titles... nice, dude.

I'm pleased to see that you've get the best Burnout .

very very nice cube collection. You have a fair few that I dont have and wish I did... Also makes me wish I had pics of my gamecube collection. Actually I dont have many good collection pics at all its all low quality naff stuff taken with my phone.

I grabbed a few bits for the collection today but the only thing most people would consider retro is Street Fighter Alpha 3 Max for the PSP ... I grabbed a vita game and 2 wii u titles which I conisder part of the retro collection kind of ...as in I got them to collect more than play.

Drumstick wrote:

Remi Dong wrote:Since then I've played quite a lot of Tooie. It's a sequel unlike any you get nowadays of course; the difficulty and ambition of the levels suggest that you are literally picking up where B-K left off. It's as if they simply extended the length of the original game by 8 additional, increasingly harder, levels.

That is the absolute essence of Tooie. It's genuinely amazing what Rare managed (although the game did get panned slightly for the artificial duration extension and difficulty the incessant backtracking causes).

I think I can appreciate the game more now that I see it within this context. If I were to just think I'm on level 4 of the game and I've been playing for an hour and have no jigsaw pieces, it becomes frustrating. But if you look at it as level 13 then it's OK. I still think DK64 is an even bigger step up in terms of size.

As an aside - I'm not against size and scale in games, but if you're going to design huge levels you need to make sure they're not sparse, enjoyable to traverse, memorable and not repetitive.

I didn't expect to enjoy Grunty Industries - the theme of the level put me off due to having not really enjoyed the industrial themed levels of previous Rare games - but it's really very good. Proper "I'll just play a little more..." good.

Oh and your GC collection is looking very nice. You're, what, Chibi Robo and Skies of Arcadia away from having every major release? Although that would be a lot harder to arrange in a pleasing grid format.

Yes I spotted that and am predictably frustrated. Still, there's always a time for a new picture when I get another game.

Drumstick wrote:GC collection update, now with VJ2.

Looking good. You've got about a dozen or so games in there that, if I could get hold of them, would more or less complete my collection. I'll see if I can get pics of my lot when I get home. Will you try and complete the Resident Evil collection on the 'Cube?

With that said, I also need to save my pennies to pick up a working GameCube.

By working GameCube do you mean you have one thats Knackerd?... Never seen a knackerd one before. I have one from a carboot thats quiet color washed and nicotine stained and has cracks and it still plays like a beauty

I had a broken GameCube, my dog pulled it off the shelf while it was running. After that there was a less than 50/50 chance of it working on any given occasion. I traded it in to a local Chips, they tested it once and it didn't work so they tested it again with two other games and it worked just fine so they gave me a bunch of store credit for it which I spent on another GameCUbe (the Pokemon Colosseum bundle).

Mines has a big melt mark on the drive lid. Not the replaceable plate, the actual lid part.

Need to have a proper look for a replacement one.

Edit: And found one on eBay. Swear there weren't any last time I looked a few months back.

I have two broken GameCubes. I don’t know how it’s happened. The laser has gone on one of them and the other just won’t turn on.

On a similar note I traded in a broken PS3 to a branch of Grainger Games. It worked okay offline but as soon as you tried to take it online it just went crazy and the hard drive would corrupt. Thankfully their testing didn't extend to connecting to PSN.

On the subject of broken GameCubes, my original one broke when my controller curiously flew across the room towards a wall. The GC was dragged off the platform it was on and ceased working entirely.

Corazon de Leon wrote:

Drumstick wrote:GC collection update, now with VJ2.

Will you try and complete the Resident Evil collection on the 'Cube?

Probably not.

The lens on my original cube went too. Sent it off to Nintendo years out of its warranty, they replaced it for free.

Remi Dong wrote:The lens on my original cube went too. Sent it off to Nintendo years out of its warranty, they replaced it for free.

For a company that still supported the Famicom in Japan until some time in the early to mid 2000’s (2003 maybe?) that really doesn’t surprise me.

Put in a speculative bid for a GC copy of Twilight Princess last night and the guy's accepted it, so I got it for just about the maximum I'd have been willing to pay(£35). Been looking for a reasonably priced copy of that on and off for about five years so I'm pretty happy right now. Looks like it's in very good nick, original casing and manual etc. Means Twin Snakes, Killer Seven and Ikaruga are the 'Cube priorities now.

Very nice and a decent price.

Joer is selling Ikaruga, isn't he?