Peach’s castle’s well-hidden secrets are a joy to discover. Super Mario 64 gets the edge here, as even with teleport pots, Banjo‘s lair starts you at the beginning each time you boot it up, requiring several minutes of traversal to get to late-game stages. Princess Peach’s castle is expansive and jumping into paintings is exquisite but Gruntilda’s Lair is a spooky trek. Speaking of the overworld, both are mind-blowing for the time. There’s actually a decent amount of course-correction needed in tighter jumps though, so it’s a pretty even split between each game. Banjo has tons more special moves and utilizes them more frequently within both the levels and overworld. Both games have fairly fluid movement but are structured to necessitate precision, which wasn’t always easy on a Nintendo 64 analog stick.

The most critical aspect of a platformer is its controls.

It’s obvious that Banjo would take cues from the former but how would it improve upon it? It’s rare that launch titles contain a firm grasp on the system’s intricacies, but being a first-party title, Super Mario 64 has a long-standing legacy. With the advantage of time, it’s something to consider, as the former was a launch title. One main thing to consider is that Super Mario 64 came out in 1996, whereas Banjo released in 1998. Then came Banjo Kazooie, a platformer developed by Rare, with heaps of polish and playful ideas executed well enough to become an instant classic. Super Mario 64 stormed out of the gate, with plenty of imitators not being able to capture the same magic. In the late 90s, platformers were king as the genre captivated a generation new to the flashy three dimensions presented to them.

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