The majority of entries to this month long feature have understandably been more of a nod to the cold side of winter, with no real holiday attachment other than perhaps some musical cues that lead you to imagine it’s festively inspired.
Well today’s entry knows nothing of being subtle. Freezeezy Peak in Banjo-Kazooie (for N64, and re-released on XBOX 360 and XBOX One).
If you’re familiar with Banjo-Kazooie then you’ll perhaps recall Freezeezy as the fifth level in the game.
A stage set as a sort of hidden wintry ravine, with an iconic huge snowman, great Christmas tree, and plenty of other winter clichés abound. Personally I thought it was a fantastic level when I first came across it in 1998. True to form of classic Rare it has an unmistakably Christmas’sy sounding song that frames the experience, from the great Grant Kirkhope. The Banjo soundtrack as a whole still remains a fond listen through for me.
Hit play for the level music below.
Nothing says “Christmas come to life” like sentient presents, sentient christmas tree lights, and racing against a polar bear who boasts about being the champion sledder of the region.
When Banjo released in the UK in July 98 I was on my summer break from High school. I’d made a note of the games release from “N64 magazine” and some left over birthday money I had left from turning 12 in June, plus the help of some N64 game trade-ins. I picked the game up the day after it’s release on a trip to Electronics Boutique with my mother.
Freezeezy and certainly the game as a whole won me over immediately. I know a cross section of people like to pit Super Mario 64 and Banjo-Kazooie against each other, with some going as far as to hate one or the other. I myself love both individually, and it was great examples like Mario and Banjo that still to this day leave me susceptible to wanting to give any 3D platformer as an offering to my inner early teen trapped within me.
At that age I was ravenous for video games. The age old torment of being young, plenty of time on my hands, yet no money to buy games vs nowadays where I constantly add to my collection physically and digitally, yet only ever further my backlog problems as I just don’t have the free time I’d like in a 9-5 working world.
This meant a game really had to have lasting legs or something special about it to stop me taking a gamble on trading it in against some other Nintendo 64 or PlayStation 1 game that magazines had got me craving. Banjo survived the cuts though, and over the course of the N64’s lifespan I must’ve played the game through at least 4 times to 100% (not an easy task in it’s N64 iteration), with a few part complete saves here and there for good measure.
If you’re in the age bracket of gamers whom rode out the transition of 2D to 3D platformers, but never played this game, then I urge you to give it a go. To everyone else, hopefully enough time has passed since you last visited it that you can jump in actually eager to hear some bad jokes from Gruntilda.
Anyone picking up an XBOX One in this day and age should for certain add Rare Replay to their collection, it hovers around just over the price of a cinema ticket at current, but the amount of potential time you can get out of all those classic games will stick with you for a long time and without question be a great use for your gaming budget.
If you’re unable to personally get to Freezeezy Peak yourself, then I guess your next alternative is to find streamers of the game on Twitch or watch a speedrun perhaps?
I love my serious video games and advancements in how we play video games as much as the next guy, but as long as I’m still playing video games I’ll always long for this special sort of madness that Banjo delivered with it’s crazy character and gamification worn on it’s sleeve.
If we go without hiccup, March 2017 brings us Yooka-Laylee (the spiritual successor to Banjo) to current gen systems which is very much another reason to re-visit the roots of where that game is coming from.