so it's finally that time, this wednesday Banjo Tooie remastered edition is coming, for 1200 microsoft points you'll get one of the best(if not the best) platformers of all time, with hd graphics, butter smooth framerate, surround sound, legendary stop 'n' swop function once again utilized, between BK and BT and local multiplayer modes.
my most anticipated title of the year at this point.
Banjo Kazooie remake was fantastic and this will be even better.
for the uninitiated, if you haven't played this humongous platformer, be prepared to spend 50+ hours on your first run trying to collect everything.
you guys excited as I am?

I am looking forward to it, yes. I especially liked that the remake didn't reset your notes to zero if you died (Rusty Bucket Bay would have been 17 kinds of infuriating if that were so). Now is there anything being done to re-instate Stop n Swop, or are they just going to name-drop it in self-deprecation?

In the original, Rusty Bucket Bay WAS 17 kinds of infuriating because of that exact reason!
You don't want to know the amount of profanity I used playing this game on N64...

Didn't know they fixed that for the Live remake though. Didn't know about the HD overhaul either...
And what's that Stop 'n Swop about then?

I missed out on this when it first hit the N64. Maybe I'll check it out and the original. Hey, Rare. Let's get an HD Jet Force Gemini going.

I remember back in the day Rusty Buckey Bay and blades/fans under the deck room where you could have died instantly if you made a false move and you had to start collecting notes all over again. (I got through entire B-K HD without dying once while collecting everything in around 5 hours so I didn't even know you would have your notes even if you'd die in a level hehe).
stop 'n' swop is utilized, just like in the first B-K on xbox live, you will collect eggs in first Banjo that will unlock new stuff in B-T and supposedly vice-versa because I remember B-T also having eggs and ice key to collect.
I remember almost year ago when both Banjo games were announced, first came out in november of last year and we had to wait almost 6 months for this one to drop in but the wait was worth it, you can download hd trailer off xbox live marketplace or watch it in hd on youtube(in case you have never played it):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRBtPB-MZXY

looks fantastic oh and that amazing soundtrack in dolby digital 5.1 surround sound!

Man, I must be the only person who has *never* died in Rusty Bucket Bay...

You are not human.

not only you died there, but you don't remember it too ^^

Well, if you're asking what it is, it was supposed to do for Kazooie and Tooie what Sonic & Knuckles did for Sonic 3 - combine data from one another to give access to extra content. But since Sega holds a patent on the lock-on cart technology, Rare's idea was to have a 'safe' spot in the game where you could pull out one cart and jam the other one in without turning the game off (old-timers might remember pulling similar tricks with early Genesis carts for infinite lives and such). The problem of course, is that it's NEVER safe to do such a thing and you stand a good chance of screwing up your cartridge games by trying. So Rare made the uncollectable items from Kazooie collectable in Tooie, but they were unavailable in Kazooie unless you played some trickery with cheat codes (the XBLA version lets you use Cheato to do the same).

So naturally the question when these XBLA remakes were announced was, would they re-instate Stop n Swop if they could simply combine data on the HDD. When Kazooie came out Rare only mentioned being able to add content to Nuts n Bolts (the same way you could get NES Metroid on Prime by connecting it via cable to a completed Fusion), and the question of whether they'd made it work with Tooie went unanswered. So, we'll see.

Just give me Perfect Dark.

HD or not, those blocky 3D-Polygons still look very N64, so thanks for the trailer, because that reminded me why I don't want to play any N64 games ever again. 

That, and any 3D platformer series just don't seem to have any appeal for me.
(Spyro, Ratchet&Clank, Banjos, etc..)

if you haven't played it, you should regardless because this series is special, it's light years beyond spyro, ratchet and everything there is.
oh and trailer doesn't do this game justice, at all.

Seconded.  How many times did I fall to my doom in that stupid engine room...

I sadly missed the Banjo games back in the N64's heyday, so my first time trying the original was when I downloaded it for the 360.  I was surprised at how much I was NOT annoyed by having to collect too much - I think the game gets WAY too much hate for something it doesn't even force on you all that badly.  Donkey Kong 64 was really the truly terrible Rare game in that regard, I think.

Aside from that, the port was pretty darn amazing.  I was impressed by how much they cleaned up an N64 game for release on a modern console.  Better frame rate, smoothed-over textures, new, high resolution sprites replacing the old ones?  THAT is how you port an old 3D game to a new console.  And it was in 16:9 to boot!  I'll definitely be checking out Tooie now.  Meanwhile I will desperately hope that they port the original Perfect Dark next.  ...and Blast Corps.!  Never played that one back in the day, either.

Don't you be dissin' Ratchett yo.
That series is fantastic.

it is great, not fantastic.
fantastic are Nintendo/Rareware platformers, they always were.
Banjo series is just purely magical.
I don't know if you have played it, but you should in order to make a comparison ^_~

Banjo Kazooie was one of the few games in which I earnestly attempted to improve my times. My first time through the game was extremely difficult and only once did I use a guide for assistance. I did not notice the small crack in the door of the shack. As a pumpkin, you needed to pass through that crack in order to activate something important (level 7, IIRC). Banjo Tooie didn't hold my attention for very long and I didn't complete it, because I didn't like the interconnectedness of the worlds. In other words, the heavy backtracking irritated me.

well I can see your point but framerate didn't help.
game was so sluggish at times it really became bothersome(N64 just couldn't keep up with absolutely gigantic worlds).
hellfire peaks or cloud cuckoo land parts were stuttering almost to the point of watching a slide show.
backtracking was present in Tooie , but going through these worlds was always a joy.
it wasn't a tedious Donkey Kong 64 style backtracking by any means.
I think you should give it another go on xbla, maybe you'll find it more enjoyable with all the improvements squeezed in ^^

I always made that section the very last thing I did, out of that same fear.  I guess I've only done the level three times (once on my own N64 cart, once on my friend's copy of the game, and once on the 360), but yeah, I never once died while doing it.  Maybe someday!

lol, so you always made that section very last out of the same fear yet you claim you never died there, that's rich!
you definitely died there, you just don't remember it(and why would you? lol it's been so many years).
oh the internet...

... Wha?  I remember quite clearly, thank you.

what you said didn't make sense (about leaving that part till you do everything else, it's clear you knew that was the toughest part, so if you didn't die there why would do that? lol),
but yeah, whatever ^^

well ladies and gentleman, only few more hours keep us from getting mighty Jinjoriffic Banjo-Tooie ^^

You can see that section through a window in another portion of the ship, where you hit the switch to slow down the blades.  My philosophy was "Well, better get as many notes as I can in advance, so I'll at least have the majority of them in case I die and don't want to go through this again."

Why would I lie about this? 

because it's the internet, just the fact you said you didn't die there is silly.
but who cares? ^^

only few more hours to Banjo-Tooie!

I've played just about any major platform game on this planet, and, well, perhaps fantastic is slightly exaggerated, but it's definitely in a league of its own.
The Banjo series is great too, but the first game was frustrating as Hell, as most Rare games are, and the second one was simply too huge for its own good.

It had major framerate problems and I found it a pain to navigate.

so I played it yesterday, game I've been wanting on 360 for months(since announcement was made),
and boy is this game held up, it's beautifully redone, framerate is perfect(that alone makes this game a completely new experience lol),
addiction reaches maximum level, I started playing in the morning yesterday and stopped this morning(I think my stats are showing bit less than 16 hours at 55 jiggies and 795 notes).
40th on leaderdboards ^_~
if you haven't bought this, you owe it to yourself.
just get it and enjoy it till Banjo-Threeie comes out ^^
platformers doesn't get better than this.
ps.and you can try demo first if you cannot afford right now.

Framerate issues been corrected? That's good. About the only fault any of Rare's games back then could be accused of, in my opinion.

I thought Banjo & Kazooie Nuts & Bolts was supposedly "Banjo-Threeie."  No?

some people still are convinced that we will see return of classic Banjo on 360(although I love Nuts & Bolts too).
and yes, framerate in Banjo-Kazooie/Tooie is perfect, not a single slowdown across the series ^^
I hope we will see Killer Instinct I & II (arcade ports) on xbla too, can you imagine?