Short Thought: Banjo-Kazooie's Soundtrack Makes Me Happy

If you want to play Banjo-Kazooie for the first time on its 25th anniversary but are wondering how good its soundtrack is, well, it’s awesome!

As this article suggests, Banjo-Kazooie’s music is a delight, and that’s most likely because it was composed by the legendary Grant Kirkhope. There are so many simple pleasures, like the sound that plays when you pick up a Jiggie or a Jinjo. All of these little jingles are only up on the screen for a few seconds, but that’s fine because they don’t interrupt the gameplay, and they allow players to continue on whilst collecting more and more stuff. It’s just that simple Nintendo brilliance coming out into the open with this game, and it’s great. To be fair, Banjo-Kazooie was developed by Rare for Nintendo, but my point still stands.

In some ways, Banjo-Kazooie is even better than Super Mario 64 because of these neat additions. Don’t get me wrong, Mario 64 definitely has some of the same tricks in its arsenal, such as the “Power Star” theme and the “Dire, Dire Docks” music, but those are still few and far between, and Banjo-Kazooie has a lot more of it. That’s without even mentioning how you can collect an item and keep playing and how the levels are small but also jampacked with things to discover.

At the end of the day, Banjo-Kazooie just makes me happy, and it’s such a fun experience from beginning to end. From Freezeezy Peak to Click Clock Wood, there’s so much love poured into this game and to top it all off is that fantastic soundtrack. So go play this classic. I doubt you’ll regret it.