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 The year is 1998, it has been two years since the launch of both the Nintendo 64 and Super Mario 64. Gamers all across the globe loved Mario 64’s 3D worlds and were eager for another game that evokes that sense of exploration and adventure. I was only 10 years old at the time, but I can’t recall any 3D games that really hit those notes quite the same way Mario 64 did. That is, until Banjo-Kazooie came along. Rareware, a company that had made a name for itself in the heart of Nintendo gamers everywhere by making the Donkey Kong Country series on the SNES, decided to blow everyone’s minds out the back of their skulls. My 10 year old self could not handle this game, it was like Mario but everything seemed so much grander. Spiral Mountain, the area of the game you start in, seemed so much bigger and livelier than Peach’s Castle in Mario 64. The worlds have so much character to them and the characters are exciting and memorable. They took the genre that Mario 64 invented and expanded it to the next level. And so I present to you, one of the greatest 3D platform adventure games of all time: Banjo-Kazooie. Videos: ================ Episode 01 - Welcome to My Lair    Episode 02 - Gold for Gold  Episode 03 - Creepy Clanker  Episode 04 - Grunty's Band  Episode 05 - Second Best  Episode 06 - Magical Snow Land  Episode 07 - Bratty Sisters  Episode 08 - Grunty's Phases  Episode 09 - Too Spoopy  Episode 10 - Pantsless  Episode 11 - Seaworthy Vessel  Episode 12 - Silent Hill 64  Episode 13 - Platforming  Episode 14 - Autumn  Episode 15 - Bees and Cicadas  Episode 16 - Board Game of Death  Episode 17 - For Real This Time (Finale)  Super Bonus - Wishywashy  ================ The Story So Far... ================ Being the first game in a new franchise there really isn’t a whole lot to cover that isn’t included in the game, but for the sake of completeness I’ll recap the setup. The game follows our titular characters: Banjo the bear and Kazooie the breegul (a completely made up kind of bird, trust me I checked) as they attempt to save Banjo’s sister from the clutches of the evil witch Gruntilda. Grunty has kidnapped Banjo’s sister, Tooty because her magic cauldron informed her that Tooty was prettier than Grunty. In her rage Grunty kidnapped Tooty and is attempting to use a machine to transfer Tooty’s beauty to herself. ================ Characters: ================ The Heroes  It’s Banjo! He’s a honey bear and half of our titular dynamic duo. Banjo's a pretty easy going bear, but when Grunty kidnaps his sister it's time for our hero to rise to the occasion! Banjo is much more personable than his counterpart…  Kazooie! Kazooie is a red-crested Breegul, which until recently I had always assumed was a real bird that I was not familiar with. Alas, it seems Rare has been pulling my leg for the better part of two decades. Hot headed and snarky, Kazooie is the perfect foil to Banjo’s calm and collected demeanor. It’s also worthwhile to note that she spends the entirety of this game inside Banjo’s iconic blue backpack. It is not until the sequel, Banjo-Tooie, that she is able to split from Banjo and leave the backpack.  Tooty is Banjo’s younger sister and, apparently, the only person in the world more beautiful than Grunty? Which is kind of disturbing to think about… Anyways, Tooty is minding her own business doing… little sister stuff when Grunty shows up and kidnaps her!  Bottles the Mole is a resident of these parts (and apparently many other parts given how far his network of molehills spans) and is curiously quite knowledgeable in the art of being a platformer protagonist. Bottles teaches the player all the moves they need to traverse the various worlds of the game. He also loves to tease Kazooie, who is more than willing to trade insults.  Mumbo Jumbo is a mysterious shaman who helps Banjo and Kazooie on their journey by shape shifting them into various animals and objects. In order to do so though he requires the aid of a set number of Mumbo tokens, which are scattered around the world. He seems pretty content to stay out of Banjo and Kazooie’s quest aside from this minimal interaction, and I often questioned just how much Mumbo was on our side. The Villains  Gruntilda, or Grunty as she is often referred to, is the resident of, you guessed it, Gruntilda’s Lair. She is a witch that is obsessed with her image (in case the fact that her lair is shaped like her face didn’t tip you off to that). Upon learning that there is someone more beautiful than her she promptly kidnaps poor Tooty and attempts to steal her beauty. Supposedly her character was inspired by the character Grotbags from the aptly named British TV show “Grotbags”. I always got kind of a Wicked Witch of the West vibe from her.  Klungo is Grunty's lab assistant and surprisingly something of a technical genius. He creates the machine that would allow Gruntilda to steal Tooty's beauty. His ogre-like stature and slurred speech hide the cold, calculating mind that lies within... ================ Ceraph fucked around with this message at 18:20 on Jan 16, 2016 |
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Dec 8, 2015 07:42
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Episode 01 - Welcome to My Lair Hey everybody, welcome to my Banjo-Kazooie LP! I'll be joined by my good buddies Alden (A440V) and Vince. In a somewhat a-typical manner I'm going to be taking a back seat on this one and let Vince take the reins, as he is an even bigger fan of this game than me. I am super excited to kick this off, so without further ado let's jump into it! Ceraph fucked around with this message at 02:19 on Dec 10, 2015 |
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Dec 8, 2015 07:42
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Episode 02 - Gold for Gold It’s time to hit up Treasure Trove Cove! It’s in this level that we unlock the flight pad, one of my favorite mechanics in this game. I love flying in games, but when you add it to a platformer you run into the problem of making all the platforming after that point trivial if you’re not careful. Banjo-Kazooie executes this really well with the combination of the red feathers, the actual flight mechanics, and the flight pads. The flight pads serve to limit the areas which you can fly in, as you cannot go through doors etc while flying. This means they can have discrete platforming segments in levels that have flight pads. The red feathers serve as a deterrent to using flying as your only means of transportation, but you get them frequently enough and use them slowly enough that it doesn’t feel debilitating, you just kind of put it in the back of your head that maybe you shouldn’t fly all the time. The flight mechanic itself is hard enough to control that it can often times be harder to fly through a platforming segment than just do it normally. I don’t fault them for it and in fact it works very well because the actual segments that do require you to fly are designed with the controls in mind, giving them just the right amount of challenge.
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Dec 10, 2015 02:21
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Episode 03 - Creepy Clanker It's time to go to Clanker's Cavern, which was always one of my least favorite levels, though I do also feel like it gets a bad rep. It is by no means poorly designed and it's still fun to play, but as a kid the dark, grungy environments and the amount of time I had to spend underwater were both super unsettling. That combined with Clanker's actual design made me want to never come back to this level. I guess that means they really nailed the aesthetic they were going for in this level. I do have to say though, I really like the fact that they made Clanker a nice guy, even though he looks really gnarly. Teaching the younguns important life lessons and all that jazz.
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Dec 12, 2015 06:43
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That level was not so fun, through its not the worst. I hate that note system they have in this game, its so hard to get all the notes in one go.
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Dec 12, 2015 07:04
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I remember being too spooked as a kid for Clanker's Cavern and a world later on, so I had my older brother do it.
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Dec 12, 2015 12:09
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Banjo-Kazooie was my first LP, and if I could enforce one rule upon all LPers, it'd be that everyone must LP this game at some point. It can only bring joy to the world. Don't watch my LP of it, though. It's a technical disaster.dscruffy1 posted:I remember being too spooked as a kid for Clanker's Cavern and a world later on, so I had my older brother do it. This came up in my LP as my co-commentator (who was the one playing the game) has a life-long fear of aquatic monsters. Unfortunately, the effects of his fear turn out to be pretty subtle.
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Dec 12, 2015 18:08
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grandalt posted:That level was not so fun, through its not the worst. I hate that note system they have in this game, its so hard to get all the notes in one go. It can be pretty frustrating for the completionist when you're missing FOUR notes and you have no idea where they are and you waste like an hour aimlessly roaming around the level. Though I do very much appreciate the fact that you don't need to collect all the notes in every world to beat the game. They do have some nice bonuses if you tackle that extra task, but it is by no means necessary, and I think they work well as a nice little Pavlovian reward for exploring the level. Fiendly posted:Banjo-Kazooie was my first LP, and if I could enforce one rule upon all LPers, it'd be that everyone must LP this game at some point. It can only bring joy to the world. I'm not gonna lie we had so much fun recording this. The more Banjo there is in the world the more it will be a better place. We're definitely going to do Banjo-Tooie at some point as well, it's just gotta happen now. These games are just bursting at the seams with personality, it's impossible to be in a bad mood while playing or watching them.
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Dec 13, 2015 03:14
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grandalt posted:That level was not so fun, through its not the worst. I hate that note system they have in this game, its so hard to get all the notes in one go.
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Dec 13, 2015 08:12
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Episode 04 - Grunty's Band We hit a bit of a note related snag in today's episode, not unlike what you guys were just talking about. Luckily, thanks to the wonders of video editing, you'll hardly know the difference! We also hit up Bubble Gloop Swamp in this episode, which I remember having a much harder time with when I was younger. The swamp water that you can't touch without getting hurt was always really intimidating, but it's really not that hard to deal with. I really like the aesthetic here, how they took the swamp theme and made it colorful and upbeat instead of dank, depressing swamp times. I am especially thankful for this choice after having just come from a level like Clanker's Cavern which actually is just dank and depressing.
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Dec 16, 2015 00:34
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Episode 05 - Second Best I guess it's never explicitly stated, but it's certainly heavily implied that Tooty is the only person higher up on the beautiful ladder than Grunty. That's nightmare fuel, right there. Also we get to the mini game as the crocodile where you have to eat more yumblies than Mr. Vile. I always found this extremely difficult as a kid, as I was way too dumb to realize that you could just come back later with the running shoes and make your life a lot easier.
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Dec 18, 2015 01:35
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Episode 06 - Magical Snow Land It's time for Freezeezy Peak! This was always one of my favorite levels. I always loved the fact that they took the ice world trope and turned it into a bright and upbeat Christmas themed level. Plus you get the beak bomb! Aside from flying itself this is one of my favorite moves that you learn. Not only does it let you attack while flying but it gives you a nice speed boost too.
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Dec 19, 2015 03:30
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I'm glad to see a Banjo Kazooie LP, it seems like everyone wants to LP the sequel instead. Brings back nostalgic memories of watching my older cousins playing it and loving up in the swamp level over and over...
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Dec 19, 2015 18:42
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Roro posted:I'm glad to see a Banjo Kazooie LP, it seems like everyone wants to LP the sequel instead. Brings back nostalgic memories of watching my older cousins playing it and loving up in the swamp level over and over... Thanks, I'm glad you're enjoying it! The swamp tripped me up a lot as a kid as well, though playing through it now it's not so bad. I definitely get how an impatient 8 year old would have trouble with it, though haha.
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Dec 20, 2015 00:24
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I think they were teenagers, which made it even funnier to child me because they had to censor their frustrated cursing.
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Dec 20, 2015 20:18
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Episode 07 - Bratty Sisters We came to an interesting realization in today's episode, but Brentilda really is just kind of a brat. She has no reason to believe that telling you all these facts about Grunty will be useful and she's just being a huge gossip. Maybe we've been on the wrong side of this confrontation the whole time?
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Dec 22, 2015 02:18
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The reason you didn't make it in the flooded pyramid the first time was because the timer ended as you fell in and the door closed upwards, breaking your fall and pushing you back out. Ceraph posted:We came to an interesting realization in today's episode, but Brentilda really is just kind of a brat. She has no reason to believe that telling you all these facts about Grunty will be useful and she's just being a huge gossip. Maybe we've been on the wrong side of this confrontation the whole time? I think that all this could have been avoided if miss goody two shoes had played board games with her little sister instead of going out with the "good" witches. Grunty just wants to be popular like her sister!
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Dec 22, 2015 05:32
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Episode 08 - Grunty's Phases When you think about it, it really is kinda strange that Grunty would have all of these different themed worlds strewn about her lair. Sure, some of them make sense, like Mad Monster Mansion being her actual house, and Clanker's Cavern being her garbage disposal, but what functional purpose does Gobi's Valley serve? I'd like to think that Grunty was just really into Egyptian stuff and decided to make one of the wings of her lair Egyptian themed. Ceraph fucked around with this message at 18:26 on Dec 27, 2015 |
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Dec 24, 2015 04:32
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Gobi's Valley is right across from Freezeezy peak. Clearly that area is her kitchen. Freezeezy is the fridge, Gobi's is the oven.
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Dec 24, 2015 05:43
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Technical Analysis posted:Gobi's Valley is right across from Freezeezy peak. Clearly that area is her kitchen. Freezeezy is the fridge, Gobi's is the oven.  By god, I think you're on to something. Does that mean that Bubblegloop Swamp is her indoor swimming pool? Mumbo's Mountain is her garden / orchard. Treasure Trove Cove is the beach, 'cause I mean why wouldn't you. Rusty Bucket Bay would be the port... y'know, for all that overseas trading Grunty does. And Click Clock Wood is... a tree? I got nothing there.
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Dec 24, 2015 06:04
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Banjo-Kazooie is pretty awesome, but I find the development of it to be a rather fascinating tale. Luckily, Rare uploaded a video that gives some interesting details about the game's early days. I suggest giving it a watch if you're a fan of the game.
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Dec 25, 2015 08:12
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Episode 09 - Too Spoopy It's time to hit up Mad Monster Mansion! This was always one of my favorite levels, I love the theme of this world and I also like that it's a lot bigger than it seems at first. There are a lot of buildings you can go into that have the "bigger on the inside" thing going on. Also as luck would have it we talk a little bit about the history of Banjo Kazooie in today's episode that is discussed in the video that SGR linked to (Thanks again for dropping that in the thread!). We slipped up on the name of the antagonist, though, his name is BlackEYE, not Blackbeard.
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Dec 27, 2015 18:58
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Episode 10 - Pantsless It's time to wrap up Mad Monster Mansion as we showcase one of my favorite transformations, second only to the one in the final world. Can it do anything special? No. It's a pumpkin. But it's a jack-o-lantern and it's adorable and I love it.
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Dec 29, 2015 01:29
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With all the musical interludes you all do I sorta expected the title to be "Getting Jiggie with it."
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Dec 29, 2015 15:14
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Zain posted:With all the musical interludes you all do I sorta expected the title to be "Getting Jiggie with it." Argh, that's a great idea. I only wish I'd thought of it haha.
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Dec 29, 2015 17:29
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All the transformations in this game are great, but that pumpkin is definitely my favourite. That little sound it makes when you're hopping around is hilarious  .
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Dec 30, 2015 01:05
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Episode 11 - Seaworthy Vessel It's time to hit up Rusty Bucket Bay, which was never one of my favorite levels. It's fine from a design standpoint, but the oily water mechanic drove me nuts as a kid. It's perfectly manageable and it's really not that hard, but its mere presence made the underwater segments really stressful. It works really well from a design standpoint to introduce some tension and difficulty at this late stage of the game after you've acquired your entire arsenal and probably upped your health bar considerably, but it definitely took years off my life. Also as a side note, we have an encounter with Boss Boom Box, one of the only bosses in the game outside of the final boss at the end (three guesses who that ends up being). He's pretty easy and there's a number of tactics you can use to beat him (aside from the method of cheesing him we tried to show off). The walls are lined with extra eggs you can use to pelt him and his spawn from afar if you're not into getting up close and personal. You can also make judicious use of the gold feathers to make it easier as well.
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Dec 31, 2015 01:36
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I'll be honest, the highlight of my day is seeing an update from this thread.  Thanks yet again for doing this LP Ceraph!
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Dec 31, 2015 11:24
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Roro posted:I'll be honest, the highlight of my day is seeing an update from this thread. And that post just became the highlight of MY day! I'm glad you're enjoying it!
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Dec 31, 2015 19:25
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This thread is good and enjoyable. I give it the Charles Atlas Seal of Approval.
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Dec 31, 2015 21:20
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Episode 12 - Silent Hill 64 It's time to tackle the dreaded engine room today, which features some of the tightest and most precarious platforming in the game. The only thing that waits below is the sweet embrace of death. The ambience in the engine room is really nice, though. They really nail the old and dingy engine room feel. We also pick up the last of the cheato codes, which to no one's surprise, can double the amount of gold feathers we can hold. The Cheato codes are a neat mechanic in that they give you some optional upgrades, but the gold feathers are the only ones that I feel like get anywhere close enough to running out to warrant entering the code.
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Jan 2, 2016 02:09
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That room is the bane of my existence in the N64 era. I eventually just beelined it to get the 100 notes. In other news I found a bunch of Banjo-Kazooie themed Mario Maker levels on the tumblrs and they're pretty great:: http://xenodora.tumblr.com/post/129894153447/super-mario-maker-levels-for-banjo-kazooie-fans Super Mario Maker Levels for Banjo Kazooie fans posted:Mumbo’s Mountain: 5C65-0000-004D-9C10.
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Jan 2, 2016 05:32
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Senerio posted:That room is the bane of my existence in the N64 era. I eventually just beelined it to get the 100 notes. That is awesome! Thanks for the find, I am going to have to check these out 
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Jan 3, 2016 04:00
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Episode 13 - Platforming Oh boy, you guys! Today we get to hit up Click Clock Wood! I know I've said this a lot, but this level has always been a contender for one of the top level spots. First off, the music is catchy as all hell and I love the fact that they change it in every season. Speaking of the seasons, that's another reason I love this level. The seasons mechanic is really cool and I like how you can go back and forth to different points in time and affect things that happen at later points. We don't really do a whole lot of backtracking because there's not much need to, but if you're playing this level for the first time you might have to go back and forth a few times and it's fun noticing the little changes. For example: the little goblin enemies change clothes in every season. In spring they wear sleeveless vests, but in the summer they're shirtless. The other reason I love this level is because of the Mumbo transformation, but unfortunately we're going to have to wait until next episode to see it in action.
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Jan 5, 2016 06:17
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Top level? Top level. Top Level!  This is the worst level in the game for me. Because of those season, you have go through a much trickier place to get all the notes, and you need to get all the notes.
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Jan 5, 2016 06:24
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Yeah, I've never been a fan of repetitive levels. This game has a nice gimmick to try keep things interesting but it's not enough to really make it a good level in my mind.
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Jan 5, 2016 09:02
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That's fair. I can certainly understand where having to traverse what is essentially the same level 4 times would get annoying, but I think for me I found the environments and the music so charming that I didn't really care.
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Jan 6, 2016 19:44
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I don't have much of an issue with this level, because every fuckup requiring me to climb all the way back up was my fault.
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Jan 6, 2016 19:46
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If you're a big fuckin' loser like me, you might enjoy listening to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aS40K53JQIg the entire soundtrack, in one video, on Youtube. Click Clock Wood is the best song, sorry haters.
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Jan 6, 2016 21:53
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Roro posted:Click Clock Wood is the best song, sorry haters. That's not how you spell Rusty Bucket Bay!
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Jan 6, 2016 23:51
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