Published 8/11/2025

Banjo-Kazooie: The Corrupted Jiggies

I’ve really enjoyed diving into romhacks lately. Maybe a dumb decision, considering how big my backlog of actual retail games is, but it’s been a good time regardless. In some cases, it’s giving me fantastic further experiences to games we see plenty of (read: mostly Pokemon). But more interestingly, it’s been a way to continue to play old, dormant franchises that haven’t had a new title in literally decades. For me, there is no franchise that feels as definitively dead (sans some wonderful cameos) than Banjo-Kazooie. Banjo-Kazooie, my favourite game on the N64, Banjo-Tooie, the N64 game I played the most. Games that I hold deeply, deeply close to my heart, and ones that break it all over again when I know, at least any time this decade, we won’t be seeing my beloved Bear and Bird any time soon. So, when I discovered the now-burgeoning Banjo-Kazooie rom-hacking scene, I was elated. Coming off the excellent, charming and emotionally evocative experience that was Nostalgia 64, I’m opting to take a look at some of the lesser-known titles in the scene. Banjo-Kazooie: The Corrupted Jiggies is the debut work from romhacker ‘Sorra1’, and it very much shows. The rom-hack features a lot of rough edges, particularly in the realm of its awkward, self-referential writing. Many of the ways you obtain the titular Jiggies feels quite repetitive though this is made up with generally strong, if occasionally unmemorable, level designs and foreign asset usage. All this combines to create something that, despite everything, feels very much a part of Banjo-Kazoie canon.

Now, before I get started, on the off-chance the creator of the romhack sees this review, I want to be honest. I’ve got some pretty big criticisms of The Corrupted Jiggies. It is, overall, a pretty fun game, but I don’t want to paint over issues to spare the creator's feelings. Simply put: Being able to make a romhack at all, especially one of this scale as a first-time hacker, is phenomenal work. I simply hope (not to act like I’m big-time enough they’re 100% reading this) if you read this, I hope you take the criticisms to heart and make your next project that much bigger and better. You’re awesome, dude!

Foundationally Banjo

The Corrupted Jiggies apparently takes place sometime after all the pre-Nuts & Bolts Banjo titles, as indicated by the various implements and aftereffects scattered about Spiral Mountain that call back to previous games. Even if they don’t really have much bearing on the story - or you even spend any real time in Spiral Mountain - the adherence to what comes before is, as always, deeply important. Grunty, of course, has returned, with her new (ultimately, hilariously, undefined) plan backed up by her own set of corrupted Jiggys. These are referred to as Griggys, a term I just refuse to say with my own lips. It just really feels like a slur for a people that don’t exist. Then again, I suppose since everything in Banjo has googly eyes, is Griggy actually a slur for Jiggys? Much to think about.

Much like the core series, the bulk of your time will be spent exploring a selection of unique, instanced worlds, each with their set of collectibles to scrounge for. Notes, Jiggies, Mumbo Tokens - all the stuff from the main games are here. All these items are collected in the name of progressing through a variety of barriers to ultimately reach and defeat Grunty once more. One thing I really appreciated was that rather than the game taking place within a specific location, The Corrupted Jiggies opts for you to physically journey through the entire region of the Hubb Lands, much like Banjo-Tooie. Personally, it just makes the game feel more like an actual adventure, with each world you’re visiting feeling more like physical progress then mere collectathon zones to engage with. And rather than having Bottles or JamJars to vocally spar with, Moneybags (from Spyro!) stands as the guardian of Note Doors. I may be critical of the romahcks writing, but the vocal sparring between Kazooie and Moneybags is probably on par with anything featuring the mole brothers.

But if there is an element I can endlessly praise about within this romhack, it is how solid the foundational design work of the nine worlds are. Regardless of their content, each one feels aesthetically like a natural part of the world Sorra1 has created as a part of their romhack. Overall, The Hubb Lands, both as a hub and a series of levels, feel a lot more 'normal' as compared to previous hub-worlds. 100% not a bad thing, I love it nearly as much as Grunty's Lair or Isle'O Hags. It’s hard to imagine people living in much of Isle’O’Hags or Grunty’s Lair, but I could imagine all kinds of little villages and townships within the Hubb Lands. These locations, at least on a visual level, are easily the most ‘Banjo-Kazooie’ levels I’ve ever seen in a romhack. The details of tje, aren’t always the most well-populated or evenly laid out, but their basic frameworks and aesthetics feel very much a part of the Banjo-landscape and, in one form or another, fit perfectly in a core Banjo-Kazooie game.

In regards to the levels themselves: Sorra1 doesn’t take massive swings in his level designs. A simple farmstead, an amusement park, or a long-abandoned gold mine. You don’t get anything crazy like Click-Clock Woods or Cloud Cuckooland, but these almost everyday level designs make them feel like actual locations and landscapes within The Hubb Lands, rather than the storybook, mini-realities Banjo Kazooie features. And sometimes, simple concepts work so much better. High Mountains, for an example, features a very thin, vertical environment that constantly has you climbing, with several offshoots areas to explore. So many zones, especially ones like Fatal Farm or the Poop Carnival feel like almost slice-of-life locales within the overall setting. Something that I feel can be somewhat lacking in the core Banjo series. There are a few that feel a little derivative of existing levels, such as Dampe’s Graveyard (saved by it’s subzones) and the Not-Grunty Industries world, but I there’s enough going on to cut Sorra1 some slack.

As with Banjo-Kazooie and Tooie, a pretty decent majority of collectibles need to be obtained to actually complete the game. I didn’t keep track of various note door and puzzle requirements, but I’d estimate you’d need to collect 85-90% of the notes and Griggys present throughout the game. Not awful, considering it's less then Banjo-Kazooie, but more then Tooie. A good balance that requires you to engage with a majority of what the game has on offer. To that end, a majority of these collectibles are fairly accessible to hunt down. Griggys exist at natural end points and high-up locales, with Notes generally guiding you towards them. Only Mumbo Tokens and Honey Comb pieces feel like they’re off the beaten path. But as long as you search the places you wouldn’t expect to find a collectible, you’ll be fine. I did, of course, suffer from the ancient curse of “Where the hell is that last note from time to time. But, thankfully, the levels aren’t big enough for them to get lost in, so again, persistence clears all. Plus, there is some fairly good documentation available online, so you’re really not going to struggle too much. Plus, with the amount of Mumbo Tokens you actually need to earn all the transformations is pretty fair, so finding them all isn't required.

New and Old, Flexible and Rigid

The big swing Sorra1 does take in regards to his level design ethic is the utilization of foreign game assets to spruce up his locales. A lot of elements from other Nintendo 64 games - not just Rare titles, but sometimes neighbours like Rayman 2 - to help give them a little more of a unique shine as compared to original Banjo-Kazooie levels. Whilst I genuinely do adore how these elements are utilized, they do come at a cost of performance. Seriously, I’d be doing some platforming in an area that showcased a bunch of foreign elements and the FPS took a massive dive, to the point that platforming became far more of a tool. The elements do look great, and the author has done great work in making them feel like a natural part of the landscape and not out of place from what I’d expect in a Banjo-esque setting. But I think balancing that with rock-solid performance - or as much as you can hope from an N64 hack - should be taken a little more into account. But I do want to highlight Moneybags' inclusion. He slots so well into the Banjo-Kazooie aesthetic, my fiance glanced at my screen and thought he was just a bespoke character with how well he fit the scene.

On a somewhat related note, Sorra1 also incorporates original transformations into the hack, rather than going back to Banjo-Kazooie’s well. Frankly, I’m a little torn on them. On one hand, the concepts behind them are generally quite fantastic - I’m quite taken with Rodent Banjo. But the big issue is that there is a total lack of animation behind them - sans Bottles, thanks to some tricks from Banjo-Tooie, I assume. Again, I understand animating whole new elements to a Banjo game is nigh-on maddening, if not nearly impossible. But I think a decision needs to be made. Whilst seeing the new designs is great, seeing them A-Pose around really gets old quickly, and I’d much prefer just seeing reutilizations of previous transformations then the sadly cheap look provided by no animation.

On a similar topic, typically very few of the Griggys are obtained through actual tasks or challenges set by NPCs, as in Banjo-Kazooie/Tooie. So, instead The Corrupted Jiggies features a heavy focus on platforming as a vehicle for progression. This is a double-edged sword; whilst the platforming is very, very good it gives the collectible nature of the game something more in common with Super Mario 64. SM64 is all about gameplay over nearly zero story. But Banjo's N64 entries were filled to the brim with hilarious dialogue deeply intertwined with the task rewards given by NPCs. So, having a lack of those bespoke tasks kind of hurts it for me, if not for the ways I’m earning Griggys, but the chances to hear from its cast. Regardless of that, I think it’s important for me to underline that

The Corrupted Jiggies has easily the best suite of platforming I’ve seen in a Banjo romhack. Trials that’ll have you clearing a tricky set of platforms, or speeding to a timed door are perfectly balanced between snooze-fests and frustrating. And even then, the more brutal platforming sections do pay dividends. The extended platforming challenges featured in Goldmine Canyon’s temple or Grunty Inc’s rafters, these reward multiple Griggys. Plus, a lot of the frustration was tempered by the game preventing death upon falling into a bottomless pit. Instead of kicking you back to the start of a world, it simply reloads you back to the start of the challenge. Sure, there were occasionally some janky surfaces on some trees or ruins that caused an unfair death or failurehere and there, but generally, the platforming feels pretty damn good.

I’d also like to highlight that, in spite of Banjo-Kazooie having a fairly atrocious final fight, twisting The Corrupted Jiggies does far better. Turning the showdown with Grunty into a platforming affair then the awkward battle in its parent game was a stroke of genius. It might feel a little impersonal, since Grunty doesn’t really feel that present, but I’ll take anything over the end of Banjo-Kazooie - a black spot on an otherwise stellar game.

The Importance Of Being Confidant

Now, it’s a shame I have to come down a bit harder on an element of this game, but it’s hard not to. Now, I genuinely don’t think storytelling matters that much in Banjo-Kazooie games. But, at the same time, I believe the writing of these games, specifically in Grunty’s rhymes and Banjo and Kazooie’s back and forth with each other and the various NPCs, are the most important element to these games beyond the base gameplay. And whilst there is occasionally a lot of really high quality, quite sweet writing to be seen in-game, so much of the writing is hamstrung by a few key issues. The game frequently lampshades the issues the game features due to author’s lack of experience with romhacking, and the fact English is not their first language. It’s hard to feel confident with your first big project, trust me - I’ve written literally over a hundred reviews, and my confidence is still in the toilet - but the amount of lines directly stating their lack of experience and ability to romhack to produce The Corrupted Jiggies is just a bit too much.

Things I wouldn’t have even noticed as an issue get underlined by the writing. Notably, the lack of a task to get a Jiggiy from an NPC, get highlighted because Kazooie ‘calls out’ Sorra1’s lack of experience. The lack of ‘tasks’ you have to complete to earn Griggys does feel like an issue in combating the occasional monotony of the game. But I wouldn’t have thought about it nearly as often if the game wasn’t actively roasting itself for the issue. There’s also a lot of grammatical and spelling issues throughout the game. It's never to the point that I couldn't follow what was being said, but enough to remind me that I am playing a fangame, not a true-blue Banjo-Kazooie title. Sorra1 says himself (via one of Grunty’s rhymes) that English isn’t his first language, and I obviously won’t criticize you at that. But having someone else read through the writing and clearing up those issues would’ve done magnitudes in sharpening down the issues.

Overall, though, I think my biggest problem with The Corrupted Jiggies is that it feels overall a bit unmemorable. There are specific elements and moments that I think fondly on. Level designs and aesthetics, a handful of interactions, the hilarious transformations. But for each of those, there are just as many parts of the game that I can barely remember. Entire levels - such as the Gold Mine, or the Swamp, whose layouts and contents largely vanished from my brain the second I left them. I understand that creating bespoke tasks from NPCs to obtain Griggys are probably the height of what a Banjo rom-hacker can accomplish. But the fact that the Corrupted Jiggy features a near total lack of them at all, even recycled ones from the original games, with the vast majority of Griggys being platforming based, makes them stick out a lot less in my mind.

Banjo-Kazooie: The Corrupted Jiggies does have some serious shortcomings. But most importantly, I want to underline that these shortcomings come from inexperience, not a lack of effort or talent. An extra set of eyes, and an additional pass on the writing could’ve cleaned up a lot of the mistakes and punctuation, and a little less of the self-deprecating writing would do wonders in not pulling me out of the world. The foundations of this game - and the talent in blending the assets of other games into Banjo’s world without breaking my immersion - are incredibly, incredibly impressive, and it makes me beyond excited to see what Sorra1 has cooking next.