Simply a classic, and one of the best and most innovative tittle for the nintendo 64, and one of the best of all times!!
The overworld of this game is huge and takes a lot more than mario 64 to find the next world, and and those "between worlds challenges" are all great and impressive. There are only ten worlds, but there is so much to do in them, that you won't complain. The dialogues are all funny and unique. The bosses battles, even though the're very few, are incredible and unforggetable. Banjo and Kazooie have many moves, using all of the controler buttons plus a few combinations. The puzzles are very smart, and the many minigames in the worlds are fun, just a few are boring.
I would give a 10 to this game, but since gamespot's score is based on an avarege, and this game is NOT perfect in the technical part, i gave this score. But those "not perfect technical parts" do not interfere or bother you in anyway, the ONLY thing that might bother you a few times during the whole game is the camera, but if it starts bothering, you can control it, so just put it in the right place.
Graphics 9/10 : Great textures and good light and shadow effects, very colorful characters and worlds, and even with all of that, the frame rate remains constant.
Gameplay 9/10 : The gameplay is exelent, pretty much like mario 64, but there are many other abilities. Every world has 10 jigsaw pieces(like super mario 64 stars), that are used to open the next world, by full filling a jigsaw puzzle( if 5 parts are missing, you'd need 5 jigsaw pieces); 100 musical notes, that are used to open doors, and the number required is written in the door; 5 jinjos( they're like birds and if you catch them all, you'll get a jigsaw piece); and 1 hidden button, that makes one jigsaw appear in the overworld. The only thins that might bother you is the slow "superjump"(hold Z and press A), and the camera, but you can control it when it starts bothering you, but it might get "stuck" on objects.
sound 10/10: The sound is perfect, all of the backgroung songs are great and many of them unforgetable. The sound effects are of great quality and the characters "voice" gives them some personality.
Overall this game is a classis that i will never forget and certainly would recommend to anyone. The adventure takes about 40 hours till you beat the last boss, and you'll only need 70 jigsaw pieces(i think, don't remenber very well...i played about 5 years ago) to fight it, but it'll take you much more to collect all jigssaw pieces(there are 90 i think). The last boos is very, very hard to beat too. This is one of the best n64 games and one of the best of all times, if you have any chance of playing this game, play it.