Beat Banjo-Tooie. There is some charm missing, compared to the first game - things like honeycombs, musical notes, etc. don't explain themselves anymore, but are explained, the faces in the left upper corner don't get tired, as your health gets lower, stuff like that. And the worlds don't feel as charming anymore. Don't know what it is, but the worlds in BK feel so fun to be in. Maybe it's how big the levels in BT are.
Still, I had a lot of fun, and find most of the worlds to be well done. Even, or maybe especially, complicated levels like Grunty Industries, are a lot of work to traverse (I got my first jiggy there after nearly an hour), but they feel very interestingly designed. I wished I could talk more about what I liked, but it boils down to "I like collecting stuff and exploring levels". These levels were fun to me to explore, and I enjoyed the interconnectedness. A shame, that especially that part didn't get explored more further. There was more to do with that, this felt still like a bit of a dry run. A shame that this genre died (even with a handful of indie follow-ups). I wished there were still big budget games, that kept exploring and developing the ideas of the genre.
I mean, there are, but they developed in a more guided direction. I'm thinking of the later 3D Mario games, like the Galaxies, or other stuff like the Sly Cooper games. These are also 3D platformers (and probably better ones, when it comes to platforming), but they aren't collectathons, and don't leave you with small, open worlds, that you can explore.
Thinking about this, I guess that was developed too, in the open world genre. Except, that here, the whole world is open, but is way too big and excessive, for me - I really would prefer the smaller sandboxes of a Mario 64 or the Banjo games. Also, I would probably play an open world game, if the artstyle would go for a cartoony world, but it's always in the direction of realistic graphics, and more "adult" worlds. I'd totally play an open world game that contains weird nonsense like the Banjo games, that are just way more playful and cartoony, than what we get normally.
I know that Mario Odyssey and BOTW are a thing, but I still have no money for a Switch. And even if these would scratch that itch (especially Odyssey sounds fitting), they are only two games in such a long time.
Point is, I miss N64s Rare. I guess no one will ever try to make something in the spirit of Diddy Kong Racing again, which is such a shame. Still by far my favourite Kart Racer, simply because its the only one that thinks "maybe we could make a single-player mode, that isn't an afterthought", and has a world to explore, even if it's small, with levels that sometimes even contain stuff.