Banjo-Kazooie (video game)

. Banjo-Kazooie is a single-player platform game in which the player controls the titular protagonists, an easy-going brown honey bear named Banjo and a troublemaking female red-crested "Breegull" Kazooie, from a third-person perspective. The game features nine three-dimensional worlds where the player must gather musical notes and jigsaw puzzle pieces, called Jiggies, to progress. The door with the highest amount of required notes has 880, although 765 are needed to enter the final section. It is also possible to complete certain worlds out of order, assuming the player has enough Jiggies and musical notes to reach a world earlier than intended. Banjo and Kazooie are also aided by Gruntilda's sister, Brentilda, who provides information about the witch needed to defeat her, and Mumbo Jumbo, a shaman who used to be Gruntilda's teacher. Mumbo Jumbo can use magical powers to transform them into several creatures. These include a termite, an alligator, a walrus, a pumpkin, and a honeybee. Creatures have their own abilities and allow the player to access otherwise inaccessible challenges, some of which are required to collect jiggies. Before a transformation process is allowed, the player must find a required number of "Mumbo Tokens" in the worlds. By finding a spell book called Cheato in the game's overworld, the player may also unlock secret codes that increase the capacity of Banjo and Kazooie's item inventory, such as the red feathers from 50 to 100 and the blue eggs from 100 to 200. == Plot ==

Banjo the bear lives on Spiral Mountain with his bird friend, Kazooie, and younger sister, Tooty. One day, an evil witch named Gruntilda, who also lives on Spiral Mountain, asks her sentient cauldron, Dingpot, who the prettiest girl on the mountain is; Dingpot reveals that it is Tooty who is the prettiest, to Gruntilda's frustration and jealousy. Wishing to be prettier than Tooty, Gruntilda decides to steal her beauty. As Tooty talks with Bottles the mole, Gruntilda suddenly arrives and kidnaps Tooty, taking the young girl to her cliffside lair; Banjo and Kazooie hear the commotion and, upon being informed by Bottles of the situation, they venture to Gruntilda's Lair to confront her. As Banjo and Kazooie enter Gruntilda's Lair, it is revealed that Gruntilda and her minion, Klungo, have built a machine used to transfer Tooty's beauty to Gruntilda's body. Banjo and Kazooie soon discover how to use Jiggies to warp to other lands, where they rescue creatures called Jinjos, whom Gruntilda captured. As the two progress further through Gruntilda's lair, they eventually find Gruntilda, who hosts a quiz game show called "Grunty's Furnace Fun", which offers Tooty as a prize for winning the game but threatens to kill Banjo and Kazooie in lava if they fail. Banjo and Kazooie manage to beat the game thanks to information given prior by Brentilda, Gruntilda's friendly sister, and they rescue Tooty, while Gruntilda flees to the roof of her lair. Afterwards, Banjo and Kazooie return home and celebrate their success with a barbecue until Tooty, knowing that Gruntilda is still at large, urges the two to return to Gruntilda's Lair and properly defeat her. Upon arriving back in Gruntilda's lair, Banjo and Kazooie meet Dingpot, who resents Gruntilda for all of her abuse toward him and decides to help the two reach the top of the witch's lair. On the roof, Banjo and Kazooie battle Gruntilda and, with help from all the rescued Jinjos, they knock the witch off her tower, causing her to fall to the ground below. A large piece of rubble from the lair falls on top of her, trapping the still-living Gruntilda underneath. With Gruntilda finally defeated, Banjo, Kazooie, Tooty, and Bottles all relax on a beach. In a post-credits scene, Banjo and Kazooie's shaman friend, Mumbo Jumbo, gives information on an upcoming sequel, while Gruntilda and Klungo vow revenge. ==Development==

Origins The origins of Banjo-Kazooie can be traced back to Project Dream, As development progressed, the boy was considered by the developers to be generic; thus he was replaced by a rabbit for "two or three days," then a bear who wore a backpack, trainers and cap. Similarly to the barrels in Donkey Kong Country, Banjo would have used balls from a variety of sports, such as a football, baseball, American football, bowling ball, basketball, and a water-filled balloon, that could be powered up by a balloon inflator, football boot, football helmet and baseball glove. The enemy parts and hub map were also taken from Donkey Kong Country. Although the game was 3D, the sprites were flat and rendered from a perspective above them. Rare found executing this convincingly too complicated, such as when the camera angle shifted, which would result in sprites interweaving. As head programmer Chris Sutherland described the philosophy of the shift in plans, "Although we had a lot less polygons, we could still imbue some character into the characters and the world, even though that left us with a much smaller polygon count." Staff and workflow The team comprised both experienced and inexperienced people; some had been working at Rare for 10 years while others had never previously worked on a video game. Ed Bryan was also a character artist, specifically Mumbo Jumbo and the Jinjos, as well as animator and box cover artist. Bryan has not revealed much about the making of the cover art, other than that Rare wanted him to "tell a story" with it. Kieran Connell was junior software engineer when the team said "the game had no chance of being completed on time," and Gavin Price joined as tester only a few months after receiving a demo of the game from Official Nintendo Magazine. Sutherland reported one morning where the Stamper brothers threw stones at his house window, as well as provided a McDonald's meal, to get him to work. According to Mayles, "We came up with the [...] idea that a pair of wings could appear from his backpack to help him perform a second jump. We also wanted Banjo to be able to run very fast when required [so] we added a pair of 'fast-running' legs that appeared from the bottom of the backpack. [And soon after] we came up with the logical conclusion that these could belong to another character, one that actually lived in Banjo's backpack." Specifically, Nintendo 64 models produced after Banjo-Kazooie release reduced the amount of time the console retained flash memory, making Stop 'N' Swop nearly impossible to activate as intended. The fact that the player could be transformed into small creatures was implemented to give some of the worlds a different sense of scale. Because the advanced graphics technique caused significant memory fragmentation issues, the developers created a proprietary system that could "reshuffle" memory as players played through the game. He conceived Banjo-Kazooies musical style after listening to Danny Elfman's score for Beetlejuice (1988). As he explained the philosophy, "I realized you can use really dark chords with dark harmonies, and as long as the rhythm's quite comical it's not going to scare the kids". The compositions feature several instances of tritone to reflect the contrasts between Banjo and Kazooie's character, something Kirkhope conceived when composing the music for Mumbo's Mountain. At one point when the developers were nearly done with the game, Chris Stamper decided that he disliked the first two level tunes for Mumbo's Mountain and Treasure Trove Cove, so Kirkhope had to change them quickly. The original tune for Mumbo's Mountain would be used inside the termite hill, with Kirkhope thinking that it "suited the place". The original tune for Treasure Trove Cove had a middle section inspired by the Fat Boys and the Beach Boys' cover of "Wipe Out" by the Surfaris. Banjo-Kazooie is significant for its introduction of vertical remixing to video games; various sound layers of the same composition fade in and out depending on which area the player has moved to, such as going from above ground to under water. This came from Mayles commanding Kirkhope to get a step beyond the early 1990s LucasArts' iMUSE, which faded between themes instead of sound layers. After Dream was disbanded, Rare was focused on getting Banjo-Kazooie finished as much as possible.) were performed by Sutherland, who voiced Edison in Dream. Some of Edison's voice clips, such as "Guh-huh!", were re-used for Banjo. Mumbo's speech was made up of cut-up samples of Kirkhope's voice that would later be used on the soundtrack of the Mayahem Temple level in the game's sequel Banjo-Tooie, which Kirkhope revealed in an episode of Game Grumps was actually him saying, "Come and have a go if you think you're hard enough," a famous English football chant. According to Kirkhope, Mumbo's "Oomenacka" came from something that Kirkhope said in a doctor's surgery while having his groin examined. He originally said, "Oh, me knacker," "knackers" being a British slang word for "testicles". Chris Seavor provided the voice of Gruntilda, who voiced Captain Blackeye in Dream. == Release and promotion ==

In June 1997, a working version of the game was shown at the Electronic Entertainment Expo, However, it was also met with skepticism as a rip-off of Super Mario 64 and overly cute, and despised its new name. N64 Magazine gave a glowing review of the panel, admitting it to be the event's most absorbing experience, even moreso than The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, which received the most attention from other gamers and journalists. They considered the worlds immersive due to its "graphical opulence," such as the "incredibly realistic ripples" on the water, and choice of environments "realistic" even considering the cartoony characters. They also positively commented on its implementation of the dual-character mechanic (particularly how certain sections require a specific character unlike other games). but was delayed to give developers more time for polish. In the following months, Rare released screenshots at such a rate that by May 1998, N64 Magazine suspected the game was completed besides testing. Banjo-Kazooie was released on 29 June 1998 in North America, 17 July 1998 in Europe, and 6 December 1998 in Japan as . In Europe, the game was released in the summer, an active season for Nintendo 64 releases that followed a scarce period and included games of various genres, such as Quest 64, Mortal Kombat 4, Off Road Challenge, Dezaemon 3D and Virtual Chess 64 (all 1998). It had a marketing budget of $10 million. At the 1999 Milia festival in Cannes, the game took home a "Gold" prize for revenues above €26 million in the European Union during 1998. As of March 2003, the game had sold more than 405,000 units in Japan. As of December 2007, it had sold more than 1.8 million copies in the US. As of 2021, Banjo-Kazooie worldwide sales were 3 million, making it the tenth highest-grossing Nintendo 64 game. == Critical reception ==

Banjo-Kazooie garnered critical acclaim upon its release. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, it garnered a weighted average of 92, based on 19 entries. Hypers Cam Shea also reported the controls as intuitive, as well as responsive, and enthusiastically wrote the incorporation of several abilities resulted in a variety of challenges and puzzles, making for an "action packed" experience. Nintendo Acción, EGM and The Cincinnati Enquirer considered Banjo-Kazooies graphics the greatest in the N64 library. IGN awarded the game Overall Best Graphics of 1998, Best Texture Design of 1998, and Best Music of 1998. == Legacy ==

Sequels and re-releases A sequel, Banjo-Tooie, was released for the Nintendo 64 in 2000 and largely adopts the gameplay mechanics of its predecessor. The Xbox Live Arcade version was generally well received by critics, featuring an aggregate score of 77 out of 100 at Metacritic and generally considered a solid revival of a classic. One developer, Mark Kurko, has created several popular ROM hacks for the game, including The Jiggies of Time, a recreation of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and Nostalgia 64, a crossover between multiple Nintendo 64 games. In 2024, a fan fully decompiled the original ROM image into C source code. On 25 January 2026, a team of modders released Banjo: Recompiled, a static recompilation of Banjo-Kazooie using a custom tool that helps translate N64 binaries into C. A native PC port was also unveiled, allowing the game to be played on Windows, MacOS and Linux without emulation, supporting unlimited frame rate, ultrawide monitors and modifications. The port's development team also worked with Kurko to create PC ports of The Jiggies of Time and Nostalgia 64, which were released alongside that of the main game. PC Gamer praised the recompilation, noting its "lack of input lag and uncanny visual clarity." five by Digital Spy in 2017, eight on rankings by Shacknews in 2021 and GamesRadar in 2022, thirteen by SVG.com in 2022, and two on a 2022 Destructoid top-five article. As Mark Beaumont jested, "A bear with a bird rucksack runs around a 3D platform jungle making some of the most annoying noises this side of the guy from Interpol singing – and somehow this made for one of the most engrossing games of a generation." Shacknews called it the fifth best Rare game in 2018, while New York magazine's Vulture website, in 2022, listed it as one of "The 25 Best Games on Nintendo Switch Online." In 2009, Game Informer ranked the game 71st in their list of the Top 100 Games Of All Time. In 2021, it ranked number 21 on Retro Gamers special edition of 100 Games To Play Before You Die: Nintendo Consoles Edition. According to Nintendo Lifes 10/10 review of the Switch re-release, the game was "a benchmark for 3D platforming excellence that has rarely been replicated since." which peaked in the Nintendo 64 and PlayStation era. Kirkhope recalled Rare getting tired of making Banjo games after Tooie, contributed by Rare's general anti-sequel philosophy. A frequently-cited reason for the decline of the trend was the overwhelming amount of collectables, of which Rare's 3D platformers were particularly notorious. Although Kotaku and Kirkhope considered items to obtain the most excessive on Donkey Kong 64 and Banjo-Tooie, Banjo-Kazooies "charming-if-pushing-it collecting of items" was cited as an example. GamesRadar journalist Darren Jones, conversely, felt the game struck the perfect balance of collectables. Reviewing the 2008 XBLA port, Official Xbox Magazine argued players had less tolerance for limited lives and "endless hint-free puzzles", while IGN suggested, "Most gamers have had their fill of simple fetch and hop games and like a bit more action and drama on their consoles." The platform trend was revitalized in the mid-2010s with the release of remakes of platform games like Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy (2017) and Spyro Reignited Trilogy (2018) and indie games like A Hat in Time (2017), which was marketed as being influenced by Banjo-Kazooie. The game's developer, Jonas Kaerlev, explained that his goal was to magnify the positives of the 1998 N64 game, including exploration, charm, and puzzle-solving, while mitigating its flaws, such as endless collecting and a camera. He admitted two levels were explicitly based on Banjo-Kazooie segments, a race with another character and a ticket collection, were removed due to poor test player reception. The resurgence of these games as well as the announcement of the reboot Battletoads (2020) influenced speculation of another game in the Banjo-Kazooie series, Mayles in 2018 revealing it from "aggrieved people on Twitter." As one of the earliest platformers, Banjo-Kazooie rejected the start-to-end structure of the Mario series in favor of exploration. Many of the 3D Mario games continued to follow their linear formula until Super Mario Odyssey (2017), where the player can explore the world without a time limit and remains in it after collecting a power moon. Additionally, Odysseys capture mechanic, where Mario turns into whatever object or animal it latches onto, is similar to Mumbo's animal transformations in Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie. Nintendo never publicized if they took inspiration from the Banjo games. As Mayles responded, "We took enough influences from Nintendo's games, so if they were influenced by Banjo, then that's kind of a nice thing." ==Notes==