Banjo-Kazooie
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| Banjo-Kazooie | |
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| Developer(s) | Rare |
| Publisher(s) | Nintendo |
| Designer(s) | Gregg Mayles |
| Series | Banjo-Kazooie series |
| Release date(s) |   May 31, 1998 July 17, 1998 December 6, 1998 |
| Genre(s) | Platformer, Action/Adventure |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: E (Everyone) ELSPA: 3+ |
| Platform(s) | Nintendo 64 |
| Media | 128 megabit cartridge |
Banjo-Kazooie is a 3D platform/adventure video game for the Nintendo 64. It was developed by Rare and published by Nintendo in 1998. The game stars a bear named Banjo and a bird named Kazooie who set out on a quest to rescue Banjo's sister, Tooty, who has been kidnapped by the witch Gruntilda. Along their journey, Banjo and Kazooie receive help from Mumbo Jumbo, the shaman, and Bottles, the mole, as well as from various other characters in smaller roles.
Known by the project name Dream until it was first shown at the 1997 E³, Banjo-Kazooie received a significant amount of hype, partly due to being marketed as the game that would be to the N64 what Donkey Kong Country was to the SNES in terms of an advancement in graphics. Originally, it was supposed to be released as Nintendo of America's big holiday game for 1997 with a Taco Bell toy promotion lined up, but Rare needed to delay it several months. Instead, Diddy Kong Racing took its place, and with Banjo as a character in that game as well, it turned B-K into an incidental spin-off of the Donkey Kong franchise. Banjo-Kazooie went on to become one of the most popular games for the console.
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[edit] Story
The story begins one day at Spiral Mountain, an area inhabited by Banjo, Kazooie, Bottles, and several other creatures, including giant hopping carrots and other vegetables. On that particular morning, while the sun is shining and the fauna are flourishing, Banjo lies snoring in his bed while Tooty is waiting for Banjo to "go on an adventure" with her.
Meanwhile, Gruntilda is hunched over her cauldron admiring her own beauty; even though she is the ugliest hag of all, she remains convinced that she is the loveliest in the land. Asking her magical cauldron, Dingpot, if she indeed is the fairest of all, assured that she will hear her own name, Dingpot answers that it is in fact not her, but Tooty who is the fairest in the land. Gruntilda is enraged by this and sets out to Tooty's house to kidnap her and steal her beauty.
Meanwhile, back outside Banjo's house, Tooty is talking to Bottles the mole when Gruntilda sweeps down and kidnaps Tooty, who does not go without a fight. Banjo, of course, sleeps through the whole thing and only walks out of the house shortly after Gruntilda has flown away with Tooty. After hearing what transpired from Bottles, Banjo and his friend Kazooie begin their journey up Spiral Mountain and inside Grunty's Lair to save Tooty.
[edit] Gameplay
Banjo-Kazooie adopted many of its central game play mechanics from Nintendo's groundbreaking title Super Mario 64. For instance, the player must similarly explore non-linear 3D worlds and gather tokens in the form of "Jigsaws" (like Super Mario 64's "Stars") to unlock new worlds. While some considered Banjo-Kazooie an evolution of Super Mario 64, others have criticised Rare for lacking innovation in this respect. [citation needed] However, the game did introduce a number of innovative features, such as the ability for Banjo and Kazooie with the aid of Mumbo's magical powers to transform into other creatures such as a termite, crocodile, walrus, pumpkin and a bee, the ability for the characters to learn new moves (as taught by Bottles), the game's extensive use of textures for surfaces where other N64 games would have used plain colors, extensive lighting, and music that dynamically changes style in order to reflect the environment and dangers to the characters.
Like Super Mario 64 before it, the player proceeds through the game by finding tokens. There are three kinds of tokens that help the player in his or her progress through the game, namely Jigsaw Pieces, Musical Notes, and Mumbo's Tokens. The first, "Jigsaw Pieces," open doors to new worlds by collecting enough to complete a particular jigsaw puzzle. There are ten "jiggies" (as they are sometimes called) in each world: nine must be sought and found, and one is granted by finding all five "Jinjos" on each world. The second, "Musical Notes," open magic Note Doors that allow Banjo and Kazooie to progress further into Gruntilda's lair. There are 100 notes on each world, and 900 total in the game. The third, "Mumbo's Tokens," grant the player magical transformations at Mumbo's hut when the player collects a sufficient amount. Each hut that the player visits will yield only one of the following transformations: termite, crocodile, walrus, pumpkin, or bee.
Besides these primary tokens, players may also collect items which are used in performing certain moves. Bottles the Mole must teach Banjo and Kazooie the move before the item can be utilized. Items include: Eggs, Red Feathers, and Gold Feathers, which can be held in quantities up to 100, 50, and 10, respectively. Eggs are fired as projectiles or ejected from Kazooie's rear, which would bounce slowly until it either hits an enemy, or it breaks on its own, Red Feathers are utilized in flight and flying attacks, and Gold Feathers are for the most powerful attack, "Wonderwing," which uses Kazooie's wings to make her and Banjo invincible and can kill most any enemy, or at least protect the bear and bird. Furthermore, rarer temporary items can be found which have specialized use in puzzle-solving, namely "Wading Boots," which enable the crossing of hazardous terrain, and "Running Shoes," which grant extra running speed, often as part of a race or a time-based puzzle. Finally, there are powerups, such as "Extra Lives," which look like golden Banjo statues and grant one extra life each, and "Honeycomb Energy," which incrementally increases the player's health and can be found in each level.
A large feature of gameplay is that the characters make limited speaking-like sounds when they talk. The voices were not real speech, but rather a looping of voice-like sounds when text bubbles were displayed. This artistic choice was likely made due to memory limitations on Nintendo 64 cartridges; however, this added considerably to the atmosphere and uniqueness of the game.
Besides the technical aspects, Banjo-Kazooie's rich characters were what really made the game come alive. Gruntilda the witch always spoke in rhymes (which she would declare inexplicably as Banjo and Kazooie wandered about her lair), such as "it really does sound quite absurd, adventure of a bear and bird!" Kazooie was always very annoyed at Bottles the mole, and various other smaller characters made memorable appearances. One notable motif is that nearly all objects, including wrapped presents, mines, and vegetables, had eyes.
[edit] Main characters
- Banjo - A lovable, yet somewhat confused bear. The hero of this tale.
- Kazooie - An elegant bird with a cutting wit. Banjo's partner in action and character foil.
- Mumbo Jumbo - A shaman that helps the duo by transforming them into various creatures.
- Bottles - A timid, mild-mannered mole, the neighbor of Banjo and Kazooie.
- Gruntilda Winkybunion - A witch that vows revenge on Banjo and Kazooie.
- Klungo - Gruntilda's servant.
[edit] Worlds
[edit] Spiral Mountain
In the Banjo and Kazooie game series, Spiral Mountain is the hub world. It's home to many characters, including Banjo and Kazooie. Banjo's house lies on the outer part of Spiral Mountain.
[edit] Gruntilda's Lair
This is the main area where most of the game time is spent. Bottles, Brentilda, and Grunty's minions can be found here. The Lair also has four sets of eight colored cauldrons which allow Banjo and Kazooie to skip over parts of Gruntilda's lair to reach the top. After opening all of the cauldrons, Banjo and Kazooie can skip straight to the top. Gruntilda's lair also leads to the final fight and has powerful spells called Note Doors. To open these doors Banjo and Kazooie's accumulated note scores must be equal to or higher than the number on the door.
[edit] Other worlds in Banjo-Kazooie
- Mumbo's Mountain: A small, jungle-themed world where training is the primary purpose. It is home to Conga the Gorilla, termites,and Mumbo.
- Treasure Trove Cove - An island with a lighthouse and the nearly-indestructible shark, Snacker.
- Clanker's Cavern: A world of flooded caves and disposal pipes. This world is also home to Clanker, a giant, mechanical fish.
- Bubblegloop Swamp: A swamp with waters dangerous to Banjo and Kazooie and an alligator named Mr. Vile lives there.
- Freezeezy Peak: A snowy, mountainous world with a giant snowman in the center and Boggy, the polar bear. It also holds the infamous Ice Key.
- Gobi's Valley: An Egyptian-themed desert world featuring the camel, Gobi.
- Mad Monster Mansion: A Halloween-based world featuring frightening themes such as a haunted house, ghosts, and tombstones.
- Rusty Bucket Bay: A world centered around a large cargo ship afloat in the water and warehouses surrounding the port.
- Click Clock Wood: Centered around a giant tree in a forest, four different doors will allow Banjo and Kazooie to enter the world through four seasons. It is also the favorite level to many Banjo Kazooie fans.
[edit] Unfinished worlds
There were originally supposed to be 16 worlds; however, they were never completed due to time restraints and were subsequently scrapped.[citation needed] Some include:
- Fungus Forest (a picture of it can be seen in Banjo's house next to his bed). It was instead used in Donkey Kong 64 as Fungi Forest.
- Hammerhead Beach (this level is now widely considered to have been a working title for Treasure Trove Cove).
- Mount Fire Eyes (the lava room in Gruntilda's Lair is believed to be where the entrance was to be located) This level was nearly finished when they decided to cancel it so as to get the game out faster. It later became the lava side of Hailfire Peaks in Banjo-Tooie. Gobi makes a reference to this world when you chase him out of Click Clock Wood once the massive flower grows completely.
[edit] Stop 'N' Swop
[edit] Cameos
- In Click Clock Wood, Banjo and Kazooie meet a character named Gnawty the Beaver. This character is also an enemy from the Donkey Kong series, also made by Rare. The Gnawty in this game looks very similar to the ones in Donkey Kong 64, only its skin is brownish and not blue (although there were brown Gnawtys in Donkey Kong Country including a Boss called "Really Gnawty").
- Tiptup makes an appearance in Bubblegloop Swamp. Tiptup was one of the racers from Diddy Kong Racing, a racing game from 1997 which also featured Banjo as a playable character. Tiptup also makes a cameo in Banjo-Tooie.
- An early screenshot for Donkey Kong 64 showed a shower in Donkey Kong's Treehouse with Banjo and Kazooie's head on it. However, the shower was removed before the game was released. Also, an early screenshot of Banjo-Kazooie showed Donkey Kong's picture on Banjo's wall instead of Tooty's.
- The heads of Banjo (as a trophy above the fireplace) and Kazooie (as the handle of an umbrella) can both be found in Rare's M-rated platformer release for the Nintendo 64, Conker's Bad Fur Day.
- Monsterous versions of Banjo and Kazooie's head can be found in the hallway in Grabbed by the Ghoulies for the Microsoft Xbox. The game also holds many pictures and gag memorobilia sponsored by the various characters found throughout the game. It is also believed that the goldfish in the classroom is Roysten, the very same fish Banjo kept as a pet who would always get abused and/or cooked throughout the franchise.
- Not only is Roysten in the classroom, but on the white-board, a few maps are pictured, one of them being Treasure Trove Cove. On the map, Sharkfood Island is marked with an "X", where the secret pink egg is located. Underneath the maps, 4 eggs and the Ice Key are shown next to each other with "=?" shown after. This has led fans to believe that only four eggs were meant to be collected.
- Another Rare game, Kameo: Elements of Power for the Xbox 360, features a radio in one character's house which plays an arrangement of the Banjo-Kazooie theme.
[edit] Awards
At the 1999 Interactive Achievement Awards, Banjo-Kazooie won in the "Console Action/Adventure" and "Art Direction" categories, and was nominated for "Console Adventure Game of the Year" and "Game of the Year."
[edit] Trivia
- The Banjo-Kazooie soundtrack, composed by Grant Kirkhope, was released on a limited edition CD.
[edit] External links
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| Banjo-Kazooie • Banjo-Tooie • Grunty's Revenge • Banjo 360 |
