Banjo

Banjo is one of the main protagonists of Rare's Banjo-Kazooie series, along with Kazooie. He has minor relevance to the Mario games. Prior to debuting in his own games, Banjo made his first appearance in Diddy Kong Racing.
==Profile==
===Physical description===
Banjo is a brown bear. He wears a pair of yellow shorts with a black belt holding them up. He does not wear a shirt or shoes but instead has a shark tooth necklace. Banjo also sports a blue backpack, which holds Kazooie, his red-bird friend. Kazooie got her name from the fact she plays the Kazoo. Kazooie is not present in Diddy Kong Racing. She makes her first appearance in Banjo-Kazooie.
==In Diddy Kong Racing==
Banjo is one of the playable characters. He lacks high acceleration but has high speed and average handling skills.
In the game's events, Banjo had been called by Timber to help save his island from the evil galactic invader, Wizpig who had been trying to rule the area. They then all wanted to be the big hero in the game by wanting to be the one who has stopped Wizpig in his trails of invading the area. He, along with his pals, manage to defeat Wizpig in a race twice and send him onto a deserted planet in space where he demands revenge. Then, Timber's Island has a party with every resident and playable character being in it.
==In Banjo-Kazooie series==
After his debut in Diddy Kong Racing, Banjo starred in his own series of games, starting with Banjo-Kazooie in 1998 for the N64. Two years later, Banjo Tooie came out on the N64 again. An eight-year-long period went on with just two spin-off games, Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge and Banjo Pilot, for the Game Boy Advance. Finally, in 2008, the official sequel to Banjo-Tooie came out, Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. In all of the games, an evil witch named Grunty plots against the welfare of Spiral Mountain of Isle O' Hags.
==In Mario Artist: Paint Studio==
Banjo, along with many other characters from Diddy Kong Racing, make a cameo appearance in the form of cameo stamps. Banjo in particular uses his artwork from Diddy Kong Racing as well as a dedicated section of artwork of him from the Banjo-Kazooie series. This is the only Mario game in which Banjo appears.
==In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate==
At the Nintendo Direct at E3 2019, it was announced that Banjo would be a downloadable fighter. This led to much anticipation from several people.
Banjo was reportedly considered for Super Smash Bros. Melee alongside 007 (aka James Bond), but due to Nintendo's deal with Rare expiring, the bird and bear duo had to wait sometime before their inclusion in a Smash Bros. game.
==Unused appearances==
===Donkey Kong 64===
Banjo, along with Kazooie, have their faces displayed on a shower in the treehouse in the beta version of Donkey Kong 64. This cameo had later been removed, along with the entire stall itself.
==Trivia==
*Banjo and Conker both do not reappear in the remake, Diddy Kong Racing DS, due to copyright issues concerning that the characters belong to Rare. Strangely, Tiptup is a Rare-licensed character, but reappears in the DS remake. His theme, along with Conker's, can still be heard in the background music though.
*In Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, a character named L.O.G. makes a remark about an "Italian Plumber," referring to Mario.
*After Rareware was sold to Microsoft, the right to characters and elements from then Banjo-Kazooie series were stripped from Nintendo. However, on a few occasions, Microsoft has granted the use of the characters to Nintendo a couple of times, such as with Banjo-Pilot and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
*Banjo and Kazooie are the fourth foreign-created characters to be playable in Smash Bros.
*Banjo & Kazooie are the only third-party fighter whose series debuted on a Nintendo console other than the NES.
*Banjo & Kazooie are the first and only third-party fighters to debut in a game that was published by Nintendo worldwide.
*Banjo & Kazooie are the only third-party characters who fight as a team.
de:Banjo
es:Banjo the Honey Bear
it:Banjo
ja:バンジョー
Category:Heroes
Category:Animals
Category:Bears
Category:Downloadable content
Category:Characters from third-party media
Category:Characters in Diddy Kong Racing
Category:Characters in Super Smash Bros. series
Category:Characters not from the Mario Universe