Banjo-Kazooie

Banjo Kazooie PAL Cover

EU: 17 July 1998

**Xbox 360**

WW: 3 December 2008

***Banjo-Kazooie*** is a platform video game developed by Rare and originally released for the Nintendo 64 video game console in 1998. It is the first game in the *Banjo-Kazooie*
 series and follows the story of a bear, Banjo, and a bird, Kazooie, as
they try to stop the plans of the witch Gruntilda, who intends to switch
 her beauty with Banjo's sister, Tooty. The game features nine nonlinear levels
 where the player must use Banjo and Kazooie's wide range of abilities
to gather jigsaw pieces. It features challenges like solving puzzles, jumping over obstacles, collecting items, and defeating opponents.

Originally conceived as an adventure game named *Dream* for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, *Banjo-Kazooie* was designed to appeal to players of all ages in a similar vein to Walt Disney Animation Studios
 films. The game was a critical and commercial success, selling nearly
two million copies in the United States. It was praised for its detailed
 graphics, immersive sound, and intricate level design. In 1999, it received two awards from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences: Console Action Game of the Year and Outstanding Achievement in Art/Graphics. The game was remastered for the Xbox 360 in 2008 and included in the *Rare Replay* video game compilation for the Xbox One in 2015. A sequel, *Banjo-Tooie*, was released in 2000.

## Gameplay

Screenshot
 of Mumbo's Mountain, the first level in the game. Collecting musical
notes grants players access to new inner sections of the game's
overworld.

*Banjo-Kazooie* is a single-player platform game where the player controls the protagonists Banjo and Kazooie from a third-person perspective. The game is split into nine levels where the player must gather musical notes and jigsaw pieces, called "Jiggies", to progress. Players transit from one level to another through Gruntilda's lair, which acts as the game's central overworld.
 Jiggies allow the player to complete jigsaw puzzles which open doors to
 new levels, while musical notes grant players access to new inner
sections of the overworld. Like in *Super Mario 64*, the gameplay of *Banjo-Kazooie* is very open and allows the player to collect Jiggies and musical notes in a nonlinear order. It is also possible to skip certain levels as long as the player has enough of these items to reach a farther one.

Each level is composed of a number of challenges that involve solving puzzles, jumping over obstacles, gathering objects, and defeating opponents. The game features elements of action-adventure games as players often have to speak with NPCs and then figure out a way to help them. It is also possible to increase Banjo and Kazooie's energy bar by collecting extra honeycombs that are hidden throughout the levels. Banjo and Kazooie can perform a wide range of abilities, such as jumping, climbing, swimming, flying, and rolling into enemies.
 Most of these moves are learned by finding Bottles the friendly mole
inside the worlds. Some moves require specific items so that they can be
 performed. For instance, red feathers allow Banjo and Kazooie to fly,
while gold feathers protect them from damage.
 Some items allow the pair to gain temporary abilities in a particular
moment. For instance, the turbo trainers provide a speed burst to reach a
 certain destination on time. Found in each level as well are small
creatures called "Jinjos" which Gruntilda has trapped in each world, and
 upon collecting all five in each level, the duo are granted a Jiggy.

Banjo and Kazooie are occasionally aided by their friend Mumbo Jumbo, a shaman who can use magical powers to transform them into several creatures like a termite, a pumpkin, a bee, a walrus, and a crocodile.
 These transformations have their own special features and allow the
player to access areas that were previously inaccessible. For instance,
the walrus can resist the effects of icy-cold water. Mumbo Tokens that
are scattered throughout the game allow the transformation process. The game also includes cheats that the player can unlock by finding Gruntilda's spellbook, Cheato.

## Plot

*Banjo-Kazooie*
 is set in the Spiral Mountain and follows the story of Banjo, a male
brown honey bear, and Kazooie, a female red-crested Breegull who is
always kept in Banjo's backpack. The game begins when a foul-tempered witch named Gruntilda learns from her cauldron Dingpot that Tooty, Banjo's younger sister, is more beautiful than her.[4] Jealous, Gruntilda creates a machine that can transfer a person's beauty to another, which she intends to use with Tooty.[5] She then abducts Tooty while Banjo is sleeping.[6]
 In response to the kidnapping, Kazooie wakes Banjo up and the two set
out to rescue her. Banjo and Kazooie learn from Tooty's friend, Bottles
the short-sighted mole, that she was captured by Gruntilda and suggests
they need some training to collect musical notes and jigsaw pieces to
progress through Gruntilda's lair. Along the way, they are aided by
Mumbo Jumbo, a shaman and Gruntilda's former teacher.[7]

By the time most of the musical notes and Jiggies are gathered,
Banjo and Kazooie face Gruntilda in a trivia game show named "Grunty's
Furnace Fun". The game presents questions and challenges related to
certain aspects of the game. After going through the game board, the two
 win the game and Gruntilda flees. Reunited with Tooty, Banjo and
Kazooie return home and celebrate their victory with their friends and a
 barbecue. However, Tooty reminds everyone that Gruntilda has fled and orders Banjo and Kazooie to defeat her.[8]
 The duo returns to Gruntilda's lair and reach the top of the tower,
where they face-off with her. With the help of the Jinjos that the duo
saved, Gruntilda is knocked off of the tower and trapped under a boulder
 in Spiral Mountain. Returning home, Banjo and Kazooie go on vacation at
 a beach with their friends and celebrate their victory. The game ends
with Gruntilda swearing revenge against Banjo and Kazooie and calling
for her henchman, Klungo, to move the boulder that is covering her.[9]

## Development

*Banjo-Kazooie* was developed by Rare and designed by Gregg Mayles.[10] The game evolved from *Project Dream*, a cancelled adventure game for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System that was being developed by Rare's *Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest* team.[10] *Project Dream* used Rare's ACM (Advanced Computer Modeling) graphics technology, first used in *Donkey Kong Country*,
 to a very advanced level and was originally intended to star a boy
named Edison who would own a wooden sword and get into trouble with a
group of pirates. However, as development of the game continued, Edison
was replaced by a rabbit and later a bear, who became Banjo.[10] Although the project was in development for more than one year, it was ultimately cancelled with the introduction of the Nintendo 64, which made the ACM technology obsolete.[10]

Actual work on *Banjo-Kazooie* started in March 1997 with a development team of 10 people.[10][11]
 However, as development progressed, the team grew to a total of 15
members, which included seven engineers, five artists, two designers and
 one musician.[10]
 The team was composed of both experienced and inexperienced people;
some had been working at Rare for 10 years while others had never
previously worked on a video game.[11] The 3D world of *Super Mario 64* was a major inspiration for *Banjo-Kazooie*, as Rare intended to combine it with the look of *Donkey Kong Country*.[11] The game was designed to appeal players of all ages in a similar vein to Walt Disney Animation Studios
 films. According to Rare, "We wanted the characters to primarily appeal
 to a younger audience but, at the same time, give them enough humour
and attitude not to discourage older players."[11] The music of the game, composed by Grant Kirkhope,[12] was designed to gradually fade from one style to the next without pause, while the overall composition loops continuously.[3]

Rare decided to make an action-based game that focused totally on
 Banjo and his abilities. Kazooie was later conceived during the
planning of such abilities.[10]
 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."[10] The character was named after a kazoo, which was considered an annoying instrument, "much like the personality of the bird", Mayles explained.[10]
 Instead of actual dialogue, all the characters in the game feature
"mumbling" voices. This choice was made to convey their personalities
without them actually speaking, as Rare felt the actual speech "could
ruin the player's perception of the characters."[10] The witch Gruntilda was inspired by Grotbags from the *Grotbags* British television series.[10]

*Banjo-Kazooie* employs a very advanced technique to render
its graphics. The characters were created with minimal amounts of
texturing to give them a sharp and clean look, while the backgrounds use
 very large textures split into 64×64 pieces, which was the largest
texture size the Nintendo 64 could render.[10] As a result, this technique caused significant memory fragmentation
 issues. However, the developers managed to create a proprietary system
that could "reshuffle" memory as players played through the game to
solve the fragmentation.[10] According to lead programmer Chris Sutherland, "I'd doubt many N64 games of the time did anything like that".[10]
 The fact that the player could be transformed into small creatures was
implemented to give some of the worlds a different sense of scale.[10]

Rare originally planned to include a multiplayer mode and more worlds to the game, but these features were not implemented due to time constraints;[10][13] some of these would later be included in the sequel *Banjo-Tooie* instead.[14] In addition, a feature called "Stop 'N' Swop", which would have allowed data to be transferred between both *Banjo-Kazooie* and *Banjo-Tooie*, remains incomplete in the game.[10] The feature was never fully implemented due to technical difficulties in the Nintendo 64 hardware.[15] The actual development of the game took overall 17 months to complete after Rare discarded *Project Dream*, the first two of these being spent experimenting with *Dream*'s graphic technology.[10] A working version of the game was shown at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in June 1997.[16] The game was initially scheduled for a release in late 1997, but was eventually delayed.[17] It was released on 29 June 1998 in North America and 17 July 1998 in Europe.[18]

## Reception

*Banjo-Kazooie* was a critical and commercial success, selling
more than 1.8 million copies in the United States and more than 405,000
units in Japan.[28][29] *GamePro* described *Banjo-Kazooie* as a "more complex, more fluid, and more attractive game than its plumber predecessor *Super Mario 64*. It's sure to have even the staunchest [Nintendo 64] critics raising their eyebrows."[20] Writing for IGN, journalist Peer Schneider felt that *Banjo-Kazooie* was "the best 3D platformer [he has] ever played, and a more than worthy successor to *Super Mario 64*".[3] James Ashton of *N64 Magazine* highlighted the game's length, noting that the game can take 40 or 50 hours to fully complete.[24]

The graphics were seen as one of the strongest aspects of the game.[3][21][24] Jeff Gerstmann of GameSpot wrote: "graphically, *Banjo-Kazooie* takes it to another level. The game maintains the look and feel of *Mario 64*, but instead of flat, shaded polygons, [*Banjo-Kazooie*] uses a lot of textures".[21] The game's long draw distance, solid frame rate, special lighting, transparency effects, and animations were also highlighted very positively.[3][25]
 Critics also praised the game's dynamic soundtrack. Schneider remarked
that it "lets players know where they are going. This happens all the
time and in every level. It's all very Disney-esque."[3]
 The sound effects received similar praise, with several editors
crediting the unique and diverse speech patterns of the characters.[3][21]

The game was often called a *Super Mario 64* clone for its similarity in gameplay.[21][23][30] Gerstmann compared it favourably to *Mario*,
 saying that "it doesn't stray too far from the formula, but it makes
the logical progressions you would expect Nintendo to make."[21] *Game Informer* observed that, while both games are very similar, *Banjo-Kazooie* has less emphasis on the platforming and more on exploration.[30] Schneider noted that the worlds in *Banjo-Kazooie* are "bigger, more detailed and are filled with interactive characters at every corner."[3] Colin Williamson of AllGame
 stated similar pros, crediting the level design as "simply delightful,
loaded with creativity, secrets, and memorable characters."[23] *Nintendo Power* remarked that the game's puzzles were fresh and that the characters "have more of a loud-mouthed attitude than Mario and crew.[25] One habitually-criticized aspect of the game was its flawed camera system.[22][23][24] Game Revolution remarked that it can occasionally be in a bad angle to gauge a jump properly,[22] while *Edge* said that its fixed position in underwater sections can be frustrating while retrieving collectables.[19]

In 1999, *Banjo-Kazooie* received two awards from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences: Console Action Game of the Year and Outstanding Achievement in Art/Graphics.[31] Similarly, IGN awarded the game Overall Best Graphics of 1998,[32] Best Texture Design of 1998,[32] and Best Music of 1998.[33]

## Legacy

*Banjo-Kazooie* was followed by a sequel titled *Banjo-Tooie*. The sequel was released for the Nintendo 64 in 2000 and largely adopts the gameplay mechanics of *Banjo-Kazooie*.[34] The characters Banjo and Kazooie proved to be popular and made cameo appearances in subsequent Rare games such as *Conker's Bad Fur Day* and *Grabbed by the Ghoulies*.[35] The *Banjo-Kazooie* series continued to be developed with the release of the handheld games *Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge* and *Banjo-Pilot* for the Game Boy Advance. A third main game, *Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts*, was released for the Xbox 360 in 2008. The gameplay of *Nuts & Bolts*
 is a departure from its predecessors in that, rather than learning new
moves to progress, the player must instead build vehicles of all shapes
and sizes to complete challenges.[36]

An Xbox Live Arcade version of *Banjo-Kazooie*, developed by 4J Studios, was released for the Xbox 360 on 3 December 2008.[37][38] This version runs in a full widescreen mode, includes achievements,
 and supports the "Stop 'N' Swop" connectivity that was incomplete in
the Nintendo 64 game, used now to unlock features in both *Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts* and the then-upcoming Xbox Live Arcade version of *Banjo-Tooie*.[39][40] The Xbox Live Arcade version was generally well received by critics, featuring an aggregate score of 77 out of 100 at Metacritic.[41] While some publications such as Eurogamer considered the relatively unchanged game to be outdated,[42] several agreed that the Xbox Live Arcade version was a solid revival of a classic.[43][44]
 In 2009, IGN ranked it seventh on its list of Top 10 Xbox Live Arcade
Games, with editor Cam Shea stating that, while the game is "not
perfect, it was a landmark title for a reason".[45]

*Banjo-Kazooie* is frequently cited as one of the greatest video games of all time. In 2000, the game was ranked number seven on IGN's list of The Top 25 N64 Games of All Time.[46] In 2009, *Game Informer* ranked the game 71st in their list of the Top 100 Games Of All Time.[47] In 2015, the Xbox Live Arcade version of *Banjo-Kazooie* was released as part of the *Rare Replay* video game compilation for Xbox One.[48] A spiritual successor to *Banjo-Kazooie*, *Yooka-Laylee*, was released in 2017.[49]