Rare, the UK developer, made a daring step back into their blocky roots with Banjo X. The story revolves around Gruntilda taking Tooty away and Banjo and Kazooie must use musical notes, Jiggies and other collectibles scattered across multiple worlds to track her down.
Characters
Banjo-Kazooie features characters ranging from the dimwitted Klungo to the sassy Kazooie; all working together to rescue Tooty from Gruntilda Winkybunion and rescue her sister Tooty from Gruntilda Winkybunion’s evil witch Gruntilda Winkybunion. Additionally, Mumbo Jumbo transforms them into various creatures; Bottles the Mole is their coach while Histup acts as their coach as they teach new moves; finally there is also Histup who serves as his support to his friends when his brother Histup gets his hands dirty while helping his partner out when necessary.
Banjo is an endearing honey bear who knows how to play the banjo and cares deeply for his sister Tooty. Kazooie, his best friend who often resides in Banjo’s blue backpack is often insulting others as she doesn’t have great social skills and tends to show her frustration by insulting or getting on people’s nerves with short temper.
Gruntilda Winkybunion, a witch intent on restoring herself and defeating Banjo-Kazooie, uses magic, machinery and minion power to accomplish her goals. She often speaks in rhymes and masterfully orchestrates sabotage. Klungo serves as her servant sidekick. Additionally, Tooty, one of Gruntilda Winkybunion’s younger siblings who is kidnapped at the beginning of each game serves as her sidekick.
Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts was released in 2005, taking players through various worlds that featured unique environments and characters. Banjo and Kazooie must construct vehicles to traverse these worlds – a concept different than nonlinear platforming or basic puzzle solving seen elsewhere at that time – in order to navigate them; unlike nonlinear platforming or basic puzzle solving found elsewhere. These games also use vibrant color palettes with music varying depending on each environment’s entrance, such as music box instrumental playing near an ice level entrance! Although this franchise went dormant after release of Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, characters have made appearances elsewhere such as Diddy Kong Racing or Super Smash Bros Ultimate!
Levels
Banjo-Kazooie set an astounding standard for 3D platformers when its first game released, offering expansive 3D levels and an engaging cast, as well as unique art styles and an incredible variety of collectable items. Unfortunately, Rare’s subsequent sequels would fall short by failing to strike an equilibrium between open world exploration and collectathon gameplay.
Banjo-Kazooie’s level design can often resemble that of modern open world games, though with smaller worlds that don’t sprawl over vast landscapes. Players explore each world for gold jigsaw pieces, music notes and other collectables before being confronted with ability gates (such as fast shoes ) which encourage players to backtrack and collect additional items.
There are also a few special levels that require extra work to unlock. For instance, Rusty Bucket Bay’s Engine Room can be seen as a hellscape filled with spinning platforms, pipes and propellers; should either Banjo or Kazooie fall from them once, they will instantly die and must tiptoe through an unsteady section of ship before crawling up ladder and diving under water to collect Jiggy who hides behind its propellers if they hope to unlock it.
Click Clock Woods is one of the game’s most awe-inspiring worlds; players can see the seasons change throughout its four seasons as you help woodland friends complete yearlong tasks to keep their village blooming all four seasons. Plant a garden, raise a frog child, pollinate it or play as a bee buzzing around a vibrant forest are just a few tasks they face each year here!
Some levels also make references to other classic Nintendo 64 titles created by Rareware, such as Yoshi’s Story, Bomberman 64 and forgotten puzzle-platformer Glover. The trailer for Nostalgia 64 shows Banjo and Kazooie coming across cartridges for these titles as well as Diddy Kong Racing and Conker’s Bad Fur Day classics – an indication that Nostalgia 64 may also appeal to nostalgic players!
Puzzles
Banjo and Kazooie use teamwork to solve various puzzles in this game, from scouring worlds for Jiggies to solving increasingly challenging puzzles to unlocking doors leading to Cloud Cuckooland (the final level rewriting how 3D platformers should operate through its surrealist architecture and unexpected endings).
Gruntilda Winkybunion, who seeks to capture Banjo’s sister. She is an evil and stereotypical witch who speaks in rhyme while carrying around a broom for performing magic spells. Banjo and Kazooie must defeat her to save Banjo as well as free all Jinjos she has trapped across various worlds.
Bottles is the short-sighted teacher in Banjo and Kazooie, helping players master new moves. He can be found throughout several worlds helping Banjo and Kazooie enthusiasts to hone their moves and learn new moves. Players should look out for Bottles’ mole hills in Spiral Mountain, Mumbo’s Mountain, Treasure Trove Cove, Clanker’s Cavern, Bubblegloop Swamp Freezeezy Peak Gobi’s Valley to gain all necessary abilities needed.
Once all the jiggies and other collectibles have been located, the player must enter a special room called the Moogle Maze. This maze consists of seven distinct puzzles; when completed successfully, an award will be given in form of a cheat code to use in subsequent worlds. It provides an enjoyable change from other puzzles. The Moogle Maze provides an essential part of gameplay, providing a welcome break.
Grant Kirkhope composed the game’s soundtrack as his inaugural solo audio work on an audiovisual game, taking inspiration from Danny Elfman’s Beetlejuice score for musical inspiration, paying homage to classic Nintendo 64 logo, and adding some minor changes from its N64 counterpart such as musical notes remaining visible after leaving stages and an expanded main menu with three saved files. This Xbox One remake also includes some minor changes compared to its N64 original; for instance musical Notes collected during stages remain visible upon exit and has an updated main menu with three saved files!
Music
Banjo-Kazooie was released for Nintendo 64 by Rare in 1998, featuring bear Banjo and his bird friend Kazooie trying to rescue Tooty from Gruntilda Winkybunion, an evil witch. Tokens found in levels can include Jigsaw pieces, musical notes or Mumbo’s Tokens which open doors into new worlds or unlock additional puzzles as you progress. Jigsaw pieces provide access to new areas; musical notes unlock magical note doors while Mumbo’s Tokens help progress further into Gruntilda Winkybunion’s lair while Mumbo’s Tokens unlock extra puzzles.
As well as its main characters, the game features a host of other animals and creatures – such as Kazooie (an insufferably smart Breegull who constantly cracks jokes), Gruntilda Winkybunion is always trying to steal Banjo’s sister’s beauty! Additionally, several humorous songs add lighthearted charm to the story.
Grant Kirkhope composed the music of this game. His composition features an eclectic combination of traditional instruments like banjo and fiddle alongside modern electronic music instruments to create lively and energetic pieces which reflect each character in their dynamic way. Furthermore, this music stands as an excellent representation of Nintendo 64 system’s pioneering style of music composition.
Banjo-Kazooie: The Soundtrack is a CD soundtrack for Banjo-Kazooie that was initially made available exclusively to subscribers of Nintendo Power magazine, before becoming widely available in stores. This album includes the opening theme, remix of Treasure Trove Cove theme, as well as small samples from Freezeezy Peak, Rusty Bucket Bay, and Gruntilda’s Lair themes.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Banjo & Kazooie Challenger Pack as part of Fighters Pass Volume 1 contains the music for Spiral Mountain and other stages from Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. These songs were composed and arranged by Grant Kirkhope, one of two Western composers to compose music for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate overall.