The 20th Anniversary of Banjo-Tooie

The 20th Anniversary of Banjo-Tooie
March 27, 2021
By Ryan Porzl

When Banjo-Kazooie was first released in 1998, the world was introduced to one of the greatest video games of all time. The game would not only be a critical success but a commercial one and with that, it seemed like a matter of when we get a sequel. Fast forward two years later and the world was treated to the sequel Banjo-Tooie released during the last days of the Nintendo 64. The game, which took a slightly darker tone, would see Banjo and Kazooie once again venture out to put a stop to the witch Gruntilda's plan. With the 20th Anniversary having been in November 2020, I think it's long overdue to take a look at the sequel known as Banjo-Tooie.

Characters
Banjo- A honey bear with yellow shorts and blue bag and one of the protagonist in the game. Banjo can run, jump, flip, among others things while attacking enemies with somersaults. Banjo is the more friendlier, well mannered, and level headed of the two. He enjoys going on adventures and has no problem assisting people who need help.

Kazooie- A red breegul and the second protagonist in the game. Kazooie resides in Banjo's backpack and pops up to either talk or help out. Like the first, Kazooie can walk with Banjo on her back, shoot eggs, fly, and peck at enemies. Kazooie is the more talkative of the two usually throwing insults and barbs at both ally and enemy resulting in Banjo having to be the voice of reason.

Gruntilda- An ugly, evil witch who speaks in rhyme and the antagonist of the game. After being stuck in a crater with a boulder on top for two years, she's eventually freed by her sisters but left a skeletal state. She and her sisters set out to use a new machine called B.O.B. (Big-O-Blaster) to drain the life force of everyone to restore her own.

Bottles- A mole who previously assisted Banjo & Kazooie throughout their journey by teaching them new techniques that helped the duo advance in the first game. Here, Bottles is more a minor character as he was killed by Gruntilda after the witch destroyed Banjo and Kazooie's house with him in it.

Mumbo Jumbo- A skull faced shaman who in the first game was able to transform Banjo & Kazooie into something be it animal or object in certain levels with the transformations being different for each level. In Tooie, Mumbo actually joins them on the field and is a playable character providing he's provided with a creature called a Glowbo. Mumbo is capable of running, swimming, and fighting enemies by shooting magic out of his staff. However, his biggest asset is using magic on top of Mumbo pads that can help Banjo-Kazooie advance the level.

Klungo- An Igor/ogre like creature who serves as Gruntilda's minion. In Tooie, Klungo confronts Banjo-Kazooie multiple times and fights them in an attempt to stop their progress.

Jamjars- Bottles brother and a military drill sergeant. He basically fills in Bottles' previous role from the first game by teaching Banjo-Kazooie new techniques when they visit one of his metal holes with enough music notes.

Humba Wumba- A shawoman and Mumbo's rival. She basically fills Mumbo's role from the first game as she can transform Banjo-Kazooie to various creatures and objects when she is provided with a Glowbo.

Mingella and Blobbelda- Gruntilda's two sisters who free her from the crater she was trapped in. Later they build B.O.B. (Big-O-Blaster) in attempt to suck the life out of creatures to restore Gruntilda who became a skeleton.

King Jingaling- The king of jinjos who asks Banjo-Kazooie to find and rescue the jinjos who ran away from the jinjo village when Gruntilda returned. He's turned into a zombie by Gruntilda due to B.O.B.

Master Jiggywiggy- The leader of a group that protects and worships the Crystal Jiggy. Jiggywiggy is unable to touch jiggys due to a curse Gruntilda unleashed which forces him to rely on Banjo-Kazooie to collect them. He can activate the Crystal Jiggy if Banjo-Kazooie provide him with enough jiggys.

Story

Set two years after Banjo-Kazooie, the game starts one night with Banjo and Kazooie, Bottles, and Mumbo Jumbo playing cards at Banjo's house while Gruntilda's sisters Mingella and Blobbelda free Gruntilda from the bounder on top of her by destroying it with their drill tank called HAG 1. Before leaving Gruntilda destroys Banjo's house with Banjo, Kazooie, and Mumbo getting out on time but Bottles does not and is killed. Banjo, Kazooie, and Mumbo decide to go after Gruntilda and go on another journey to once again put astop to her. Upon returning home, Gruntilda is introduced to B.O.B (Big-O-Blaster) which can suck the life of any and everything to restore Gruntilda with Gruntilda planning the drain the lifeforce of the whole island. Along the way, Banjo and Kazooie journey through new worlds and meet new characters including Jamjars (who teaches them new techniques), King Jingaling (who becomes a victim of B.O.B), Humba Wumba, and Master Jiggywiggy all the while Mumbo assists the duo out in the field. During their travels, they learn new techniques, rescue the jinjos who ran away from the village after Gruntilda returned, collect more jiggys, and battle new enemies including Gruntilda's assistant Klungo, who eventually, defects to the good guys. Eventually, they make their way to Cauldron Keep where they first play a game show where they defeat Mingella and Blobbelda. They then use B.O.B to revive Bottles and King Jingaling before eventually fighting and defeating Gruntilda and the HAG 1.

Gameplay
The game plays similar to it's predecessor in that it features a giant overworld to explore, mostly consisting of Spiral Mountain and Isle O' Hags with access to the levels scattered throughout. The levels include Mayahem Temple, Glitter Gulch Mine, Witchyworld, Jolly Roger's Lagoon, Terrydactyland, Grunty Industries, Hailfire Peaks, Cloud Cuckooland, and Caudron Keep. Each level contains 100 musical notes, 5 creatures called jinjos, and 10 jigsaw puzzle pieces called "jiggies" The Jiggies are needed to enter new levels. To enter new worlds, the player must enter the Jiggywiggy Temple with enough jiggys. If they have enough, Master Jiggywiggy will activate the great crystal jiggy which allows Banjo-Kazooie to open new worlds provided they can solve a jigsaw puzzle of the next level within a time limit. Another item are empty honeycombs that are in hidden areas hard to reach. Once the player collects six, Banjo & Kazooie's health increases by one honeycomb as the health bar is made up of honeycombs. Like the first game, the player can also find Cheato's torn pages which provides the player with cheats that can help them. 

The game also had some new features. One was first person areas where Banjo and Kazooie can enter a certain location in a level and it becomes a first person perspective with Banjo using Kazooie as an egg shooting gun all the while collecting items, fighting enemies, and collecting jiggys. Another thing was Mumbo Jumbo became a playable character that can fight enemies as well as use his magic to help Banjo and Kazooie to further advance in the level. With Mumbo now playable, the shawoman Humba Wumba is now the one who changes Banjo and Kazooie into various things. Replacing mumbo tokens are glowbos with one each being needed to use Mumbo and Humba per level. There's also new creatures called minjos and glowbos with minjos being evil jinjos who look like jinjos but try to attack Banjo and Kazooie if they get too close while glowbos are used to play as Mumbo or use Humba's magic. Music notes return but unlike the first game where they're used to open doors to advance in the overworld, they are instead used to learn new techniques from Jamjars. The player also has infinite lives as opposed to the original game so the only way to get game over is to save and quit your game. The jinjos return for this game but this time, it's about uniting the different color jinjo families. Each family is a different color (nine in all) and a different amount of them from one to nine. If the player unites a family, they get a jiggy. For the player to increase their life energy, they can't just collect enough empty honeycombs but rather they need to get enough and then visit Honey Bee's house and she will provide you with an additional life honeycomb. Perhaps the biggest change is Banjo and Kazooie can learn to separate if they stand on certain pads and the player can switch between them. Along with separating, Banjo and Kazooie can both learn separate techniques from Jamjars that they can only use when separated. 

Like the first game, Banjo-Tooie also featured an infamous and interesting addition called the "Stop n' Swop". Rare planned for "Stop n' Swop" to be a feature where players can collect six hidden colorful eggs and an ice key that would be used for "Banjo-Tooie". The way it worked was after acquiring all the eggs and ice key, the player would have ten seconds to switch cartridges from Banjo-Kazooie to Banjo-Tooie after turning the system off. Unfortunately, because of revisions in the Nintendo 64 hardware, the player was only given one second to do it which was, obviously, impossible and it didn't work out. In 2008, Rare took advantage of the more advanced XBox 360 with the re-release of Banjo-Kazooie to the XBox Live Arcade by making the Stop n' Swop feature to be used for the then upcoming "Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts" with the eggs hatching vehicle parts that can be used. When Banjo-Tooie was re-released, the Stop n' Swop was included and fixed without having seconds to switch games, making it possible and easier to use it. It was later revealed that the ice key unlocks an ice vault containing a creature called "Mega-Glowbo" which can transform Kazooie into a dragon. The Blue Mystery egg unlocks homing eggs to be used as weapons in Tooie while unlocking a Goldfish part in Nuts & Bolts. The Yellow Mystery egg unlocks a jinjo to be used in multiplayer in Tooie. The Pink Mystery egg unlocks the move breegull bash in Tooie while unlocking the fuzzy dice vehicle part in Nuts & Bolts. The Cyan Mystery egg unlocks Stop n' Swop II which includes 7 new awards to get that only appears in the XBox Live Arcade version while unlocking Mole-on-a-Pole in Nuts & Bolts. The Red Mystery egg unlocks the Banjo-Kazooie theme for XBox 360.

Behind The Scenes
Work began on Banjo-Tooie right around the same time the first game was released in June 1998. The game featured things like larger worlds and a multiplayer mode which were originally planned for Banjo-Kazooie but cut out. Another world that would've taken place in a castle was originally planned but cut out due to time constraints and some elements would be used for Cauldron Keep. In all, Banjo-Tooie ended up having 150 characters which includes playable, non-playable, and enemies.
A mode called "Bottles' Revenge" was planned which would allow a second player to play as ghost Bottles who can possess enemies and bosses to stifle Banjo and Kazooie's progress and if successful, the players would switch but it was ultimately dropped due to developers running out of time to debug controlling bosses. In the end, the only boss that was controllable at the time of the mode's cancellation was "Old King Coal" from the second world Glitter Gulch Mine. Though it wasn't used for Banjo-Tooie, it did serve as the inspiration behind Perfect Dark's "Counter-Operative" mode. The game also was compatable with the Nintendo 64's rumble pak.

Several behind the scene people returned for Banjo-Tooie with Gregg Mayles returning as director and designer, Steve Mayles returned as an artist, Chris Sutherland returned as programmer, and Grant Kirkhope returned as composer. All four not only having ties to Banjo-Tooie but other Rare games while the latter three eventually worked on the spritual successor "Yooka-Laylee".

Release
Banjo-Tooie was released on the Nintendo 64 on November 20, 2000 in North America and April 12, 2001 in Europe. Like it's predecessor, Banjo-Tooie was met with critical acclaim as Metacritic scored it a 90/100, AllGame and GamePro both scored it a 4.5/5, Edge scored it a 7/10, Famitsu scored it a 33/40, GameRevolution scored it a B+, GameSpot scored it 9.6/10, IGN scored it 9.4/10, N64 Magazine scored it 81%, Next Generation scored it 4/5 stars, and Nintendo Power scored it 9/10. Banjo-Tooie also was nominated and won several wons. It won Best Platform Game while being a runner-up in the Best Sound and Best Nintendo 64 categories from GameSpot's Best and Worst of 2000 awards. The game also got three nominations at the 4th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards for Game of the Year, Console Game of the Year, and Console Action/Adventure Game of the Year. The game eventually sold 3 million copies. Nintendo Power considered "the perfect cross between Donkey Kong 64 and Banjo-Kazooie" and brought up not needing to do as much backtracking as DK64 but did claim they were disappointed with how the "Stop n' Swap" was resolved. Edge praised the game's humor but also thought it should've been more innovative instead of copying the Super Mario 64 formula. N64 magazine felt the same as they enjoyed the game but thought it could've been more "fresh and exciting" as Rare's previous platformers. GameRevolution considered the game beautiful but lacked the awe of Banjo-Kazooie. GameSpot praised the level design and progression which requires player to keep collecting jiggies. In the end, most praised the graphics and the sizes of the levels while the main criticism was the inconsistent frame rate.

Aftermath
Two years after Banjo-Tooie, in 2002, Rare was purchased by Microsoft which included the Banjo-Kazooie series. Despite this, two games were released on Nintendo's Gameboy Advance (due to Microsoft not competing with Nintendo in the portable system market) in 2003's Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge which was a prequel game & 2005's Banjo-Pilot which was a racing game that replaced the cancelled Diddy Kong Pilot due to Microsoft purchasing Rare. However, Microsoft's purchase of Rare saw Banjo omitted from Diddy Kong Racing DS (a re-release of Diddy Kong Racing on the Nintendo DS) in 2007. 2008 would be a busy year as Banjo-Kazooie was re-released on December 3rd on the XBox Live Arcade and the series returned to consoles when Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts was released that November (11th in NA, 14th in EU, and 20th in AU). Nuts & Bolts would be a departure from the classic N64 games as it was more vehicle based instead of a platform. After the re-release of Banjo-Tooie in 2009, the series sadly has gone dormant. Banjo and Kazooie did appear in the XBox 360 version of 2010's Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing while some of the character's skins have appeared as downloadable content for the XBox 360 version of 2011's Minecraft. Over the years, there have been rumors of a return of Banjo-Kazooie including Nintendo buying the series and making new games with Retro Studios game but nothing ever came of it. Despite Banjo-Kazooie gathering dust, former employees of Rare would create a "spiritual successor" to Banjo-Kazooie called "Yooka-Laylee" which came out in 2017 with a sequel "Yooka-Laylee and The Impossible Lair" coming out in 2019. In recent years, Banjo-Kazooie has sort of made a comeback in 2019 as they made their long-awaited debut in the Super Smash Bros. franchise with Super Smash Bros. Ultimate