Banjo-Tooie is a 2000 platform game developed by Rare and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64 console. It is the second game in the Banjo-Kazooie series and the sequel to Banjo-Kazooie. The game follows the returning protagonists Banjo and Kazooie as they attempt to stop the plans of the witch Gruntilda and two of her sisters, who intend to vaporise the inhabitants of the game's island setting. The game features worlds significantly larger than those of its predecessor, requiring the player to complete challenges such as solving puzzles, jumping over obstacles, collecting items, and defeating opponents. It also includes a multiplayer mode in which up to four players can compete in several minigames repurposed from the main campaign.
Development of the game started in June 1998, directly after the release of its predecessor. Several new features were cut from the game due to time constraints and limitations of the Nintendo 64 hardware. It is the final Banjo-Kazooie game to be released by Nintendo prior to Rare's purchase by Microsoft. Upon release, Banjo-Tooie received critical acclaim, with praise for its graphics and the size of its worlds; however, the game's inconsistent frame rate was criticized. In 2009, a port developed by 4J Studios was released as an Xbox Live Arcade game for the Xbox 360. The game was also included in the Rare Replay video game compilation, released for the Xbox One in 2015. The game was re-released on the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack on 25 October 2024, marking its first re-release on a Nintendo console.[1]
Gameplay
The player, controlling Banjo and Kazooie, runs towards an enemy in the game's second world, Glitter Gulch Mine.
Similar to its predecessor Banjo-Kazooie, Banjo-Tooie is a single-playerplatform game in which the protagonists are controlled from a third-person perspective. Carrying over most of the mechanics and concepts established in its predecessor, the game features three-dimensional worlds consisting of various platforming challenges and puzzles, with a notable increased focus on puzzle-solving over the worlds of Banjo-Kazooie. These challenges, along with exploration, usually reward the player with collectible items that permit progression to later challenges and worlds. Among the items are golden jigsaw pieces, called Jiggies, that are used to permit entry to new worlds; instead of exploring the game's overworld in search of incomplete puzzle boards as in Banjo-Kazooie, a singular board is used within a temple where a character named Master Jiggywiggy resides, that can only be accessed if the player has obtained the number of Jiggies required to open a new world. A timed puzzle-completion challenge can then be played, after which Jiggywiggy grants access to the world. Each puzzle challenge requires more Jiggies than the last.[2]
Musical notes return in Banjo-Tooie, but are now used to learn new moves from Bottles' brother, a drill sergeant named Jamjars, who assumes Bottles' role from the first game. All of Banjo and Kazooie's moves from the first game are immediately accessible in Tooie, and the player can acquire several new moves such as first-person aiming, new egg types, and the ability to play as Banjo and Kazooie separately, with each gaining moves they can only use while on their own. Empty honeycomb pieces and Jinjos return as well, effectively retaining the functions they had in Banjo-Kazooie. Mumbo Jumbo reappears in this game as a playable character who can venture out into each world and use specific magic spells to help Banjo and Kazooie. Taking over Mumbo's previous role of transforming the duo into different forms is Humba Wumba, a Native American shaman who acts as Mumbo's rival. Small magical creatures called "Glowbos" are required payment for the shamans' services.[2][3][4]
A mechanic introduced in Banjo-Tooie is the direct connections between its worlds. In Banjo-Kazooie, the titular duo were magically transported to each world via special doors in Gruntilda's Lair, with said worlds effectively existing in vacuums, but in this game, almost every world is physically connected to others at multiple points, and is effectively an extension of the overworld.[2] In addition, a train named Chuffy can be used to migrate Banjo, Kazooie, and some minor characters between worlds which contain stations. In conjunction with these additions, required backtracking and puzzle-solving across several worlds constitute many of Tooie's challenges. The game includes a multiplayer mode where up to four players can play a repurposed competition mode for each of the game's single-player challenges. These include first-person shooting, kickball, and several other minigames.[3]
Plot
Two years after Gruntilda's defeat, Banjo and Kazooie are playing poker with Mumbo Jumbo and Bottles. Outside, two of Gruntilda's sisters, Mingella and Blobbelda, use their large HAG 1 digging machine to enter Spiral Mountain. They destroy the boulder trapping Gruntilda, finding that she has rotted into a living skeleton while underground. Seeking revenge, Gruntilda destroys Banjo's house with a spell before fleeing with her sisters. Mumbo witnesses Gruntilda's return and escapes with Banjo and Kazooie, but Gruntilda herself catches Bottles in the blast radius and kills him as he ignores the warnings given to him. His friends resolve to defeat Gruntilda again, this time at the request of his ghost, to find a way to resurrect him.
Following the witches' trail, Banjo and Kazooie arrive at Jinjo Village. There, King Jingaling, king of the Jinjos, explains that his subjects were frightened away by the HAG 1 and scattered throughout the Isle O' Hags, the game's overworld. He gives the two their first Jiggy as a reward for rescuing his subjects in advance. Meanwhile, Gruntilda's sisters introduce her to a device called the "Big-O-Blaster" (B.O.B.), capable of extracting "life force" from any given target. They test B.O.B. on King Jingaling and he becomes a zombie after Gruntilda accuses him of being a traitor and before she plans to charge B.O.B. long enough to blast the entire island and use the stolen life force to restore her body. The witch's most loyal henchman, Klungo, is sent out to hinder Banjo and Kazooie's progress, but after losing to them several times, resulting in beatings from Gruntilda, Klungo abandons her and sides with the protagonists. Banjo and Kazooie continue their journey, meeting new allies along the way such as Bottles' drill sergeant brother Jamjars, who teaches them new moves, and the Native American shaman Humba Wumba, a bitter rival of Mumbo who aids the duo with new magical transformations.
Within Gruntilda's fortress, Cauldron Keep, Banjo and Kazooie compete with Mingella and Blobbelda in a trivia game show hosted by Gruntilda similar to that of the first game, in which losing competitors are flattened under one-ton weights. The two sisters are crushed after losing to Banjo and Kazooie, but Gruntilda escapes. Banjo and Kazooie then reverse the effects of B.O.B., resurrecting both King Jingaling and Bottles, who celebrate at Bottles' house along with Klungo. Banjo and Kazooie fight Gruntilda and the HAG 1 atop her fortress and they defeat her again when she drops her most powerful magic spell inside the HAG 1 cockpit, causing the entire machine to explode, reducing Gruntilda to nothing more than her head. The two return to Bottles' house with Jamjars, Mumbo, and Humba Wumba, to find that, much to their disappointment, the celebration has ended without them. They then head to the top of Cauldron Keep and play a game of hacky sack with Gruntilda's head, who swears revenge against Banjo and Kazooie once again.
Development
Banjo-Tooie was developed by Rare and designed by Gregg Mayles, who previously worked on Banjo-Kazooie.[5] Development of the game started in June 1998.[6] Some features that were originally cut during the development of Banjo-Kazooie, such as some of its worlds and a multiplayer game mode, were instead integrated into Banjo-Tooie.[7][8] An additional world set in a castle was planned, but due to time constraints, it was scrapped during development and assets from it were used in constructing Cauldron Keep.[9][10] The game features roughly 150 total characters, including enemies and non-playable characters.[11]
Originally, Rare planned to include an additional mode called "Bottles' Revenge" in which a second player could play as an undead version of Bottles and take control of enemy characters, including bosses, to hinder the duo in their quest, with the players swapping roles if the enemy character managed to defeat Banjo and Kazooie.[12] The idea was ultimately scrapped because the developers ran out of time to debug controlling bosses, despite admitting that "it did work rather well;" the only boss that was controllable when the mode was scrapped was the second world boss, "Old King Coal."[13] However, it later served as the inspiration behind the "Counter-Operative" multiplayer mode in Perfect Dark.[14] The developers also planned to implement a feature, called "Stop 'N' Swop", that would have allowed data to be transferred from Banjo-Kazooie to Banjo-Tooie so that players could unlock additional bonuses in Banjo-Tooie. However, due to hardware limitations of the Nintendo 64 system, the feature was ultimately dropped. Despite this, Rare resolved to include some of the planned bonuses within the game. The Stop 'N' Swop feature was later implemented in the Xbox Live Arcade re-release.[15]
The music was composed by Grant Kirkhope, who previously worked as the main composer for Perfect Dark, Donkey Kong 64, and Banjo-Kazooie. As Banjo-Tooie was a larger game than its predecessor, Kirkhope had twice the memory space in the game's cartridge for sound effects and music.[16] Kirkhope initially had to pause his work on Banjo-Tooie to work on other projects first, but ultimately the music score for the game was completed on time.[16] Like the game's predecessor, the themes heard in the game were designed to be interactive, which dynamically change to reflect the player's location. Due to the game having larger memory space, Kirkhope was able to combine two MIDI files to channel different fades of music when the player moves to different locations.[16] The developers initially aimed for a fourth quarter 1999 release, but the game was ultimately delayed.[17]Banjo-Tooie was presented at the 2000 Electronic Entertainment Expo and first released on 20 November 2000 in North America.[18][19] Japanese and European releases followed on 27 November 2000 and 12 April 2001, respectively.[20][21] The game supports the Nintendo 64 Rumble Pak.[22]
Upon release, Banjo-Tooie was critically acclaimed and sold 1.49m worldwide by 2008[23][31]GameRevolution considered Banjo-Tooie less repetitive than Donkey Kong 64 and a worthy successor to Banjo-Kazooie.[4]Nintendo Power referred to Banjo-Tooie as "the perfect cross between Donkey Kong 64 and Banjo-Kazooie", noting that it features less backtracking between levels than Donkey Kong 64 does.[30] The publication also stated that the only disappointment was how Rare resolved the "Stop 'N' Swop" bonuses.[30]N64 Magazine editor Mark Green felt that, although Banjo-Tooie delivers "a decent complement of clever puzzles and enjoyable run-and-jump moments", it did not feel "as fresh or as exciting" as previous Rare platformers.[28]
The graphics were considered some of the best on the Nintendo 64 due to their rich textures, long drawing distance, and real-time shadow generation, but were criticised for their inconsistent frame rate during certain points in the game.[2][3][4][29] Nevertheless, some critics agreed that the occasional frame rate drops do not hinder the gameplay nor detract from the game significantly.[29][3]GameRevolution said that the game was "beautiful", but it did not meet the same level of awe as its predecessor.[4] The game was also praised for its humour, with Edge commenting that its characters are "impossible to dislike."[25]
The gameplay was highlighted for the size of the game's worlds.[4][29] GamesRadar described Banjo-Tooie as a game that requires a massive time-investment on the player's part, saying that "Keeping track of what you can do next, or where you can re-visit to get something new, requires either a photographic memory or copious note-taking".[32] Similarly, GamePro remarked that the game is so large that players might lose their way and forget what they are supposed to do.[27]GameSpot praised the game's level design and progression for constantly requiring players to collect Jiggies.[3] Despite the praise, Edge concluded that Rare should have innovated more instead of simply copying the formula of Super Mario 64.[25]
An Xbox Live Arcade version of Banjo-Tooie, developed by 4J Studios, was released for the Xbox 360 on 29 April 2009. This version features a smoother frame rate and high-definition graphics, and supports the "Stop 'N' Swop" connectivity with the Xbox Live Arcade version of its predecessor, allowing players to unlock the bonuses included in the original Nintendo 64 version as well as new content related to the Xbox 360.[37] Using the Stop 'N' Swop items in the Xbox Live Arcade version of Banjo-Tooie also unlocks additional bonuses in the "L.O.G.'s Lost Challenges" downloadable content for Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts.[38] The Xbox Live Arcade version of Banjo-Tooie received mixed to favourable reviews from video game critics, featuring an aggregate score of 73 out of 100 at Metacritic.[39] In 2015, the Xbox Live Arcade version became one of the first backwards compatible titles for Xbox One,[40] and was re-released as part of the Rare Replay video game compilation.[41] In 2019, this version was enhanced to run at native 4K resolution on Xbox One X.[42]
Donkey Kong 64 is a 1999 platform game developed by Rare and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. It is the only Donkey Kong game to feature 3D gameplay. As the gorilla Donkey Kong, the player explores themed levels to collect items and rescue his kidnapped family members from King K. Rool. The player completes minigames and puzzles as five playable Kong characters—each with their own special abilities—to receive bananas and other collectibles. In multiplayer modes, up to four players can compete in deathmatch and last man standing games.
Perfect Dark is a 2000 first-person shooter developed and published by Rare for the Nintendo 64. The first game of the Perfect Dark series, it follows Joanna Dark, an agent of the Carrington Institute research centre, as she attempts to stop an extraterrestrial conspiracy by rival corporation dataDyne. The game features a campaign mode where the player must complete a series of levels to progress through the story, as well as a range of multiplayer options, including a co-operative mode and traditional deathmatch settings with computer-controlled bots.
Rare Limited is a British video game developer and a studio of Xbox Game Studios based in Twycross, Leicestershire. Rare's games span the platform, first-person shooter, action-adventure, fighting, and racing genres. Its most popular games include the Battletoads, Donkey Kong, and Banjo-Kazooie series, as well as games like GoldenEye 007 (1997), Perfect Dark (2000), Conker's Bad Fur Day (2001), Viva Piñata (2006), and Sea of Thieves (2018).
Banjo-Kazooie is a 1998 platform game developed by Rare and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. Controlling the player characters, the bear Banjo and the bird Kazooie, the player attempts to save Banjo's kidnapped sister Tooty from the witch Gruntilda. The player explores nine nonlinear worlds to gather items and progress. Using Banjo and Kazooie's traversal and combat abilities, they complete challenges such as solving puzzles, jumping over obstacles, and defeating bosses.
Conker's Bad Fur Day is a 2001 platform game developed and published by Rare for the Nintendo 64. The game follows Conker, a greedy, hard-drinking red squirrel who must return home to his girlfriend, Berri after binge drinking. Most of the game requires the player to complete a linear sequence of challenges that involve jumping over obstacles, solving puzzles, and fighting enemies. A multiplayer mode in which up to four players can compete against each other in seven different game types is also included. It is the second installment in the Conker series, after Conker's Pocket Tales (1999).
Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge is a 2003 platform game developed by Rare and published by THQ for Game Boy Advance. It is the third installment in the Banjo-Kazooie series and takes place between the events of the Nintendo 64 (N64) games Banjo-Kazooie (1998) and Banjo-Tooie (2000). In Grunty's Revenge, the evil witch Gruntilda travels back in time to prevent the events of Banjo-Kazooie from happening, and the bear Banjo and his bird friend Kazooie set out to stop her. Grunty's Revenge retains the focus on collecting items and most of the other game mechanics from its predecessors, but is presented in 2D rather than 3D. Aside from the main game, players can also access minigames such as fishing and target shooting.
It's Mr. Pants is a puzzle video game developed by Rare and published by THQ for the Game Boy Advance. It was released in North America in 2004 and Europe in 2005. A port of the game for mobile phones was developed and published internationally by In-Fusio in 2005–2006. The game stars Mr. Pants, a crudely drawn mascot formerly featured on Rare's website who had made cameo appearances in several prior Rare games.
Grant Kirkhope is a Scottish composer and voice actor for video games and film. Some of his notable works include GoldenEye 007, Banjo-Kazooie, Donkey Kong 64, and Perfect Dark, among many others. He has won an Ivor Novello Award for Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope and a World Soundtrack Award for The King's Daughter as well as being nominated for various BAFTA, ASCAP, and IFMCA awards.
Banjo-Kazooie is a platform game series developed by Rare. The games feature a male bear named Banjo and his friend, a large female red bird named Kazooie, both of whom are controlled by the player. Banjo originally made his debut as a playable character in 1997 as part of the cast of Diddy Kong Racing. Throughout the various games, they are tasked with thwarting the various evil schemes of a witch named Gruntilda. The first game, Banjo-Kazooie, was released in 1998 to critical acclaim and was followed by three sequels and a spin-off racing game.
Donkey Kong is a video game series and media franchise created by the Japanese game designer Shigeru Miyamoto for Nintendo. It follows the adventures of Donkey Kong, a large, powerful gorilla, and other members of the Kong family of apes. Donkey Kong games include the original arcade game trilogy by Nintendo R&D1; the Donkey Kong Country series by Rare and Retro Studios; and the Mario vs. Donkey Kong series by Nintendo Software Technology. Various studios have developed spin-offs in genres such as edutainment, puzzle, racing, and rhythm. The franchise also incorporates animation, printed media, theme parks, and merchandise.
Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts is a 2008 platform game developed by Rare and published by Microsoft Game Studios for the Xbox 360. Set eight years after Banjo-Tooie (2000), Nuts & Bolts follows the bear-and-bird duo Banjo and Kazooie as they compete with the witch Gruntilda for ownership of their home. Although Nuts & Bolts retains the structure of previous Banjo-Kazooie games—collecting jigsaw puzzle pieces to progress—it shifts the focus from exploration to vehicle construction. The player designs vehicles, including automobiles, boats, and aeroplanes, and uses them to complete challenges across various worlds. In multiplayer modes, players can compete or share their vehicles over Xbox Live.
Perfect Dark is a science-fiction video game series created by Rare and owned by Xbox Game Studios. It debuted in 2000 with the release of the Nintendo 64 first-person shooter Perfect Dark. The series follows Joanna Dark, an agent of the Carrington Institute agency, as she uncovers conspiracies by rival corporation dataDyne. In addition to video games, the series has expanded into novels and comics. These supplements to the video games have resulted in a significant development of the series' fictional universe.
Gregg Mayles is a British video game designer currently working for video game company Rare as creative director. He is one of the longest-serving members of the company, having worked there since 1989.
Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing is a 2010 kart racing video game developed by Sumo Digital and published by Sega. It was released for Wii, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo DS, and Windows, featuring characters from multiple Sega franchises. The game is the third title in the Sega All-Stars series, preceded by Sega Superstars Tennis. A mobile version was developed by Gameloft, and released for iOS in June 2011, as a paid download. A version for OS X was released by Feral Interactive in April 2013.
Project Dream was the codename of a cancelled role-playing video game (RPG), Dream: Land of Giants, that served as the basis for the 1998 game Banjo-Kazooie. Developed by Rare, it was aimed for release on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), and later the Nintendo 64 (N64). The plot followed a young boy, Edson, who caused trouble with pirates. The SNES version of Dream used an isometric perspective and had a fairy tale theme. After transitioning to the N64, the project became a more complex 3D RPG that had a greater emphasis on the pirate theme. Eventually, Dream was scaled back to a linear platform game in the vein of Donkey Kong Country (1994) that starred Banjo the bear, who became the protagonist of Banjo-Kazooie.
Banjo-Pilot is a 2005 kart racing video game for the Game Boy Advance (GBA) and the fourth installment in Rare's Banjo-Kazooie series. It plays similarly to the Mario Kart series by Nintendo: the player races one of nine playable characters around tracks, attacking other racers with bullets and collecting power-ups. The game features a number of single-player and multiplayer modes, such as time attack and item hunts. Unlike other kart racing games, characters control airplanes instead of go-karts.
Yooka-Laylee is a 2017 platform game developed by Playtonic Games and published by Team17. It was released for Windows, macOS, Linux, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in April 2017, Nintendo Switch in December 2017 and Amazon Luna in October 2020. Developed by a group of former key personnel from Rare, Yooka-Laylee is a spiritual successor to the Banjo-Kazooie series. After years of planning to develop a new game, Playtonic Games initiated a Kickstarter campaign that attracted significant media coverage and raised a record-breaking sum of over £2 million. The game follows chameleon Yooka and bat Laylee on their quest to retrieve a magical book from an evil corporation.
Rare Replay is a 2015 compilation of 30 video games from the 30-year history of developers Rare and its predecessor, Ultimate Play the Game. The emulated games span multiple genres and consoles—from the ZX Spectrum to the Xbox 360—and retain the features and errors of their original releases with minimal edits. The compilation adds cheats to make the older games easier and a Snapshots mode of specific challenges culled from parts of the games. Player progress is rewarded with behind-the-scenes footage and interviews about Rare's major and unreleased games.
Banjo & Kazooie are the protagonists of the video game series Banjo-Kazooie, created by the British developer Rare. They were introduced in the original Banjo-Kazooie (1998). Banjo is a honeybear who is accompanied by Kazooie, a bird who is often seen seeking shelter in Banjo's backpack and emerging to perform various moves and attacks. The pair's numerous adventures usually pit them against the evil witch Gruntilda.
↑ Rare Revealed: The Making of Banjo-Tooie(Video). Twycross, England: Rare. 17 September 2015. Event occurs at 0:41. Retrieved 22 September 2015. We used some levels that were originally planned for Kazooie... were then rolled into Tooie.
↑ Rare Revealed: The Making of Banjo-Tooie(Video). Twycross, England: Rare. 17 September 2015. Event occurs at 1:56. Retrieved 22 September 2015. One of the last-minute things we tried to get into Banjo-Kazooie was multiplayer. I think we kind of got it going a little bit, but it was just too big a job. It was just a step too far, so we held that back and we ended up putting a multiplayer section into Banjo-Tooie.
↑ Rare Revealed: The Making of Banjo-Tooie(Video). Twycross, England: Rare. 17 September 2015. Event occurs at 1:20. Retrieved 22 September 2015. We had 150 characters you met or, you know, that took part in the game, and they all had animation, and you know, it was just a really big job.
↑ Rare Revealed: The Making of Banjo-Tooie(Video). Twycross, England: Rare. 17 September 2015. Event occurs at 2:26. Retrieved 22 September 2015. Another player, rather than just watching someone play Banjo could actually control the bad guys, and then try and thwart Banjo's progress. And if they managed to kill him, the roles would swap so that the player who was playing the bad guys would become Banjo and vice-versa.
↑ Rare Revealed: The Making of Banjo-Tooie(Video). Twycross, England: Rare. 17 September 2015. Event occurs at 3:00. Retrieved 22 September 2015. We looked and decided we had to get rid of it, but it was resurrected in Perfect Dark in Counter Operative mode, so good ideas never die; they just occasionally get delayed and pop up in a different guise.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
