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''Banjo-Kazooie'' ( Platform / Adventure Video Game for the Nintendo 64 . It was developed by Rare and Publish ed by Nintendo in 1998 . Known by the project name ''Dream'' until it was first shown at the 1997 E³ , it received a significant amount of Hype , partly due to being marketed as the game that would be to the N64 what '' Donkey Kong Country '' was to the SNES in terms of an advancement in Graphics . Originally, it was supposed to be released as Nintendo Of America 's big Holiday game for 1997 with a Taco Bell Toy Promotion lined up, but Rare decided to delay it several months. Instead, '' Diddy Kong Racing '' took its place, and with Banjo as a character in that game as well, it turned B-K into an incidental Spin-off of the Donkey Kong franchise. Banjo-Kazooie went on to become one of the most popular games for the console. The game stars a Bear and a Bird , Banjo and Kazooie, who set out on a quest to rescue Banjo's sister, Tooty, who has been Kidnap ped by the Witch Gruntilda. Along their journey, Banjo and Kazooie receive help from Mumbo Jumbo the Shaman and Bottles the Mole , as well as from various other characters in smaller roles. At the 1999 Interactive Achievement Awards , ''Banjo-Kazooie'' won in the "Console Action/Adventure" and "Art Direction" categories, and was nominated for "Console Adventure Game of the Year" and "Game of the Year." The ''Banjo-Kazooie'' soundtrack, composed by Grant Kirkhope , was released on a Limited Edition Compact Disc . STORY The story begins one day at Spiral Mountain, which is inhabited by Banjo, Kazooie, Bottles, and several other creatures, including giant hopping Carrot s and other Vegetable s. On that particular morning, while the Sun is shining and the fauna is flourishing, Banjo lies Snoring in his bed while Tooty is waiting for Banjo to "go on an adventure" with her. Meanwhile, Gruntilda is hunched over her Cauldron admiring her own beauty; even though she is the ugliest hag of all, she remains convinced that she is the loveliest in the land. Asking her Magical cauldron, Dingpot, if she indeed is the fairest of all, assured that she will hear her own name, Dingpot answers that it is in fact not her, but Tooty who is the fairest in the land. Gruntilda is enraged by this and sets out to Tooty's house to kidnap her and steal her beauty. Meanwhile, back outside Banjo's house, Tooty is talking to Bottles the mole when Gruntilda sweeps down and kidnaps Tooty, who does not go without a fight. Banjo, of course, sleeps through the whole thing and only walks out of the house shortly after Gruntilda has flown away with Tooty. After hearing what transpired from Bottles, the two begin their journey up Spiral Mountain and inside Grunty's Lair to save Tooty. GAME PLAY ''Banjo-Kazooie'' adopted many of its central game play mechanics from Nintendo's groundbreaking title '' Super Mario 64 ''. For instance, the player must similarly explore non-linear 3D worlds and gather tokens in the form of "Jigsaws" (like ''Super Mario 64'' However, certain features were perceived as novel at the time, such as the ability for Banjo and Kazooie with the aid of Mumbo's magical powers to transform into other creatures such as a Termite , Crocodile , Walrus , Pumpkin and a Bee , the ability for the characters to learn new moves (as taught by Bottles), the game's extensive use of Texture s for surfaces where other N64 games would have used plain colors, extensive lighting, and the music that Dynamic ally changes style in order to reflect the environment and dangers to the characters. Like ''Super Mario 64'' before it, the player proceeds through the game by finding tokens. There are three kinds of tokens that help the player in his or her progress through the game, namely Jigsaw Pieces, Musical Notes, and Mumbo's Tokens. The first, "Jigsaw Pieces," open doors to new worlds. There are ten "jiggies" (as they are sometimes called) in each world: nine must be sought and found, and one is granted by finding all five " Jinjo s" on each world. The second, "Musical Notes," open magic Note Doors in Gruntilda's lair. There are 100 notes on each world, and 900 total in the game. The third, "Mumbo's Tokens," grant the player magical transformations at Mumbo's hut. Each hut that the player visits will yield only one of the following transformations: termite, alligator, walrus, pumpkin, or bee. Besides these primary tokens, players may also collect items, which can be used for solving puzzles and beating enemies. Bottles the Mole must teach Banjo and Kazooie how to use items before they can be utilized. Items include: Eggs, Red Feathers, and Gold Feathers, which can be held in quantities up to 100, 50, and 10, respectively. Eggs are fired as projectiles or ejected from Kazooie's rear, Red Feathers are utilized in flight and flying attacks, and Gold Feathers are for the most powerful attack, "Wonderwing," which makes the player invincible and can kill most any enemy. Furthermore, rarer tokens can be found which have specialized use in puzzle-solving, namely "Wading Boots," which enable the crossing of hazardous terrain, and "Running Shoes," which grant extra running speed, often as part of a race or a time-based puzzle. Finally, there are powerups, such as "Extra Lives," which look like golden Banjo statues and grant one extra life each, and "Honeycomb Energy," which incrementally increases the player's health and can be found in each level. A large feature of gameplay is that the Characters make limited Speak ing-like Sound s when they talk. The voices were not real speech, but rather a Loop ing of voice-like sounds when Text Bubble s were displayed (Much like the "Lylat" language setting in '' Star Fox 64 ''). This artistic choice was likely made due to memory limitations on N64 cartridges; however, this added considerably to the atmosphere and uniqueness of the game. Besides the technical aspects, ''Banjo-Kazooie'' CHARACTERS
WORLDS/LEVELS There are nine main worlds (or levels) in ''Banjo-Kazooie'', although much of the gameplay happens outside of them, in Gruntilda's Lair. They are, in order:
In the Banjo and Kazooie game series, Spiral Mountain is home to many characters, including Banjo himself. Banjo’s house lies on the outer part of Spiral Mountain. But Spiral Mountain isn’t only the home of Banjo. It is also where Grunty lives. In her lair known as Gruntilda's Lair . In Banjo-Kazooie , Grunty’s Lair is how Banjo is able to enter the worlds he must venture in. Spiral Mountain gets its name from the spiral-shaped mountain that lies in the heart of the area. There is also a moat-like lake placed around it. Before the release of Banjo-Tooie, many fans speculated that Spiral Mountain was part of the Northern Kremisphere of Donkey Kong Country 3 . This theory probably stemmed from another assumed theory that claimed Banjo was one of the Brothers Bear, as they both shared a similar design (With the exception of Banjo's front paws not having fur on them.) However, after Banjo-Tooie was released, it was confirmed that Spiral Mountain was actually a part of the Isle O' Hags. Whether the other worlds found in Gruntilda's Lair are on the Isle O' Hags as well is unknown, however, it can be assumed that they aren't, seeing as the player is "warped" to the worlds upon entering them, as opposed to the player just entering the level as if he had physically reached it. In addition, the sky view of the Isle O' Hags from Cloud Cuckooland also disproves this, as there don't appear to be any landmarks resembling the ''Banjo-Kazooie'' worlds (Treasure Trove Cove would have been an obviously visible island.) It has also been suggested that the Isle O' Hags is on the same planet as the "Windy Continent" from Conker's Bad Fur Day. This has been confirmed due to players using a Gameshark levitation code in Conker BFD while in the "Barn Boys" level, as Gruntilda's Lair can be seen as part of the background graphics.
There were also to be more worlds, which were removed before the game's release. Some include:
Mount Fire Eyes image STOP 'N' SWOP CONTROVERSY An unusual feature of ''Banjo-Kazooie'' was that the game contained several items (specifically, a key made of ice and several different-colored eggs with question marks on them) that could not be accessed in a normal manner, or even seen during normal gameplay (with the Ice Key being the exception; it can be seen behind a translucent wall in a walrus's cave). However, players may notice some suspicious, inaccessible areas (like a rock jutting out of the ground called "Sharkfood Island," a stone door that never opens, and a locked barrel with an X on it). Some of the eggs appear in places that are commonly accessible, but they don't appear until they are unlocked. A completion of the game with 100 jiggies would tease the player with some glimpses of a player entering the (now unlocked) area and standing in front of the item. Rare announced that these areas were only to be reached by completing certain tasks in the sequel, ''Banjo-Tooie'', and linking that game up with the original in some unspecified way to unlock them (this was later to be dubbed "Stop 'N' Swop" by the screen which lets a player see the items). While the code for this presumably exists in the ''Banjo-Kazooie'' cartridge and has been sought after, the rest of it was apparently never implemented in '' Banjo-Tooie ''. Although smaller versions of the Ice Key and the purple and blue eggs could be found in ''Banjo-Tooie'', no way to link the games has ever been found. Rare has said nothing more on the topic except to comment on the ''Banjo-Kazooie'' fanbase's fascination with it and to include reference to it in future games. There is an unlockable two-player mode in Banjo-Tooie called "Bottles' Revenge", which can only be accessed through cheat codes, but it is not certain whether this has anything to do with Stop 'N' Swop. Ways to reach the secret areas in ''Banjo-Kazooie'' have been found by entering certain GameShark codes, and in-game ' Cheat Code s' in the sandcastle at Treasure Trove Cove have been discovered to unlock access to the secret items. However, once a player has an item, he can never be rid of it: The items taken are taken in each of the three files of the game and do not disappear even when data is erased. A popular explanation for this is that the linkage was originally intended to be accomplished by use of the Expansion Pak to the Nintendo 64 system, which would allow data to be stored in the pack while cartridges were "hot-swapped." Originally, it was planned that the Expansion Pak would be packaged with Banjo-Tooie ; however, Rareware decided instead to include it with Donkey Kong 64 . It would be unreasonable to expect players to buy the expansion pack solely for Stop 'N' Swop, so Rare decided to use a rather complicated three-way swapping system between Banjo-Kazooie, Banjo-Tooie, and Donkey Kong 64; this is evidenced by various references to Banjo-Kazooie in beta versions of Donkey Kong 64 such as a shower in Donkey Kong's treehouse with Banjo and Kazooie on it. Unfortunately, this was too complicated, and the whole Stop 'n' Swop venture was scrapped. This storyline has not been officially confirmed by Rare, but hackers have found lines of code in all three games that seem to support this line of reasoning. "''The Rare Witch Project''" '' {Link without Title} '' later discovered that actual Cheat Codes (which, like all other game cheats, are input in the sandcastle in Treasure Trove Cove) were programmed into the game to allow these three teaser Eggs, the Ice Key, and a few other Eggs, to be accessed. However, they still served no purpose in the game whatsoever, aside from unlocking the Stop 'N' Swop menu. There is a theory about what happened to the other Stop 'N' Swop eggs (the red, green and cyan ones). The Red Egg became the Fire Eggs, the Green Egg became the Grenade Eggs and the Cyan Egg became the Ice Egg. This leaves the Clockwork Kazooie egg, however. CAMEOS
SEQUELS
There was also a spin-off Mario Kart -inspired racing game (similar to Rare's '' Diddy Kong Racing '') for the Game Boy Advance entitled '' Banjo-Pilot '' released in 2005 . There are also rumors of another Banjo-Kazooie game scheduled for release on Microsoft's new Xbox 360 console. On November 30th, 2005, EGM rumored that Rareware was working on two titles for Nintendo DS, and that one of the titles is going to take place in the Banjo-Kazooie universe. However, it is unknown whether this is a Banjo-Kazooie platformer game or a spinoff of the series. EXTERNAL LINKS
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