In the world of video games there mythical couples of characters which it is difficult to imagine them separately after all the video games they have starred in together. Undoubtedly one of the best examples we have in Banjo-Kazooie, the friendly animals that we saw for the first time 24 years ago and since then there are not especially few who continue to remember them despite the time that has passed.
Their first appearance was on Nintendo 64, but it has not been the only platform they have gone through. For almost a quarter of a century they have visited other consoles and there are many fans who ask for their return with a new adventure, so today we have to ask ourselves What happened to Banjo-Kazooie?
Some characters who knew the triumph in Nintendo 64
In the 64-bit era we witnessed the launch of great games of the stature of Super Mario 64, which was accompanied a few months later by Diddy Kong Racing. The latter was a racing game developed by Rare in which the main character was Diddy Kong, from the series Donkey Kong Country. The rest of the characters were unknown to everyone and there was no familiar face or at least at that point in history.
The point is that one of those that could be chosen was Banjo himself, so this was his first appearance in the world of video games. It was not until a year later that Rare was encouraged to give it a greater prominence exclusively with its own adventure that it seemed that he had noticed the last Mario game because of the structure of its worlds and its gameplay, since here instead of collecting stars to advance through the different worlds, you had to look for puzzle pieces.
But if there was one thing that stood out in this game, it was the fact that Banjo wasn’t alone. The friendly bear was accompanied by Kazooie, a bird that was inside his backpack ready to lend a hand to our protagonist and that we only controlled with certain abilities, so all the weight fell on Banjo. In any case, both had the objective of traveling through a series of non-linear worlds to rescue the little sister of our furry hero.
The fact of mentioning Super Mario 64 previously is due to Rare set his sights on this game and it was clear to him that it was going to be the standard for 3D adventures. The main stage was the tower of the evil witch Gruntilda and by collecting puzzle pieces we had access to all kinds of worlds, such as a beach, a cave, an icy mountain, a port, a desert and many more. Each presented its own challenges that required us to bring out our ingenuity.
More than anything because Banjo and Kazooie were unlocking skills as they went that allowed us to access more puzzle pieces and other collectibles that could not be obtained in any other way. Still, there were some pieces that were either well hidden or required solving puzzles to find. Thus, throughout a good handful of the most entertaining hours that made this game one of the most outstanding in the entire Nintendo 64 catalog.
In fact, for Rare it was such an ambitious project that originally planned to include even more worlds, but the lack of time meant that some of them, as well as certain functions, had to be set aside. However, they were not thrown away at any time, because it was thanks to this that a direct sequel was developed a few years later called Banjo-Tooiewith very similar gameplay and mechanics, although it did present certain novelties.
Perhaps the fact that its difficulty was considerably higher or that the puzzles were more convoluted caused its reception to not live up to that of the original title. For the occasion, new characters, more skills, fights against final bosses were also added and even in some moments it was possible to control Banjo and Kazooie separately. It was from here when the saga began to suffer a series of ups and downs.
Trying to repeat the success with another series of different proposals
As we have previously indicated, the franchise made the leap to various platforms after passing through Nintendo 64. The curious thing is that the next title that was created in 2003 was a prequel to Banjo-Tooiesince the events took place two months from the first Banjo-Kazooie. The game in question was about Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty’s Revenge for Game Boy Advance.
Since the Nintendo handheld was not capable of playing 3D video games of the same quality, an adventure with a top-down perspective was chosen and the purpose was somewhat the same: collect objects and puzzle pieces throughout various scenarios in which that it was possible to obtain new essential abilities to advance and frustrate the plans of the witch Gruntilda.
Despite everything, it failed to convey the same sensations compared to the N64 installments. And it was not the only one that was published on GBA, because a couple of years later it was published Banjo-Pilot, a kind of spin-off in which the characters participated in high-flying races, with a system very similar to that of Diddy Kong Racing. What’s more, in principle it was going to be a sequel to this, but the purchase of Rare by Microsoft meant that using any character that was owned by Nintendo was ruled out.
It was then that the saga said goodbye completely to the big N consoles and made the leap to Xbox 360 with Banjo-Kazooie: Potholes and Knickknacksthe last game of these characters that was developed with events that took place eight years after the events of Banjo-Tooie. Despite being a 3D adventure like the originals, the gameplay was altered considerably, because here the couple of protagonists could not use their characteristic movements.
Instead these skills were replaced by vehicles, these being the main mechanics by having to gather pieces and put them together to create, edit or paint all kinds of cars necessary to advance through the scenarios. A change that was perhaps somewhat drastic, but what was undoubtedly a real shame is the fact that since then this couple of animals has not starred in any more video games.
Since then 14 years have passed and the only thing we have seen has been new versions of Banjo-Kazooie y Banjo-Tooie for compilations such as Rare Replay or also re-releases for Nintendo Switch Online.
Falling into oblivion except for some punctual appearance
It is certainly a real pity that the beginnings of the saga Banjo-Kazooie they were so impressive and since then it plummeted, as if giving the impression that Rare did not know very well what to do with it. Maybe that’s why no further video game has been developed, but it has not been at all because people do not remember these endearing characters. You just have to remember their announcement as fighters in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and how it was received in style.
It is clear that it is not for less because anyone who grew up in the Nintendo 64 era remembers these characters perfectly, hence the desire that Rare be encouraged to one day develop a new 3D adventure without strange experiments or proposals. escape from what we know. Especially since we have already seen that It is a formula that works and continues to give good resultsgiven that we have the best proof in its spiritual successors Yooka-Laylee or A Hat in Time.
We have even seen a group of fans imagining what a hypothetical Banjo-Threeie would look like, while the original composer of its soundtrack, Grant Kirkhope, wanted to remember these works by presenting a musical album with new versions. It all depends on Rare or Microsoft to want to give these characters a new chance, which is a real shame have fallen into oblivion for both companies. Unfortunately, his future doesn’t look like it’s going to change anytime soon…
