Banjo

It has been suggested that this article or section be split into multiple pages or sections. The reason given for the split is: A page for each of the pair, same as Rosa and Luma (Discuss)

For fighter info, see Banjo & Kazooie (SSBU).

Banjo & Kazooie
File:Banjo and Kazooie.png Official artwork of Banjo and Kazooie from Banjo-Tooie.
Universe	Banjo-Kazooie
Debut	Banjo: Diddy Kong Racing (1997) Kazooie: Banjo-Kazooie (1998)
Smash Bros. appearances	Ultimate
Most recent non-Smash appearance	Rare Replay (2015)
Console/platform of origin	Nintendo 64
Species	Bear (Banjo), Breegull (Kazooie)
Gender	Male (Banjo), female (Kazooie)
Place of origin	Spiral Mountain
Designed by	Steve Mayles
Voice actor	Chris Sutherland

Banjo and Kazooie (バンジョー＆カズーイ, Banjo & Kazooie) are the main protagonists of the eponymous Banjo-Kazooie series.

Character Description

Banjo is a laidback, well mannered brown bear who loves honey and, as his name suggests, playing his banjo. He is generally non-confrontational, desiring peace and quiet, and he often helps those in need, but he is strong enough to defend himself if need be. He is a foil to Kazooie, his best friend whom he goes on adventures with. Kazooie is a breegull, a species of bird known for fast running speeds and flight abilities. She lives in his backpack and is much more rude and brash than Banjo, often making sarcastic and inappropriate remarks about the people they meet. They live in a small house near the foot of Spiral Mountain on Isle O' Hags.

Their first adventure together saw them trying to rescue Banjo's little sister, Tooty, from the clutches of the evil witch Gruntilda, also known as Grunty, who wishes to use a machine to steal her looks to become the fairest woman in all the land. Throughout the duo's journey in the witch's lair, they get help from the shaman Mumbo Jumbo, who turns them into various animals, and Bottles the mole, who teaches them new moves. Banjo and Kazooie eventually battle Grunty at the top of her lair's tower, ultimately summoning the Jinjonator to push her off the tower to her doom; she crashes into the ground and is buried by debris from her tower.

Two months later, in Grunty's Revenge, her ogre-like minion Klungo makes a robotic body for her spirit to possess; Mecha-Grunty kidnaps Kazooie and travels 20 years in the past to stop the two from meeting, thus preventing her defeat. Mumbo uses his magic to send Banjo back in time and stop her, which he eventually does, saving Kazooie and sending Grunty's spirit back to the future into her real body underground, restoring the timeline back to normal.

Two years later in Banjo-Tooie, Grunty's sisters appear and use magic to unbury Grunty, who has been reduced to nothing but bones. Grunty casts a powerful spell to destroy Banjo's house while Banjo, Kazooie, Mumbo, and Bottles are in the middle of a card game; the former three escape before the spell hits the house, but Bottles is killed in the explosion. Grunty wants her flesh back, so she and her sisters use a giant laser called the Big-O-Blaster (B.O.B.) to suck the life out of the inhabitants of the island. After using it once, the laser requires much more time to recharge before it is ready to be used again. Banjo and Kazooie set out to both avenge Bottles and stop Grunty. Bottles' role is filled by his brother Jamjars, and Mumbo takes a more active role in the adventure, with transformations instead being done by Mumbo's rival, the shamaness Humba Wumba. Banjo and Kazooie eventually defeat Grunty and use B.O.B. to revive Bottles.

Eight years later in Nuts & Bolts, the duo becomes lazy and out of shape from their lack of exercise. Grunty appears in a new robotic body, but before they can fight, they are interrupted of the Lord of Games (L.O.G.), creator of all video games. He creates a series of racing challenges for Banjo and Kazooie to go through, and the pair eventually battle and defeat Grunty, who is forced to work in L.O.G.'s video game factory.

In all their adventures together, Banjo and Kazooie demonstrate a close synergy through the fact that their many moves require some kind of teamwork, though Kazooie is usually the one taking the most physical abuse. Banjo-Tooie introduced a mechanic that let them separate should they stand on specially marked pads, giving each of them access to exclusive moves.

In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Banjo and Kazooie were announced as playable fighters, alongside the Hero, during the E3 2019 Nintendo Direct on June 11, 2019.

Trivia

• Banjo and Kazooie are the fourth and fifth foreign-created characters to be playable in Smash Bros.: Diddy Kong and King K. Rool were created by British developer Rare Ltd., and Dark Samus was created by American developer Retro Studios. They are also to first to belong to a completely foreign franchise.
  • Currently, Banjo and Kazooie are the only third-party characters to be created outside Japan.
• They are the first characters in Smash Bros. to belong to a current console rival of Nintendo, Microsoft.
  • They are also currently the only third party characters to have formerly been owned by Nintendo.
• Banjo and Kazooie are currently the only third party characters to debut on a Nintendo system other than the NES, the Nintendo 64.
  • They are also the first and only third-party characters to debut on a Nintendo game that was fully published by Nintendo.
• Kazooie is the second third party character to be female, the first being Bayonetta.
• They are the only third party characters who fight as a team.
• Banjo and Diddy Kong have previously met before in Diddy Kong Racing.
  • Banjo and Kazooie also appeared in the Xbox 360 version of Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing along with Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Shadow, Akira Yuki and Jacky Bryant.
• Banjo, Kirby, and Sonic are the only playable characters to appear in a game prior to the first one in their series. Of these, Banjo is the only one to have actually been playable instead of making a cameo appearance.
• Banjo is the second playable character to originate in a Donkey Kong series game, but to not be classified as part of the Donkey Kong universe, the first being Mario.
• Kazooie is the fourth playable bird in the Super Smash Bros. series following Falco, King Dedede, and the duck in Duck Hunt as well as the first third party bird character.
  • She is also the first playable female bird character in the Super Smash Bros. series.
• Unlike Bowser, Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong and King K. Rool, Banjo and Kazooie retain their voice actor from their home franchise. They share this trait with Yoshi, who is voiced by Kazumi Totaka, and Bowser Jr. and the Koopalings, who are all voiced by their respective Mario series actors.

External links

• Banjo on Jiggywikki
• Kazooie on Jiggywikki