Banjo

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

Banjo & Kazooie
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

Banjo and 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 Sprial 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 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 into 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 and reanimate her corpse, and 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 B.O.B. to suck the life out of the inhabitants of the island, starting with King Jingaling, who becomes a zombie. 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 the 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 makes a series of challenges for Banjo and Kazooie to go through, and the pair eventually battle and defeat Grunty, who is hence 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 them each access to exclusive moves.

In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Banjo and Kazooie were announced as a playable fighter for the first time in 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., following Diddy Kong, Dark Samus, and King K. Rool, having been created by British developer Rare. They are also to first to belong to a completely foreign franchise.
• They are the first characters in Smash Bros. to belong to a current console rival of Nintendo, Microsoft.