Banjo-Kazooie (universe)

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Banjo-Kazooie (universe)
Developer(s)	Rare Ltd. 4J Studios
Publisher(s)	Nintendo THQ Microsoft Game Studios
Genre(s)	Platformer
Console/platform of origin	Nintendo 64
First installment	Banjo-Kazooie (1998)
Latest installment	Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts (2008)

The Banjo-Kazooie universe (バンジョーとカズーイの大冒険, Banjo and Kazooie's Great Adventure) refers to the Super Smash Bros. series' collection of characters, stages, and properties hailing from the series of 3D platformers created by the UK-based development studio Rare Ltd. The games task players with collecting various items in sandbox-like environments in order to progress. They are often considered to be the most popular and recognizable titles Rare has developed, next to the Donkey Kong Country series.

Franchise description

File:Banjo and Kazooie.png

Official artwork of Banjo and Kazooie from Banjo-Tooie.

Following the massive success of Donkey Kong Country in 1994, a game famous for its pre-rendered CG graphics created on Silicon Graphics workstations, developer Rare wanted to produce more titles utilizing this advanced graphics technology as their groundwork. Among the new games in production was Project Dream (also known as Dream: Land of Giants), a role-playing game which was to be Rare's magnum opus on the SNES. Inspired by other action-adventure titles like Nintendo’s own The Legend of Zelda series, this game would have starred a human boy named Edison and his dog companion Dinger in a pirate-themed fantasy adventure to stop the ambitions of Captain Blackeye and his band of pirates. However, as the SNES neared the end of its lifespan and the game's size and scope increased, it was eventually decided to move production to the upcoming Nintendo 64 console.

In an attempt to appeal to a more mature audience, the game's fantasy themes were de-emphasized and its pirate themes strengthened. As development progressed, the team decided that Edison was losing his relevance and replaced him with a different protagonist. He was first swapped for a rabbit, and eventually a bear, whom they gave a backpack to store his items. The development team soon realized their game was becoming too ambitious, so they chose to retool it into a linear 2.5D platformer. When the team saw an early build of Nintendo's Super Mario 64, they realized it would set the standard for 3D gaming and make Dream look outdated in comparison. As a result, they once again restarted its development, restoring the fantasy themes and using Super Mario 64 as their basis. This new iteration was what eventually became Banjo-Kazooie.

While designing a moveset for the titular Banjo, the team experimented with various ideas on how to improve and expand upon Mario’s moveset in Super Mario 64; namely, the ability to double jump and run faster. The concept of wings and legs sprouting out of the backpack emerged from this goal, thus birthing the idea for a separate character living in Banjo’s backpack: a red-crested breegull named Kazooie. Variation was added to the gameplay through the shaman Mumbo Jumbo, who transforms Banjo into different creatures with unique movesets. As the game's pirate themes were gradually diminishing, the role of antagonist was passed from Captain Blackeye to a green witch named Gruntilda. To help promote the upcoming title, Banjo was added as a playable character in Diddy Kong Racing in November of 1997.

Banjo-Kazooie was initially released in June of 1998 to strong sales and critical acclaim, with praise to its detailed graphics, dynamic soundtrack, and improvements over the foundation laid by Super Mario 64. Along with other recognizable titles such as GoldenEye 007, Perfect Dark, Donkey Kong 64, and Conker's Bad Fur Day, the game further cemented Rare's reputation as a top-tier developer for the platform. The eponymous duo became mascots for both the company and the Nintendo 64 itself; owing to this success, a direct sequel titled Banjo-Tooie was released in 2000, featuring a more elaborate plot, Mumbo Jumbo as an additional playable character, multiple new gameplay styles, and a large interconnected world.

While the Banjo-Kazooie intellectual property was initially a second-party Nintendo franchise, and Banjo and Kazooie were marketed as "Nintendo characters" alongside first-party creations such as Mario and Yoshi, the property was fully transferred to Microsoft upon its purchase of Rare in September of 2002. However, since Microsoft had no stake in the handheld gaming market, Rare was permitted to develop two spin-offs for the Game Boy Advance: Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge and Banjo-Pilot, the latter of which was actually retooled from a Diddy Kong Racing sequel following the 2002 acquisition.

A third console entry was greatly contested within Rare, as the team initially struggled to find a central focus. Concepts for this third game included an expanded remake of the first game with certain gameplay segments altered, and a game focusing more directly on the duo's rivalry with Gruntilda, where they would compete in a series of rapid-fire challenges. None of these ideas came to fruition, and the team instead landed on the concept of constructing vehicles to traverse large, sandbox-like stages and complete missions. This became the focus for Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, released for the Xbox 360 in November of 2008. Though it received mostly positive reviews from critics, it was highly polarizing due to its deviation from the traditional 3D platforming formula of the original duology. The game became infamous in the following years as fans felt their expectations were subverted, and Rare temporarily shifted focus away from its intellectual properties to develop games for the Kinect.

Nuts & Bolts was followed up by downloadable HD remasters of the two N64 titles on Xbox Live Arcade, as well as Banjo and Kazooie's guest appearance in the Xbox 360 version of Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing. In 2015, the three console installments of the Banjo-Kazooie series were included in Rare Replay, a compilation of thirty Rare games for the Xbox One in celebration of their 30th anniversary as a company. However, apart from these re-releases, the Banjo-Kazooie series has stayed largely dormant since the release of Nuts & Bolts. In that time, the majority of the original creative team had split away from Rare to form an independent studio, Playtonic Games; they crowdfunded and released a spiritual successor titled Yooka-Laylee in 2017, with a side-scrolling sequel currently in development.

Banjo & Kazooie were a particularly popular character request for the Super Smash Bros. series as far back as the release of the original Nintendo 64 installment; on an official Japanese poll regarding characters for a potential sequel, they placed eighth, above characters such as Marth and Meta Knight. Similarly, after the release of Super Smash Bros. Melee, Masahiro Sakurai noted in response to a fan that Banjo & Kazooie could be considered an obvious inclusion, but including them was "unlikely for a variety of legal and financial reasons". The duo were meant to cameo as a trophy, but had to be cut for similar reasons.

Ultimately, the duo would be included as DLC fighters for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, over a decade after Microsoft purchased them along with the rest of Rare. Rare's official Twitter account noted the long-running demand in response to their reveal trailer, and thanked Nintendo for their collaboration. In addition Phil Spencer, head of the Xbox brand, said in an interview following the announcement that he was open to including the characters in the Super Smash Bros. series for a long time, and doing so as part of Ultimate's Fighters Pass was an "easy decision to make" due to Microsoft's ongoing third-party relationship with Nintendo.

In Super Smash Bros.

Banjo and Kazooie make no appearance in Super Smash Bros. on the Nintendo 64, but appeared on a poll held on the official website regarding a potential sequel, ranking eighth place out of 20.

In Super Smash Bros. Melee

Based on responses from fan questions confirming that Banjo would not be appearing in Super Smash Bros. Melee, a popular rumor of Banjo being cut from the game manifested, claiming that Banjo (along with James Bond from GoldenEye 007) was planned for inclusion but ultimately cut because Sakurai could not secure the rights from Rare. However, Sakurai only said that the characters would be difficult to include, not that he had planned to include them.

In Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Both Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie are mentioned among the titles listed in the Chronicle in PAL versions of Brawl. However, no other content from the series is seen anywhere else in the game.

In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

The flagship franchise of Rare makes its long-requested Super Smash Bros. debut as part of the Fighters Pass, having been officially announced in the E3 2019 Nintendo Direct along with the Hero from the Dragon Quest series. In addition to one new fighter, the series is represented with a stage with multiple cameo appearances and several music tracks.

Fighter

• 73. Banjo & Kazooie: The easy-going bear and his snarky breegull sidekick debut together as the third newcomer from the Fighters Pass. Like Duck Hunt, Banjo & Kazooie work in tandem for their attacks, utilizing abilities taken from their Nintendo 64 outings such as Egg Shot and Wonderwing, and even summoning The Mighty Jinjonator for their Final Smash. They will launch alongside Spiral Mountain and its music tracks in Fall 2019 as part of Challenger Pack 3.

Stage

• Spiral Mountain: a stage based on Banjo & Kazooie's homeland, which appeared in every Banjo-Kazooie game thus far. In the background, Bottles, Mumbo, and Gruntilda will cameo. The stage will release in Fall 2019 as part of Challenger Pack 3.

Music

Original tracks

• Spiral Mountain: A faster-paced orchestral arrangement of the Spiral Mountain theme arranged by Grant Kirkhope, the original composer of Banjo-Kazooie.

Trivia

• Banjo-Kazooie is the first third-party universe, and the first character-based universe overall, to consist solely of a playable character that originated outside of Japan.
• Banjo-Kazooie is one of three primary third-party universes with games published by Nintendo worldwide, as Nintendo published the Nintendo 64 versions of both the first installment and Banjo-Tooie; the other two are Final Fantasy and Bayonetta.
• Banjo-Kazooie is the first third-party universe to belong to a current console rival of Nintendo, in this case Microsoft; however, Rareware was once a second-party subsidiary of Nintendo, and Banjo debuted in the Donkey Kong franchise via technicalities.
• Banjo-Kazooie is the second third-party universe with a playable female character, the first being Bayonetta.
• Banjo-Kazooie is the fifth third-party universe to debut on a Nintendo console, and the only one to debut on a Nintendo console other than the NES (being the Nintendo 64). The others, which all debuted on the NES, are Mega Man, Final Fantasy, Castlevania, and Dragon Quest.
• Despite being owned by Microsoft, Banjo-Kazooie did not debut on a Microsoft platform. Coincidentally, the Metal Gear universe did debut on a Microsoft platform, specifically the MSX2.