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Banjo-Kazooie

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Title Screen

Banjo-Kazooie

Also known as: Banjo to Kazooie no Daibouken (JP)
Developer: Rare
Publisher: Nintendo
Platform: Nintendo 64
Released in JP: December 6, 1998
Released in US: June 30, 1998
Released in EU: July 17, 1998


AreasIcon.png This game has unused areas.
GraphicsIcon.png This game has unused graphics.
ItemsIcon.png This game has unused items.
MusicIcon.png This game has unused music.
Carts.png This game has revisional differences.
PiracyIcon.png This game has anti-piracy features.


NotesIcon.png This game has a notes page
BugsIcon.png This game has a bugs page
PrereleaseIcon.png This game has a prerelease article

In Banjo-Kazooie, Mario fell into a nuclear power plant and mutated into a strange bear with a bird stuck to his back. The same fallout transformed all the Power Stars into Jiggys as well.

Test Map

Stonehenge has seen better days.

This simple test map consists of eight slopes arranged in a circle formation. All of them are too steep for you to walk up all the way, you will slide down. It was presumably used to test walking up steep slopes, both normally and with the Talon Trot.

The following code enables the test map. Get to the title screen and it will load the test map instead of Mumbo's Mountain. Now, simply wait until the AI dies and you will get control of Banjo.

8136ABFA 14D6
8136ABFC 0000

Unused Music

There are four unused songs. The most famous is "Advent", due to theories of where it would be used. There are also two unused versions of the Click Clock Wood theme and an unused Mumbo Jumbo song called "Mumbo's Raindance".

(Source: Banjordan's BK Lair, USF Central)

Advent

Early Click Clock Wood #1 (House Summer)

Early Click Clock Wood #2 (House Autumn)

Mumbo's Raindance (Rain)

Unused Underwater Themes

The music tracks for several areas of the game contain MIDI channels which are never played. These make up the "aquatic" (underwater harp) versions of the music in several areas where it is impossible to swim underwater.

Freezeezy Peak

In-game, it is impossible to swim in the water in Freezeezy Peak because it is too cold (and also very shallow). While you can become submerged using the walrus transformation, the music does not change.

Wozza's Cave

As with its parent level of Freezeezy Peak, the water in Wozza's Cave is too cold to swim in and the music again does not change in the underwater tunnel accessible through the walrus transformation. It seems that at some point in development, this cavern was meant to be swam through instead of using the walrus.

This track can actually be heard during the normal game, albeit through an odd bug: if the Wozza's Cave BGM comes up in a "What level is this music from?" question in the Grunty's Furnace Fun quiz, this version and the regular version will play layered, because the game is not told to mute the MIDI channels containing the harp sound.

Rusty Bucket Bay Engine Room

By far the oddest of the lot, as there is absolutely no place for swimmable water to exist in the engine room in Rusty Bucket Bay. One likely possibility is that the anchor room inside the bow of the ship originally used the engine room's BGM. In-game, it shares the main level BGM.

Unused Fanfares

Quit

Quit is a shorter version of the Game Over fanfare (which has the internal name Last Bit). It might have been used for the Game Over screen before the cutscene was implemented.

Door Open

This resembles the tune played when Mumbo transforms Banjo, albeit with softer instrumentation. It is later used in Banjo-Tooie if you let Dingpot replenish your items.

Mystery

This seems to be a shorter version of the jingle that plays when a world is opened (internally named Open Up).

Unused Graphics

Picture

Hello, sailor.

This was probably intended to show up in one of the rooms in Mad Monster Mansion with all the other pictures.

Debug Stuff

SFX MAKE FIX KILL is my new band name.

These look like icons and text which would be used in a debug mode. No idea how they were used, though.

Firefly

Joss Whedon had nothing to do with this.

A firefly which looks similar to the Beehives' bees, even using the same sprite for its wings! It might have been for Mad Monster Mansion, the only level set at night.

"ON VACATION" Sign

On vacation from what? You just sit there and wait for me to stop by!

This was very likely for use in Mumbo's hut in the Winter area of Click Clock Wood. Instead, a Beehive tells Banjo that Mumbo's on vacation.

Random Honeycombs

Careful, you'll lose an eye.
This page or section needs more images.
There's a whole lotta words here, but not enough pictures. Please fix this.

The random honeycombs from Banjo-Tooie are present here, but are unused. Like in the sequel, press a button to be restored a random amount of health.

Exit to Witch's Lair

An unused option for the pause menu was Exit to Witch's Lair. This option would instantly return you to Gruntilda's Lair from any level, without having to run back to the start pad. Using the following GameShark code, you can re-add this option to the pause menu:

8036C4FC 0000
8036C4FD 005A
8036C50D 007D
8036C51D 009C
8036C4FE 0005
81383012 0100

Stop 'n' Swop

Maddening, isn't it?

If you manage to collect all the Jiggys and then beat Gruntilda, Mumbo will show you pictures of two eggs and one Ice Key. Using secret built-in codes, you can actually collect these and four more eggs. To enter them, simply go to the sandcastle in Treasure Trove Cove and type in "CHEAT". You should hear a cow mooing. Now, enter any of these codes:

Code Description
NOW YOU CAN SEE A NICE ICE KEY WHICH YOU CAN HAVE FOR FREE In Wozza's Cave in Freezeezy Peak, the ice wall will disappear, allowing you to go through into a room containing the Ice Key. As a special note, this was one of the first Stop 'n' Swop items to be discovered due to use of the "Press L to levitate" GameShark code.
OUT OF THE SEA IT RISES TO REVEAL MORE SECRET PRIZES Sharkfood Island will rise out of the sea and you will be able to enter it. Once inside, there's a large structure which you can climb to acquire the Pink Egg.
A DESERT DOOR OPENS WIDE ANCIENT SECRETS WAIT INSIDE In Gobi's Valley, the door which is normally always closed will be opened. Inside, you'll be in a secret room with a sarcophagus which can be opened using a nearby switch. Contained in the sarcophagus is the Blue Egg.
DONT YOU GO AND TELL HER ABOUT THE SECRET IN HER CELLAR In the wine cellar in Mad Monster Mansion, the keg which normally has an X printed on it will be opened. It leads to a secret room with the Cyan Egg inside.
AMIDST THE HAUNTED GLOOM A SECRET IN THE BATHROOM In the bathroom in Mad Monster Mansion, the Green Egg will appear on top of Loggo the toilet.
THIS SECRET YOULL BE GRABBIN IN THE CAPTAINS CABIN The Red Egg will appear in the Captain's Cabin in Rusty Bucket Bay.
NOW BANJO WILL BE ABLE TO SEE IT ON NABNUTS TABLE In Click Clock Wood in winter, the Yellow Egg will appear on the table in Nabnut's house.

As soon as you collect one of these, a new menu called Stop 'n' Swop will appear at the very end of the game totals, which shows all the eggs and the key you've collected so far. None of these items have an effect in-game; they were actually intended to be used in the sequel, Banjo-Tooie, by quickly swapping the cartridges after turning the power off, hence the feature's name. Unfortunately, due to technical limitations, the feature had to be scrapped - the feature depended on powered-off N64s retaining Rambus memory for 10 seconds, but newer models starting in 1999 reduced the time down to just 1 second, and attempting to swap one cartridge for another and turning the power back on within this time would be exceptionally difficult.

Rare reintroduced the concept in the Xbox Live Arcade release of Banjo-Kazooie: collecting the items both adds them to your inventory in Banjo-Tooie (which does away with the breakable N64 carts) and unlocks rare parts in Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts.

Useless Cheat Code

In addition to the Stop'n'Swop cheats above, there are also cheat codes to unlock every level except the first. This includes the second level, Treasure Trove Cove, despite that you need to be in that level to enter the cheats, which may suggest that at one point cheats were to be entered at a different location. (The code is "THIS COMES IN HANDY TO OPEN SOMEWHERE SANDY".)

Gnawty's House in Springtime

In Click Clock Wood, there's a beaver named Gnawty who is locked out of his home. Normally, you would destroy the rock in Summer and then return in Fall to claim your Jiggy (and return in Winter for an empty honeycomb).

However, it is in fact possible to destroy the rock in Spring as well. To do so, you must run around the area to the path which leads around the center tree, and position yourself so you're roughly above the area where the rock blocking the tunnel is. From here, you need to shoot down eggs to destroy the rock (it's difficult but possible).

Once you do this, the camera will show the flower (or the place where it would be if you have not planted it). You will then be able to jump down and swim into the tunnel. While it does exist (despite there being no way to enter it during the normal course of the game), it is untextured, and just leads into nothingness from which you can jump into the void.

Anti-Piracy (Anti-Cheat?)

When certain Game Shark or PAR cheats are used (which inadvertantly do something like violating protected memory or the checksum), the bridge to Grunty's Lair in Spiral Mountain will have a large hole in it, making it impossible to cross without a levitation cheat. There are no ill effects otherwise. Amusingly, said bridge is in a similar state of disrepair in Banjo-Tooie.

Version Differences

Hmmm...
To do:
Probably not complete
Careful, you'll lose an eye.
This page or section needs more images.
There's a whole lotta words here, but not enough pictures. Please fix this.

Several things have changed in the Xbox Live Arcade version of the game:

  • Most importantly, Notes now stay collected permanently (like the sequels), substantially lowering the difficulty of collecting them all (as it no longer has to be done all in one visit and one life).
    • This change resulted in a bug - Notes collected during the scenes of Bottles' Bonus Puzzles would not count but remain in their collected state, rendering them permanently lost. This bug was later fixed.
  • Several textures have been redone. Some are simply in higher quality, while all talking head icons have been redone from scratch, and the speech font has been changed to match that in Nuts & Bolts.
  • The Stop 'n' Swop items are automatically available if the console has a Banjo-Tooie or Nuts & Bolts save on it. Collecting them leads to bonuses in said games similar to the original feature's intent.
  • Most Nintendo references have been removed:
    • The N64 "N" no longer exists on the intro screen, though the squeaking sounds still play.
    • The "Nintendo" logo on Mumbo's xylophone now reads "Microsoft Games Studios".
    • Banjo still plays a Game Boy to represent file 3, but the startup noise no longer plays.
(Source: http://banjokazooie.wikia.com/wiki/Banjo-Kazooie_(Xbox_Live_Arcade)