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00:06Banjo-Kazooie was really only around for a brief time in all of our lives, releasing
00:11five games over a period of ten years.
00:14Arguably, only two of them are remembered fondly by the masses.
00:17Yet, despite such a short lifespan and the fact that the last game was released in 2008,
00:23there are still many players, myself and others at MojoPlays among them, who would greet the
00:28bear and birds return with open arms?
00:31How did a 3D platformer released among a sea of others like it at the time in 1998 amass
00:37such a strong following and so much goodwill?
00:40And where did it all go?
00:42Welcome to MojoPlays, and today we're looking at what happened to Banjo-Kazooie.
00:52As many fans know, Banjo-Kazooie began its life as something entirely different.
00:57After finishing work on Donkey Kong Country 2 Diddy's Kong Quest, the England-based Rare
01:03began development on an isometric RPG for the Super Nintendo, codenamed Project Dream.
01:09It focused not on Banjo, nor Kazooie, not even Gruntilda the Witch.
01:13Instead, it was to follow a young boy and his conflict with a group of pirates.
01:18Eventually, the devs determined the boy was too generic of a character design and replaced
01:22him with an animal, first a bunny rabbit, and then a bear that would become Banjo.
01:29There was still a lot of work to be done before Project Dream resembled the game it would one
01:34day become.
01:35And then we just kind of took Banjo out of Dream and then put him in the game that
01:39was eventually became Banjo.
01:41Development moved from the Super Nintendo to the upcoming Nintendo 64, which, with the new
01:46third dimension, obviously brought several new challenges for the team.
01:50There, it evolved into a 2.5D side-scrolling platformer, but it wasn't until Nintendo showed
01:56Rare an early version of Super Mario 64 that the vision became crystal clear.
02:08A new engine was built so that the game could be fully 3D, and the hub world, Grunty's Castle,
02:14took clear inspiration from Princess Peaches.
02:17The team leaned more heavily into cartoonish humor and characters, and Kazooie was born out
02:22of wanting to give Banjo new mechanics, like wings and legs that sprung from his backpack
02:27for a double jump and sprint, respectively.
02:34Banjo-Kazooie was meant to release during the 1997 holiday season, but was delayed so that
02:40the team had more time to polish.
02:41Nintendo of America then told Rare to include Donkey Kong characters in its upcoming racing
02:46title, Pro-Am 64, so that it had something for the holidays, which then evolved into Diddy Kong racing.
03:00Thus, Banjo made his debut not in his own game, but in a completely unrelated racer, along with another
03:07future Rare platformer star, Conker the Squirrel.
03:10The delay, however, turned out to be more than worth it.
03:13Banjo-Kazooie was released in the summer of 1998, following the duo braving a witch's lair to rescue Banjo's sister.
03:20It received instant acclaim from players and critics for its level design, humor, music, and graphics.
03:26Not only did it become one of the most popular games on the system, Nintendo itself partially delayed the
03:32release of Ocarina of Time so it could better compete with the quality of Rare's platformer.
03:38And that, clearly, was for the better too.
03:47With the game destined to be a hit, development on a sequel began shortly after Banjo-Kazooie's release.
03:54For Banjo-Tooie, Grunty enlisted her two sisters in a plot to drain the energy from the Isle O'Hags,
04:00using it to restore her body.
04:11Rare included several features they had to scrap from the first game,
04:14namely certain worlds and a multiplayer mode.
04:17Even still, due to time constraints and technical limitations of the N64,
04:22the team still had to cut certain aspects, the most noteworthy of which was the stop and swap mode.
04:28This would have had players swap their Banjo-Kazooie cartridges out mid-play,
04:32so that they could unlock bonuses in other Rare games, like the sequel.
04:36They also planned a separate multiplayer mode called Bottles Revenge,
04:40in which one player controlled the titular duo,
04:42and the other controlled the ghost of Bottles the Mole, who possessed bosses from across the game.
04:55Although not quite as big of a hit financially or critically,
04:59most players agreed that Banjo-Tooie was a worthy follow-up.
05:02All of the new worlds were much grander than those of the first,
05:05with Banjo and Kazooie getting a fun new set of mechanics to explore them.
05:09The future of the franchise looked exceptionally bright,
05:13yet, as we all know, it was actually, and sadly, rather dim.
05:25With the release of Donkey Kong Country in 1994,
05:28Nintendo purchased a large stake in Rare that made them a cherished second-party developer.
05:33However, in 2000, as game development grew more expensive, Rare began to struggle,
05:38and Nintendo, for whatever reason, chose not to purchase the studio outright.
05:43A bidding war began, and in 2002, Microsoft walked away the victor,
05:48having acquired Rare as a first-party developer for $375 million.
05:58Banjo, Kazooie, Conker, and any other original characters created by the developer,
06:04then became the property of Microsoft.
06:06While Nintendo's original IP, like Donkey Kong, remained at home.
06:10Many look at Nintendo's failure to purchase Rare as one of the biggest nails in this franchise's coffin,
06:16especially since it's the exact type of series that could have thrived under Nintendo,
06:21and because of the lackluster projects Microsoft would delegate Rare to, particularly with the Kinect.
06:27But we're getting ahead of ourselves, and there was still the matter of other Banjo-Kazooie projects
06:32that were in development when the sale occurred.
06:40First up was Grunty's Revenge, released for the Game Boy Advance in 2003.
06:45Rare began developing it in 1999 for the Game Boy Color, but after being shelved,
06:51it was revived when Nintendo released its new handheld.
06:54Set between the first and second games, it followed Grunty as she tried to use time travel
06:58to undo Banjo and Kazooie's victory over her.
07:01Although its writing and visuals were clearly inferior to its console counterparts,
07:06it was still a fun side adventure that transitioned the series' gameplay well to a smaller experience.
07:17After that was Banjo Pilot, released on the GBA in 2005.
07:21Announced at E3 2001, it was originally envisioned as a sequel to Diddy Kong Racing, and called Diddy Kong Pilot.
07:29However, when the sale to Microsoft went through and Rare lost access to the DK brand,
07:34the game was reworked to feature only characters from Banjo-Kazooie.
07:38It only received mixed reviews, as it didn't bring anything new to the table,
07:42nor did it have as recognizable of an IP as intended.
07:46And, as a handheld kart racer spin-off instead of a mainline game,
07:50it's mostly now a footnote in the overall history of the series.
07:59Both of these games were already in development when Rare was purchased by Microsoft,
08:04who partnered with THQ to publish them on Arrival's platform.
08:08As far as the developers' new home was concerned,
08:11Rare didn't get another chance to develop a console-bound Banjo-Kazooie
08:14until 2008's Nuts and Bolts for the Xbox 360,
08:18which, unfortunately, remains the final entry in the series to this day.
08:27Development began in 2003, when it was planned as a remake of the first game.
08:32However, the team decided it would be more interesting to create something completely new,
08:36yet still wanted to diverge from traditional platforming mechanics.
08:40It follows the duo in a competition against Grunty the Witch
08:43for the deed over their home, Spiral Mountain.
08:54With a powerful new console and an impressive new engine,
08:58Rare focused on vehicle building, racing, and customization.
09:02Sadly, this angle rubbed a lot of old-school fans the wrong way.
09:05Many still craved the original gameplay of the first two adventures,
09:09and were hoping for more of that, just with the massive updates to visuals, controls,
09:14and mechanics that the Xbox 360 could offer.
09:23Because of this, and likely partly because it was a series that originated on a different platform,
09:28Nuts and Bolts was a commercial bomb.
09:31Rare suffered layoffs as a result, and Microsoft moved the studio towards focusing on the Kinect.
09:40Retrospective perception of Nuts and Bolts has gotten a bit better in the two decades since its release.
09:45Some players now consider it ahead of its time,
09:48with similar mechanics being present and praised in games like Tears of the Kingdom.
09:52Still, it's far and away the most divisive game in the series,
09:56with others claiming it brought the death of a beloved franchise.
09:59But it's a little more complicated than that.
10:07In the years following the release of Nuts and Bolts,
10:10fan desire to see Banjo-Kazooie return has clearly persisted.
10:14And, in a way, many of the people who worked on it have still been allowed to continue.
10:19In 2014, Playtonic Games was founded by many former members of Rare,
10:24who released the spiritual successor, Ukulele, in 2017,
10:28with a chameleon and bat standing in for the bear and bird.
10:40While some may have expected it to be the second coming,
10:43and it definitely had the style and humor,
10:45it also showed the age of its influences with dated mechanics and mediocre level design.
10:51Playtonic followed this up with 2019's Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair,
10:55a 2D side-scroller that was more in line with Rare's work on the Donkey Kong Country series,
11:00and which was received much better.
11:08This allowed the IP to break through the noise,
11:11and the team eventually released a remake of the first game in 2025, titled Yooka Replaylee.
11:17Controls were fine-tuned, certain challenges were reworked,
11:20the visuals were updated, and some nice quality of life changes were included,
11:24making it a strong step up from Playtonic's first release.
11:27And in true Rare fashion, there's even a Yooka-Laylee Kart Racer currently in development.
11:40As nice as it is to see former Rare devs paying homage to Banjo-Kazooie,
11:45the love and nostalgia we all hold for those characters in that wacky world is hard to replace.
11:51When Banjo and Kazooie were added to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate in 2019,
11:56it was because so many fans had requested them.
11:59But while many of us probably hoped that was a sign something bigger was coming,
12:03nothing ever materialized.
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12:35The death of this series came from a variety of events.
12:39Microsoft's purchase of Rare, the negative reception to Nuts and Bolts,
12:43and the leaving of many devs that worked on it to form their own studio.
12:47Although Yooka-Laylee is a serviceable successor,
12:49there's a good reason so many of us keep holding onto the hope that it isn't dead.
12:54Not really.
12:55It's in those silly cartoon characters, the incredible varied levels that they inhabit,
13:00and the intuitive controls and gameplay that's unique enough
13:03while still feeling familiar to make you want to keep challenging yourself.
13:07We may never see its exact like again, but like many players, we'll always be grateful for what we got.
13:20What's your favorite game in the Banjo-Kazooie series?
13:23Are you a nuts and bolts apologist?
13:25Share your thoughts and your memories with us in the comments, and we will see you next time.