Banjo-Kazooie

Banjo-Kazooie is the first game in the Banjo-Kazooie series. It was created by Rareware in 1998 for the Nintendo 64. In this game, Banjo and his friend Kazooie must save Banjo's sister Tooty from the evil witch Gruntilda before she steals Tooty's beauty. Banjo-Kazooie was followed by Banjo-Tooie in 2000 for the N64.

Plot
The evil witch of Spiral Mountain, Gruntilda, is inside her lair, asking her cauldron Dingpot questions about who is the 'nicest and fairest of them all', to which Dingpot reluctantly answers, "You are, mistress". She gloats over her "beauty", until Dingpot finally breaks his 'silence' and tells the witch that Tooty, another inhabitant of Spiral Mountain, is actually the prettiest and the fairest of them all. Grunty reacts angrily and decides to kidnap Tooty in order to steal her beauty. She grabs her broom and sets off immediately.

Meanwhile, Tooty is running around Spiral Mountain, when she is greeted by Bottles the Mole in front of Banjo's House. She eagerly tells Bottles that she is going on an adventure with her brother, Banjo. Inside the house, Banjo is sleeping soundly, with his breegull friend, Kazooie, sleeping in his backpack, which is hanging on a nearby coat rack. Tooty and Bottles are still talking, until Bottles spots Grunty in the distance, but confuses her for Banjo (due to his short-sightedness). Grunty immediately goes for Tooty, and a struggle ensues. Kazooie, eager for action and adventure, overhears the clamor outside as well as Bottles' cries for help and tries to wake Banjo up. Banjo and Kazooie leave their house, only to discover that Grunty has gone off and kidnapped Tooty! Bottles tells the bear and bird that they must venture to Gruntilda's Lair to rescue Tooty. Bottles offers to prepare the duo to fight Gruntilda by teaching them some basic moves and repairing the bridge leading to the lair's entrance. Banjo and Kazooie set off on an adventure into the lair to save Tooty.

Once inside the lair, Banjo and Kazooie find a Jiggy, which is used to open and unlock levels around the lair by completing Jigsaw Puzzle pictures. They soon find a painting that fits their first Jiggy, opening the first level of the lair, Mumbo's Mountain. Banjo and Kazooie enter the first world and find that their quest is not as easy as they had anticipated. They discover that they need to rescue Jinjos imprisoned by Grunty throughout each of the worlds as well as collect Musical Notes, which are needed to open up Note Doors, to progress through the deeper areas of Gruntilda's Lair. They also meet Mumbo Jumbo, a skull-faced shaman who offers his services to the bear and bird by transforming the adventurers into different animals with new abilities.

The two continue progressing through the lair, gathering musical notes, Jiggies, and other collectibles along the way, as well as rescuing the Jinjos of each world. They also encounter Mumbo Jumbo and Bottles several times, who continue to help the heroes by transforming them and teaching them new moves, respectively. Banjo and Kazooie also get help from Gruntilda's nicer sister, Brentilda, who gossips interesting facts about her ugly sister.

After successfully surviving through all nine worlds in her lair, Banjo and Kazooie eventually reach Gruntilda but are forced to play her quiz show, Grunty's Furnace Fun. Thanks to the information provided by Brentilda's gossips, Banjo and Kazooie win Grunty's game and save Tooty. With Tooty rescued, they return home and celebrate with a barbecue. However, Tooty reminds our heroes that Grunty had escaped shortly after the game show and was still at large, plotting her wicked schemes.

Banjo and Kazooie make their way back up the lair until they finally reach the roof with a little help from Dingpot. On the roof, Gruntilda challenges them to a more direct confrontation and an epic battle ensues. But, with the help of the Jinjos they rescued in the various worlds of Gruntilda's Lair, Banjo and Kazooie defeat Gruntilda and ultimately knock her off her tower. She crashes into the ground, creating a crater of her shape, which is then covered by a large boulder that falls from the tower and traps her beneath it. Banjo and Kazooie finally take a well-deserved break at the beach, where the bear and bird and their friends anticipate a sequel, Banjo-Tooie. Meanwhile, Gruntilda, whose loyal minion Klungo is trying to rescue her, swears her revenge.

Main Characters

 * Banjo the Bear
 * Kazooie the Breegull
 * Gruntilda Winkybunion
 * Tooty the Bear
 * Bottles the Mole
 * Mumbo Jumbo the Shaman
 * Brentilda Winkybunion
 * Klungo

Worlds
There are nine main worlds, one overworld/hub world, one starter world and three worlds that were unfinished so were not featured in the game. This comes to a total of eleven worlds featured in Banjo-Kazooie.

Main Worlds

 * Mumbo's Mountain
 * Treasure Trove Cove
 * Clanker's Cavern
 * Bubblegloop Swamp
 * Freezeezy Peak
 * Gobi's Valley
 * Mad Monster Mansion
 * Rusty Bucket Bay
 * Click Clock Wood

Other Worlds

 * Spiral Mountain (starter world)
 * Gruntilda's Lair (overworld/hub world)
 * Grunty's Furnace Fun
 * Top of the Tower

Unfinished Worlds

 * Fungus Forest - Could have been where the Click Clock Wood Jigsaw is now. Was inputted into the game Donkey Kong 64.
 * Hammerhead Beach - Only the Beta name of Treasure Trove Cove.
 * Mount Fire Eyes - This level is used in Banjo-Tooie as the fire side of Hailfire Peaks.
 * An unnamed ore mine world. Reused as Glitter Gulch Mine in Banjo-Tooie.
 * An unnamed amusement park. Reused as Witchyworld in Banjo-Tooie.

Game Reaction
Banjo-Kazooie was highly successful when it was released, selling nearly two million copies in the United States. It also received the following reviews:
 * IGN: 9.6
 * GameSpot: 9.5
 * GameStats: 9.2
 * 1Up.com: 9.2
 * Metacritic: 92 of 100 (Based on 19 reviews)
 * Game Rankings: 91% (Based on 14 reviews)

Banjo-Kazooie (Xbox Live Arcade)

 * See main article: Banjo-Kazooie (Xbox Live Arcade)

Banjo-Kazooie was re-released on the Xbox 360 Live Marketplace. It currently costs 1200 Microsoft Points. The game has also been inputted with various items that can be found in Banjo-Kazooie and used in the new game Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts.

The game was updated with improved graphics and several new additional features:
 * Fully working Achievements
 * Working Leaderboards that also show Online Worldwide Leaderboards.
 * All of the Nintendo references, including the Nintendo 64 logo, have been removed and some of the logos of Nintendo are replaced with Microsoft logos.
 * Fully compatible with HD.
 * Many bug fixes from the original N64 version and glitches have been removed.
 * A remade Main Menu (The 3 Save Files are still in the game).

Awards
At the 1999 Interactive Achievement Awards, Banjo-Kazooie won in the Console Action/Adventure and Art Direction categories, and was nominated for Console Adventure Game of the Year and Game of the Year. In an episode of Reviews On The Run, Banjo-Kazooie was ranked number 1 on the list of the "5 classic Rare games you should try", beating out Sabre Wulf, Conker's Bad Fur Day, and Kameo: Elements of Power, which were also running for the same award.

Music
The music from the game was composed by Grant Kirkhope. A CD Soundtrack was also available exclusively to Nintendo Power Subscribers and sold at Best Buy stores. Two additional tracks were included on the CD that Nintendo Power Subscribers received.

Promotional Posters
Banjo-Kazooie