Extra Life

"Look out for me, I'm an extra life!"

- An Extra Life, Banjo-Kazooie

Extra Lives, also known as Golden Banjos, are golden statuettes of Banjo and items in Banjo-Kazooie that provide an extra life to Banjo and Kazooie, as directly stated by their name. Their purpose is identical to 1-Up Mushrooms from the Super Mario series, or the Extra Life Balloons from the Donkey Kong Country series.

Banjo-Kazooie
In Banjo-Kazooie, Extra Lives appear in every level, including Spiral Mountain and Gruntilda's Lair hub worlds. Each level features either two or three Extra Lives, although in the final level, Click Clock Wood, the Extra Lives are relocated based on the current season. Extra Lives most often appear in well-hidden or hard-to-reach areas. When Banjo and Kazooie obtain an Extra Life, it is added to their health meter, where a number represents their current number of lives. If Banjo and Kazooie exit then later re-enter a level, the Extra Lives return to their original locations, if the duo have obtained any.

By default, Banjo and Kazooie start out with three extra lives. Their current number of extra lives is displayed from the health meter, next to an icon of their heads. The counter is only represented by one-digit numbers, therefore only counting up to nine. However, Banjo and Kazooie can exceed this number and obtain ten or more extra lives; if they lose a life, the game internally subtracts from their total number of lives, and the counter remains at nine. If Banjo and Kazooie lose their ninth extra life, the lives counter goes down to eight, and so forth. If the player resets the game, Banjo and Kazooie's lives are reset back to three.

In subsequent Banjo-Kazooie titles, starting with Banjo-Tooie, the lives system was removed. To reflect this change, the lives counter was removed from the health meter.

Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts
In Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, a massive Extra Life statue appears as a Jinjo Fetch item in Act 6 of LOGBOX 720, where it belongs to a Yellow Jinjo. The Extra Life statue retains its physique, although it was changed to be twice Banjo's height, and the bottom trophy base was removed.

The Extra Life statue is on a ledge in the console's upper portion, which Banjo can only reach by using a plane vehicle. After returning the Extra Life, Banjo and Kazooie are rewarded with a Jinjo Token.