Banjo-Pilot

Banjo-Pilot is a racing game released for the Game Boy Advance featuring Banjo-Kazooie characters racing in planes. It was developed by Rare and published by THQ in 2005. It is the only spinoff title of the Banjo-Kazooie series and has no storyline nor relation to the main series. The race courses are rendered using Mode7 technology.

Banjo-Pilot was originally under development as Diddy Kong Pilot in 2001, which would be entirely redone into another title of the same name, distinguished as the 2003 build. Its earlier iteration was cancelled because of the Microsoft acquisition in 2002, and that Nintendo was concerned over its quality. While Banjo-Pilot courses are rendered in Mode7, it had an earlier build where courses were rendered with the voxel engine.

Gameplay
The gameplay for Banjo-Pilot is very similar to the Mario Kart series. It involves the player racing in tracks against other racers, except they fly around in planes. Racers can collect an item from a Honeycomb, which are located throughout the tracks, usually in a pair. There are four collectible Musical Notes lying around a track, and collecting all four increases the number of Cheato Pages that the player obtains from completing the race.

Oddly, planes slow down when driving over rough ground. The player is also equipped with an indefinite supply of bullets, which slows another racer down for one second when it hits them. The player can hold down to do a barrel roll, which is effective for taking sharp turns around corners. The player can avoid incoming items, such as Red Fire Eggs, by making a U-turn, which is done by pressing L and Down just when it is about to hit.

Modes

 * Grand Prix: In this mode, the first player races against other characters in a series of tracks to earn points. There are four cups that each contain four tracks with an aerial boss fight at the end. The player is given a trophy determined on his/her rank. Different Grand Prixes include the Bottles GP, the Grunty GP, the Endurance GP, and the Jinjo GP.
 * Quick Race: In this mode, the player can do a quick single race with any character he/she has already unlocked. The player can choose tracks from the Bottles and Gruntilda GP.
 * Time Trial: In this mode, the player races against the ghost of either Bottles or Gruntilda to try and beat their best time.
 * Trophies: Here, the player can view the trophies that he/she won throughout the game. There is also a photo album when the player completes all of the game's challenges.
 * Jiggy Challenge: In this mode, the player collects six Jiggies on tracks from the Bottles and Grunty Grand Prixes while trying to finish in first place. If they succeed, they can unlock Bottles, the most efficient racer in the game.
 * Cheato: Here, Cheato pages are used to purchase unlockables within the game.

Two Multiplayer modes were also included on Banjo-Pilot, with GBA Link Cable support for up to four players:
 * Head-To-Head: It's a multiplayer quickrace, with four players together in the same track.
 * Dogfight: Similar to a cup boss battle. Player can beat the opponent using weapons.

Characters
There are four playable characters from the start of the game.

There are five unlockable characters, each of whom can be unlocked from Cheato's menu after meeting a criteria.

Items
Racers can receive an item by running into a Honeycomb.

Cups
Honeycomb/Pumpkin Cup Jiggy/Cauldron Cup Beehive/Skull Cup Feather/Broomstick Cup
 * Spiral Mountain
 * Jinxy's Dunes
 * Freezeezy Peak
 * Hailfire Peaks
 * Boss: Kazooie/Jolly
 * Treasure Trove Cove
 * Clanker's River
 * Grunty Industries
 * Gobi's Valley
 * Boss: Humba/Mumbo
 * Freezing Furnace
 * Mayahem Temple
 * Steamy Vents
 * Jolly Roger's Lagoon
 * Boss: Banjo/Klungo
 * Witchyworld
 * Breegull Beach
 * Terrydactyland
 * Cauldron Keep
 * Boss: Bottles/Grunty

Battle tracks
There are four battle stages, each of which are unlockable and only playable in multiplayer mode:

Music
The music of Banjo-Pilot was composed by Robin Beanland and Jamie Hughes. Banjo-Pilot is the second Banjo-Kazooie game to not have Grant Kirkhope as a music composer.

Cameos
Many characters from Rare's previous games make minor cameos in Banjo-Pilot. Characters like Tiptup, Gobi, and Master Jiggywiggy can be seen in various tracks. Sabreman, from Sabre Wulf, and Expresso, from Donkey Kong Country respectively appear in in Jolly Roger's Lagoon and Jinxy's Dunes. Other non-playable characters include Cheato, King Jingaling, and Roysten.

Trivia

 * According to Rare, Banjo-Pilot was known as Banjo-Kazooie: Pilot on THQ's UK website.
 * Microsoft, who acquired Rare three years before this game's release, allowed THQ to publish this title and other Game Boy Advance games Rare devloped on their behalf due to most of said games already being in development before the buyout. Microsoft had no equivalent in the handheld market and did not want the development time and resources they acquired to go to waste.