List of Banjo-Kazooie pre-release and unused content

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This is a list of pre-release and unused content from Banjo-Kazooie.

Early ideas

Dream: Land of Giants

Before the development of Banjo-Kazooie started, the game started out as Dream: Land of Giants, an adventure RPG game with an isometric perspective for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The game was about a boy named Edson causing trouble to Captain Blackeye and his crew. The development for the game later moved to the Nintendo 64.

Levels

Lava World

Level concept design for the Lava World, showing the layout and general overview of the world.

The Lava World was a lava-themed world that was planned to be included in Banjo-Kazooie, but was scrapped due to time constraints. The concept was eventually re-purposed into the lava side of Hailfire Peaks in Banjo-Tooie, with numerous differences, although a number of aspects of the original concept were retained, such as a dragon boss, a coliseum, and making Gobi spit up water to use as coolant.

The Lava World is referenced in both Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie, as well as its development history between both games. In the first game, when Banjo and Kazooie steal Gobi's water again in Click Clock Wood, he says that he is leaving for "Lava World," where the duo cannot find him. There is a camel shown in the Lava World's original design sheets, which strongly suggests that Gobi left for the Lava World. In Banjo-Tooie, Gobi is first found in Witchyworld, where he tells Banjo and Kazooie that he was captured on the way to Lava World. When he is freed, Gobi goes to the "Lava World," revealed to be the lava side of Hailfire Peaks.

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  Concept design showing the coliseum, and dragon boss battle.

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  Concept design showing how Gobi would be used to cool lava in one of the volcanoes, allowing a lava swim challenge to be played.

Early builds

Temple Test Level

The Temple Test Level

The Temple Test Level is a test area created during development of Banjo-Kazooie, and was commonly shown in pre-release promotional material. The test level consists of a towering temple structure with multiple doors, surrounded by stone ramps and sandy terrain. The area is fully enclosed with wooden plank walls. The purpose of the level was to test 3D level design, and to aid in developing the moveset for Banjo and Kazooie. The gargoyle statues surrounding the temple were adapted from a scrapped troll character design from the SNES prototype of Dream.

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  Banjo between one of the doors and a statue.

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  Banjo wandering the outside of the temple structure.

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  Banjo and Kazooie using Feathery Flap around a large statue and to the other side of the wall

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  Concept art of the level

Unused content

Test map

The test map, used to test slopes.

In the data for Banjo-Kazooie, there is an unused test map with eight slopes arranged in a circle formation. All the slopes are too steep for Banjo to walk on, but can be walked on while using the Talon Trot move. This map only exists in the US 1.0 version of the game.

Music

• Two unused themes for Click Clock Wood exist, apparently intended for the treehouse near the Zubba hive in summer and fall, which may have also been originally planned to be a separate area that could be gone into. In the final game, the house is part of the main level.
• Freezeezy Peak, Wozza's cave, and the Engine Room of Rusty Bucket Bay have underwater variations of their themes, even though the latter has no swimmable water in it at all, while the water in the former two areas doesn't allow Banjo to dive in it due to how cold it is (also, most of Freezeezy Peak's water is too shallow). The former two themes can be heard via various glitches. Common fan speculation is that the Engine Room's theme was also going to play in the area of the ship where Banjo has to slam a switch to raise the anchor crushing Snorkel; in the final game, the "no horns" variant of the main level theme plays there instead.
• "Advent", probably the most famous unused theme. It sounds similar to Fungi Forest's theme in Donkey Kong 64; Grant Kirkhope has stated that this was intentional.
• "Rain Dance", a theme apparently sung by Mumbo Jumbo and partially using the "sound font" of the variant of Mumbo's Mountain's theme heard just outside his skull.
• A theme that would be used in Banjo-Tooie for when Banjo and Kazooie hop into Dingpot, but is unused in this game.
• A short version of the game over theme.
• A flute tune that would supposedly be used when Banjo collects a Random Stop Honeycomb. Such Honeycombs would not appear until Tooie, and a different sound plays there.
• The theme that plays for the barbecue Mumbo Jumbo throws after the credits is 64 seconds long, but only 40 seconds are actually heard before Tooty reminds everyone that Gruntilda got away.
• The "deep underwater" variant of the Clanker's Cavern theme begins on five seconds of nearly dead silence (minus the high-pitched screeching ambience) before the main melody kicks in. One would never know this without hacking (or YouTube/the Internet), as it's impossible to hear this in-game due to the lack of sound test and Banjo not being able to spawn in the "Clanker's anvil" area, nor does the theme show up in Grunty's Furnace Fun.

Objects

• The Random Stop Honeycomb was apparently going to appear in Banjo-Kazooie, indistinguishable from regular Honeycombs. The Honeycomb would not appear until Banjo-Tooie, and there, it's marked with a question mark icon to easily distinguish it.
• There's a dialogue icon for a coconut which isn't seen anywhere in the final game, as well as one for Freezeezy Peak's Christmas tree.
• Fireflies that may have been intended to act like the bees seen flying around Beehives in the later levels, but would appear only in Bubblegloop Swamp.
• A fully functional "vent" object that would periodically spit out steam that would hurt Banjo and Kazooie. It's listed as a global object, but its graphics make it fit Rusty Bucket Bay best.
• The back of Gruntilda's podium in Grunty's Furnace Fun shows three sheets of paper which can't be seen in the final game: under the constraints of the Furnace Fun challenge, there are no good camera angles to see the back of the podium with, and once Banjo reaches the area where the podium is, the credits run, then Banjo is put back in the Furnace Fun room with the podium gone.
• Mumbo's Skull, in the winter portion of Click Clock Wood, was apparently going to have a sign that said "On Vacation". In the final game, a Beehive explains to Banjo that Mumbo is gone instead.

Other stuff

• The pause menu once had an "Exit to Witch's Lair" option that likely functioned like the "Exit Level" option in Donkey Kong 64. A GameShark code can restore it.
• Stop 'n' Swop, arguably the most infamous "unused content" in video gaming history. It became used when Banjo-Kazooie was rereleased on Xbox Live Arcade.

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  The unused Stop 'n' Swop menu

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  Sharkfood Island re-emerged as part of the scrapped Stop 'n' Swop mechanic.

Gallery

Early logos

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  Early logo, back when it was known as Banjo Kazoo.

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  Three early concepts for the logo.

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  Five early color combinations for an early logo, from April 28th, 1997.

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  Early logo, circa E3 1997.

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  Early logo as seen in issue 100 of Nintendo Power.

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  Early Japanese logo.

Concept art

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  Early concept for enemies.

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  Early concept for enemies.

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  Early concept for a cut jungle level.

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  Early concept for the energy system, being represented by clothing Banjo would lose when hit.

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  The cut mine level, which later became Glitter Gulch Mine in Banjo-Tooie.

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  Rusty Bucket Bay's Engine Room.

Early renders

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  Untextured heads of Banjo and Kazooie, from October 3rd, 1997.

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  Test renders of Banjo's head making different faces, from 1997.

Screenshots

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  Early screenshot of Banjo walking on a bridge on Spiral Mountain.

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  Early screenshot of Mumbo's Mountain, showing the area around Conga.