GAME · 1998
Banjo-Kazooie
50 archived facts 2 topics 1 source Last reviewed Sep 2026
All facts (50)
- #001
Holding the R Button allows the player to make a sharp turn while flying or swimming, but Bottles never tells the player this at any point in the game.
- #002
Grant Kirkhope based part of the music, particularly the theme for Witch's Lair, on the children's song "Teddy Bears' Picnic."
- #003
The voices in the game are not actual speech but looping voice-like sounds played when text bubbles appear. This artistic choice was made because of the memory limitations of Nintendo 64 cartridges.
- #004
Beneath the name of the ship in Rusty Bucket Bay is the text "Twycross, England," the location of the Rareware headquarters.
- #005
Among the five transformations in the game, the crocodile is the only one that can attack.
- #006
In the beta version, Clanker was a real whale rather than a mechanical one.
- #007
There are 100 Jiggies in the entire game, but only 98 of them are used in the picture puzzles of Grunty's Lair, leaving just 2 Jiggies with no purpose other than watching the perfect ending. If fewer than 100 Jiggies are collected before finishing the final battle, Mumbo will not reveal his secret. If all 100 Jiggies are collected when the game is completed, Mumbo gives a brief glimpse of what awaits in the sequel Banjo-Tooie (2000) (see Banjo-Tooie Trivia for more information). Grunty's final words also differ depending on the number of Jiggies held at the end.
- #008
It was the best-selling game of 1998 in the United States, with more than 2 million copies sold. It also drew praise for its graphics, story and gameplay.
- #009
The only letter missing from the sandcastle puzzle in Treasure Trove Cove is "Q."
- #010
This is the only game in the series in which Tooty appears.
- #011
The game began development as an RPG for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System known as "Project Dream," which was to feature a male hero who would have to fight pirates, one of them Captain Black Eye (who was included in the final version as a portrait found in Mad Monster Mansion). The game quickly became too expensive for the limits of the SNES system, and production shifted its focus to the upcoming Nintendo 64. However, given its large scale, the development team found themselves constrained by the hardware and shifted focus again after seeing work being done on "Twelve Tales: Conker 64" (which ultimately became Conker's Bad Fur Day (2001), following the path of the highly successful Super Mario 64 (1996)), thus scrapping the RPG concept and turning it into a platform game instead.
- #012
In the beta version, there is a portrait of Donkey Kong beside Banjo's bed. This was changed to a portrait of Tooty in the final version.
- #013
There are a total of 9 ways to enter the house in Mad Monster Mansion.
- #014
Tiptup the Turtle and Banjo appeared together in Diddy Kong Racing (1997).
- #015
In the game's data there is an unused music track called "Advent," which was to be used as the central world theme for "Giants Lair" in the early stages of development.
- #016
The game was originally supposed to be released as Nintendo's big 1997 holiday game in America with a Taco Bell toy promotion, but Rare had to delay it by several months. They therefore decided to release Diddy Kong Racing (1997), in which Banjo appears as a playable character, first.
- #017
The game received a significant amount of excitement, partly because it was marketed as a game that would mean for the N64 what Donkey Kong Country meant for the SNES in terms of graphical advancement.
- #018
Treasure Trove Cove, Clankers Cavern, Gobi's Valley and Rusty Bucket Bay are the only four levels in which Mumbo does not appear.
- #019
Boggy the bear is the only character in the game who gives the player more than one Jiggy.
- #020
Some of the answers given in Grunty's Furnace Fun are characters from other Rare games, such as Funky the monkey and Conker the squirrel.
- #021
The secrets Mumbo tells at the end were meant to be part of a feature known as "Stop N' Swop." The idea was that players who owned a compatible game such as Banjo-Tooie (2000) could remove the cartridge and insert the Banjo-Kazooie cartridge to unlock Stop N' Swop items. This required turning the console off and swapping the cartridges very quickly to access the game's temporary save data stored in the motherboard memory before the cartridges erased themselves. Earlier revisions of the N64 motherboard had a window of about ten seconds before the saved data was lost when the console was turned off. Later revisions reduced the window to only one second, making the process impossible. The feature was planned to be included in a total of six Rare games, and performing the process with each of them would activate a special code that would complete the circle for Banjo-Kazooie. Stop N' Swop was also supposed to be included in Donkey Kong 64 (1999), but Nintendo insisted on removing it because it feared players might remove the cartridges while the console was on and potentially damage both.
- #022
The game's manual mentions an "Exit to Witch's Lair" option. Although it was present in the beta version, it was scrapped in the final release.
- #023
There are five encounters with Gobi the camel in this game.
- #024
The first Jiggy in Gruntilda's Lair is the only one in the game that does not require pressing a Witch Switch in a level.
- #025
The second and final Jiggies in Gruntilda's Lair are the only ones that require an animal transformation to retrieve.
- #026
Banjo-Kazooie features three encounters with Cheato, the spell book.
- #027
The Grunty's Furnace Fun game board contains a total of 94 squares.
- #028
Click Clock Wood is the only level in the game that lets players visit the same area under a different scenario.
- #029
The kitchen is the only room not found in Mad Monster Mansion.
- #030
The race against Boggy the bear has a total of 38 slalom gates.
- #031
Apart from Banjo and Kazooie being listed last, the characters named in the credits are given in order of appearance.
- #032
In level order, the five transformations are: termite, crocodile, walrus, pumpkin and bee.
- #033
The game includes eighteen encounters with Bottles.
- #034
The game includes ten encounters with Brentilda.
- #035
The Click Clock Wood jigsaw puzzle is the only puzzle in the game without a puzzle podium.
- #036
A soundtrack of the game's music, composed by Grant Kirkhope, was released by Nintendo of America as a limited-edition Compact Disc. The CD, which included two bonus tracks, was sold only at Best Buy stores and through the Nintendo Power Catalog.
- #037
Mumbo's Hut and Mumbo's heads have 3 feathers on top.
- #038
The Boss Boom Box fight contains a total of 15 crates.
- #039
Among the voiced questions in Grunty's Furnace Fun, Gruntilda's voice is the only one labeled "cool". All other voices are labeled "dumb".
- #040
Captain Blubber's ship is named the Salty Hippo.
- #041
Bubblegloop Swamp, Freezeezy Peak and Gobi's Valley are the only levels in the game whose names do not contain alliteration.
- #042
Boggy's three children are named Soggy, Moggy and Groggy.
- #043
The character Motzand is a play on the legendary composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
- #044
In an episode of "Reviews On The Run", the game ranked number 1 on the list "5 classic Rare games you should try", beating fellow nominees Sabre Wulf, Conker's Bad Fur Day and Kameo: Elements of Power.
- #045
The game's manual lists an option called Exit To Witch's Lair that was cut very late in development. The option would have returned the player to the hub world without stepping on a warp pad. It can be restored through GameShark or Action Replay codes. Ironically, Banjo-Kazooie's spiritual successor Yooka-Laylee (2017) had this option from the start.
- #046
"Ooomeknacka" was created as a reference to Mumbo Jumbo after Grant Kirkhope went for a testicular exam and said "Ooh, me knackers!"
- #047
In June 1998, Toonami held a sweepstakes in which they gave away 25 Nintendo 64 consoles, each bundled with a copy of the game. 500 winners received only a copy of the game. The sweepstakes ended on June 12, 1998.
- #048
Mumbo Jumbo's speech was made from randomly selected samples of Grant Kirkhope saying "Come and have a go if you think you're hard enough."
- #049
It is the only Banjo-Kazooie video game released in the 20th century.
- #050
It is the only Banjo-Kazooie video game released in the 1990s.
Sources & editorial notes
Sources for the entries on this page
- IMDb IMDb
Information from external sources is independently selected, consolidated and edited by Arka Evren. Sources are listed for verification and further reading. Encyclopedia text is used under its licence (CC BY-SA). How we work