Banjo-Kazooie Tips N' Tricks

Welcome, internet! I'm not going to bug you by telling you how you already know what day it is. Instead, I'm going to remind people that today is Earth day! I had been planning something special for Earth day for quite a while now, but nothing really came to mind. Then I started thinking about bears, and then began thinking about Banjo-Kazooie. It was the most fitting theme to come to mind at the time. Well, there was also Okami, and A Harvest Moon game, but I don't own Okami, and it would have taken me days to get to the point of reviewing a Harvest Moon game. Friends of Mineral Town took me a week to finish, and it was one of the most portable entries in the series.

Anyway, Who remembers Rare? A company that, during the N64 era, created some of the best games on the market. You were the kid to go to if you owned a Rare title, and an N64. Especially games like Donkey Kong 64, Banjo-Kazooie, or 007 Goldeneye. After the Microsoft buyout, it seems that the games lost quality. We got questionable titles such as Kinect Sports, Viva Pinata, and Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts. I say “questionable” because I've never played any of these titles, and I refuse to form an opinion on something I've not experienced. I have, however, heard very little good things about these games, and have heard more bad things about them.

But enough about Rare's not so amazing choice. We're going to talk about one of the games that started it all. Banjo-Kazooie was an amazing title. It gave us an idea not only of what a good platform game could do on the N64, but an idea of what a good company was capable of in matching hands. We're going to dig in with our paws (or claws, for you bears out there) into this game and take a look at all the nifty gems hidden within!

Let's begin at the start of the game. You can actually play with the file select screen. In each of the different file select options, you'll see banjo and Kazooie doing a different activity. In file one, they're both fast asleep. In file two, they're cooking up some food, and in file three, they're playing a Game Boy. First, in file three, if you listen closely, you can hear them playing a Banjo-Kazooie game on their Game Boy. Sometimes, though, you can hear them playing Donkey Kong 64. Next, let's go back to file one. You have the off chance to find alternate file select animations. For file one you'll see Banjo and Kazooie get launched out of bed, through the window, crashing outside. In file two, the wall with the boiler and cabinet where Banjo and Kazooie are cooking, and they will disappear behind the wall. In the third file, Banjo and Kazooie will be launched out of their chair, and through the ceiling. There's only a slight chance to see these animations, and it's possible that they need to be timed in order to actually happen, but I can't say for sure, as I've tried the different Criteria with mixed results.

Next, we're going to talk about some things scattered throughout the game. First is in Treasure Trove Cove. You'll find a large sandcastle which is buried in water. It also has a mine (cleverly) placed on top of it. You need to make your way up to a small outcropping in the mountain. On this outcropping, you'll find a bucket named Leaky who is just that, leaky. You need to make Kazooie drop some eggs in the bucket to reveal the castle's true purpose(s). When the water is drained, the mine will blow up, and you now have access to not only an extra jiggy, but a cheat system as well. First, you have to pound on the letters to spell “BanjoKazooie” in order to lift the gate, then you have to pound on the crab that comes out. He's not much trouble, but you don't beat him in the same manner as a normal crab. After collecting the jiggy, you can begin pounding the letters for cheats.

First, you can only cheat on levels that you've been to. But you can also cheat to help yourself by unlocking all of the abilities, giving yourself a full health upgrade, and even unlocking special places in the levels. You must first enter “Cheat” on the letters. As you pound the letters for cheat in the proper order, you will hear a moo sound. After hitting the “T” and hearing the last moo, start entering the code. The codes are usually long rhyming sentences, so be prepared to be in there for a while if you just want to superpower yourself. Also, you won't hear a moo sound for every letter of the cheat. Instead, you'll hear one higher sounding moo after successfully completing the cheat. You can unlock virtually everything by using these long, kind of convoluted cheats. It makes the game seem less breakable when you see exactly how long it takes to enter these codes, unlike the all too common up, up, down, down, you know that one...

You can also unlock some REAL goodies with this cheat system. One I was able to find was the “Sharkfood Island” code to get you the purple egg. The egg doesn't do anything right off the bat, but it was rumored that you needed them in Banjo-Tooie to get some awesome items. It was never fully implemented, but the versions available on the Xbox live arcade allow you to use these items. There is however, one thing you need. You need to own a copy of Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts in order for the data from Banjo-Kazooie to transfer over to Banjo-Tooie. In the Xbox versions, you get some neat items for Banjo Tooie, and a couple for Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts.

There's also the fabled Ice Key in Banjo-Kazooie. In Freezeezy Peak, you find a Walrus who will give you a Jiggy if you've been transformed into a Walrus by Mumbo. You'll then gain access to his house, where you'll find an orange Jinjo, and a Honeycomb piece. Behind that orange jinjo, however, you can see the Ice key in all it's glory. If you enter the right cheat in the sand castle, you can find it for yourself. It doesn't do anything in the N64 versions, but in the Xbox version, you can find a special vault that requires the Ice Key, which will offer you a Mega Globbo (at this point, I'm going off of research, because I'm in the process of playing Banjo-Tooie on the N64). This Mega globbo can be taken to the shaman in Banjo-Tooie, Humba Wumba, who will Turn Kazooie into a fire breathing Dragon! You now have a dragon in your backpack!

Finally, I want to jump into Banjo-Tooie for a second. When you go into Bottles' house, take a look around. If you look at the toy in the youngest son's hand, you'll see it's a plush of a gorilla wearing a tie. This is in reference to donkey Kong 64, which Rare worked on, which had so much content that it required a special item in order to increase the RAM (Random Access Memory) of the N64 so that it could run at a proper framerate. While you're in these rooms, Look at the posters. These are posters of two Characters in another Game Developed by Rare named Jet force Gemini. You also want to talk to the youngest son, as he'll give you some special goggles to help Banjo and Kazooie zoom in and out when in first person mode.

I think that's enough for now. Banjo-Kazooie and it's successor are both two games that were wonderful from beginning to end, and you'd have to have a pretty agreeable excuse to to despise this series enough to bash on it. But I digress. It's Earth day, and what's more Earth Related than the Bears and the Birds? Tons of things, but We're willing to work with what we've got, right? Well, see you guys soon anyway!