Banjo-Kazooie was ported to the Xbox 360 on December 3, 2008. The game is essentially identical to its Nintendo 64-based original but with some differences, the most notable being increased native resolution and widescreen support, and updated controls. Several gameplay features were also tweaked.
On August 4, 2015, Banjo-Kazooie was made available for the Xbox One as a backwards compatible title through the release of Rare Replay. Later that year, the game became available for purchase on its own on the Microsoft Store. On June 5, 2019, the game was added to Xbox Game Pass and updated to support native 4K resolution. In 2020, with the release of the Xbox Series X/S, the game was made available as a backwards compatible title at launch.
Differences between versions[]
- The font used for speech is different, and matches the initial font in Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts.
- Mumbo uses his speech head from Banjo-Tooie in dialogue and the memory match pyramid.
- All speech head models are remade, with some like Tiptup looking different as a result.
- Some dialogue exchanges are altered slightly.
- All demos now use different movements from the original.
- The demos play back to back on a loop rather than playing the intro again after four of them.
- Quitting the game returns to the menu rather than the intro and demos.
- Some glitches like the Gobi's Valley coffin Jiggy early glitch have been fixed.
- Activating note door 1 during Bottles’ talking will cause the animation for unlocking a note door to play during his speech instead of after.
- The shock jump pad in the vase room rotates around the vase much faster.
- The text when grabbing Stop ’n’ Swop items is now different, referencing Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts.
- The framerate is locked at 30fps flawlessly at all times.
- The game now supports widescreen.
- The game has native 1080p resolution, with the Rare Replay version having 4k resolution.
- The loading times are now instant.
- There is no draw distance at all, items and enemies can be seen from the other side of the map.
- Golden entities such as the life pickups and Croctus are much shinier.
- Textures are higher quality and stay high quality from a distance.
- A better pause menu and a proper main menu, including more options and settings.
- Leaderboards to compete with others for completion times and achievements on the xbox network.
- A proper Stop n Swap feature accessed with save files from Tooie or Nuts and Bolts. Now all items are accessible if you have a save file from either game.
- New button prompts during certain situations.
- The intro can be skipped from the very beginning.
- If you die, Jinjos and notes are saved. As such the dialogue explaining the note score system is removed.
- Entering 3 illegal cheats does not erase the file, meaning unlimited codes can be used without losing the progress made up until that point.
- All pictures are much clearer, and the Freezeezy Peak one uses the new Mumbo’s Hut model in the corner instead of the prototype one.
- The empty honeycomb image in the totals menu now moves.
- The credits, while twice as long, are now skippable, even though they return the player to the menu rather than the Grunty's Furnace Fun room like the original.
- Banjo’s backpack now opens sometimes, for example when the talon trot is used or when swimming.
- You can unlock a gamer pic for getting everything, which Bottles will congratulate you on.
- The cast list spends less time on each character.
- The HUD is altered, with 3 major changes:
- The life faces are rendered after the games graphics instead of being based off of concept art.
- The empty honeycomb wheel now simply highlights one at a time instead of spinning as they are collected.
- The energy bar and Jinjo faces look slightly different.
- Dialogue can’t be skipped anymore due to the L button having no binding in the Xbox version.
- All Nintendo references were removed including the N64 logo at the start.
- Altered dialogue at the end referencing Nuts and Bolts rather than Tooie.
- The movement and dialogue during the Stop 'n' Swop teasers are altered slightly.
- Cheat codes other than those from Bottles or Cheato can’t be used anymore, otherwise saving will be stopped, meaning no infinite item cheats.
- The controls are different to match the Xbox controller.
- Demos use the standard area transition instead of the jigsaw one.
- The button names are now said instead of the button being shown during dialogue.
- There is input lag to a higher degree than the N64 original.
- The intro music gets desynced slightly since the cutscene no longer lags. This means that Grunty waits in place after turning around momentarily.
- At the end of the game the game tells you that it is GAME OVER instead of THE END.
- The Mad Monster Mansion organ now plays a single sound for all keys instead of different ones.
- Two specific sound channels have issues on the Xbox version, those being the whines heard in several Mad Monster Mansion tracks and the backing heard during the top of the lair theme, making several music tracks sound off. These music tracks include:
- "Top of the Lair"
- "Mad Monster Mansion"
- "Mad Monster Mansion Churchyard"
- "Jiggy Appearing"
- "Cheato's Theme"
- Parts of the main "Grunty's Lair Theme"
- "Mumbo's Mountain Lair Theme"
- "Mumbo's Hut Area in Mumbo's Mountain"
- "Engine Room"
Stop 'n' Swop[]
There are seven Stop 'n' Swop items throughout the game. To access them, players need to have data from either the Xbox Live Arcade version of Banjo-Tooie or Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. The Pink Mystery Egg is in the Treasure Trove Cove cave inside Sharkfood Island. The Ice Key is in Wozza's cave in Freezeezy Peak. The Blue Mystery Egg is in the tomb in Gobi's Valley. The Green Mystery Egg is in Loggo the Toilet and the Cyan Mystery Egg is in the wine barrels in Mad Monster Mansion. The Red Mystery Egg is in Rusty Bucket Bay on the Captain's Bed in the Captain's Quarters. The Yellow Mystery Egg is in Click Clock Wood when it's winter in Nabnut's house. Obtaining these items unlocks new content for the other games.
In Banjo-Tooie, players can bring the eggs to Heggy's Egg Shed where Heggy the Hen will hatch them and unlock in the following order, a new Gamer Pic, a special Banjo-Kazooie theme for the XBOX Dashboard, the Homing Eggs cheat for Cheato, the ability to use the Breegull Bash, Jinjo as a playable character in multiplayer mode, and the "Oh no, not again..." achievement for Stop 'n' Swop II, and they can use the Ice Key at Glitter Gulch Mine to open an ice safe containing a Mega-Glowbo, which can be brought to Wumba's Wigwam at the Isle O' Hags and used to unlock the Dragon Kazooie transformation.
In Nuts & Bolts, for each item, a crate will appear next to a picture of the obtained item in Showdown Town, which can be brought to Mumbo's Motors to unlock a special customization item. Additionally, if a player has all three games, and downloads the L.O.G.'s Lost Challenges DLC for Nuts & Bolts, then they can unlock special blueprints by using the items in Banjo-Tooie.
Screenshots[]
Trivia[]
- The new programming of the notes actually led to a bug in the Arcade version. If one played the secret Bottles-Puzzles before the notes shown in the puzzle are collected, and the computer controlled Banjo collects them (like in the puzzle showing a room from Mad Monster Mansion) the notes stay collected and can not be found by the player himself. A patch released shortly after the release of the game solves this problem.
- Some Nintendo references have been removed from the game. In the opening, whereas the N64 version of the game has Mumbo playing a xylophone with the Nintendo logo on it, in the XBLA version it is replaced with a Microsoft Games Studios logo. In the main menu, Microsoft removed the Game Boy start-up sound from the Game Boy Banjo is playing.
- The Xbox Live Arcade version of Banjo Kazooie can be played on an Xbox One by buying Rare Replay.
Achievements[]
Main Games: | Banjo-Kazooie · Banjo-Tooie · Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge ·Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts |
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Spin-Offs: | Banjo-Pilot |
Ports and Re-releases: | Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge Mobile · Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge Missions · Banjo-Kazooie (XBLA) · Banjo-Tooie (XBLA) |
Related Games: | Project Dream · Diddy Kong Racing · Diddy Kong Racing DS · Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing with Banjo-Kazooie · Banjo Karting · Minecraft · Super Smash Bros. Ultimate |