The Tower of Tragedy is a Jeopardy-style quiz game show hosted by Gruntilda in Banjo-Tooie which serves a similar purpose to Grunty's Furnace Fun from Banjo-Kazooie. The host asks a question and players race to hit their buzzer first to be able to answer it; a correct answer will gain the player points, while an incorrect one will cause them to lose points. Questions all pertain to Banjo-Tooie and range from simple trivia, to matching a world to a certain piece of music, to looking at a picture and identifying certain details, such as how many books are on a bookcase.
After Banjo and Kazooie defeat Klungo for the third time in the Cauldron Keep, they enter the mystery door to find themselves as a contestant on the Tower of Tragedy quiz along with Grunty's sisters, Mingella and Blobbelda. The game consists of three rounds, and after each of the first two rounds, the player with the fewest points is eliminated by a giant 1-ton weight which dangles precariously over the players' heads. If Banjo and Kazooie make it to the third and final round, they will face the host in a speed round where they race against the clock to earn 15 points within 180 seconds. If they can manage to beat the last round, Gruntilda, flustered by yet another loss, makes an escape to the top of the tower where she awaits the pair for the final battle with the Hag 1 (and considering how Banjo's weight collapsed just as Banjo and Kazooie were leaving, narrowly missing them, she most likely also tried to crush them while escaping.).
Once the Tower of Tragedy has been beaten, it becomes playable as a multiplayer game where Banjo and Kazooie, Mumbo Jumbo, Humba Wumba, and Jamjars face off to earn the most points within the allotted time. 2-4 players can play, with any remaining player slots being filled by computers. Player 1 plays as Mumbo, player 2 gets Jamjars, player 3 gets Banjo and Kazooie and player 4 gets Wumba.