Banjo-Kazooie is a platform video game for the Nintendo 64. It was developed by Rare and published by Nintendo in 1998. The game's protagonists are Banjo the bear and Kazooie the bird. The sequel to Banjo-Kazooie is Banjo-Tooie. The rights have been bought by Microsoft, so it will not be possible to play sequels of the games on Nintendo platforms. In fact, this particular game was announced as an Xbox Live Arcade video game during Microsoft's E3 2008 press conference.
Characters
Playable
- Banjo - the lovable bear that gets in trouble due to Kazooie. He can play the banjo.
- Kazooie - The disrespectful, trouble making bird who lives in Banjo's backpack. She and Banjo are not separated until Banjo-Tooie. She can play the kazoo.
Non-playable
- Tooty - Banjo's little sister. She gets kidnapped by Gruntilda.
- Mumbo Jumbo - Mumbo-Jumbo is a wizard who changes Banjo and Kazooie into various animals (and a washing machine) to help them on their quest.
- Bottles the Mole - A mole who teaches you moves in the beginning of the game.
- Gruntilda (Grunty) - The ugly, evil witch who kidnaps tooty to get her good looks.
- Klungo - Grunty's loyal assistant.
Worlds
- Spiral Mountain
- Gruntilda's Lair
- Mumbo's Mountain
- Treasure Trove Cove
- Clanker's Cavern
- Bubblegloop Swamp
- Freezeezy Peak
- Gobi's Valley
- Mad Monster Mansion
- Rusty Bucket Bay
- Click Clock Wood
Re-release
Banjo-Kazooie was re-released on Xbox Live Arcade on December 3, 2008. In this version, the dialog was altered to account for the Xbox 360 controller. Also, all Nintendo-related graphics were replaced with Microsoft graphics. Otherwise, the game remained unchanged.
Due to Microsoft's purchase of Rare, and thus the rights to all Rare franchises, Banjo-Kazooie cannot come on the Virtual Console download service. However, Nintendo has announced that there is hope that other Rare games, which has rights doesn't belong to Microsoft, will come to the Virtual Console sometime in the future. A good example of one of these games is Donkey Kong 64, since Nintendo still has copyright to the Donkey Kong series.