Canary Mary Guide

Canary Mary Guide

Let me guess. You’ve beaten Gruntilda the Witch, you’ve collected all of the Jinjos in the game; all of the extra honeycomb pieces – but your gamefile isn’t complete yet. You either have a single Cheato Page left, or a page and a Jiggy to collect. Yup, you’re stuck with Canary Mary – just like the couple million other people who got stuck with this insanely intense minigame.

Granted, even I have pulled out my hair over Canary Mary, however it’s certainly not impossible to beat her. This page has been written to help you guys out.

Canary Who?

Canary Mary is a woman (we’re presuming, and trying not to think otherwise) in a bright yellow canary suit. After taking the TNT transformation behind Wumba’s Wigwam and blowing up the rocks blocking the shaft, enter the Canary Cave and blow up her iron cell to set her free.

Canary Mary will flap away to the handcart just outside the fuel storage. If you jump into the cart with Banjo, you’ll be able to race her to the Train Station for a jiggy by playing a button-mashing minigame. Tap A as fast as you can to get the handcart going. After racing her to the train station and back again, she’ll give you both a Jiggy and a Cheato page for beating her.

But that wasn’t so hard…

After beating Canary Mary in Glitter Gulch Mine, she’ll fly out of the mine. If you get far enough in the game, you’ll meet her again up near Wumba’s Wigwam in Cloud Cuckooland. It is here that players become most frustrated.

Jump onto the clockwork mouse Mary is sitting next to and you’ll begin your third race for yet another jiggy. This race is much harder, as it is longer and requires you to keep up the same rhythm with your button mashing for a much longer time. You’ll also find Mary is significantly faster and is much more likely to beat you now than she was back in the mine.

If you manage to beat Mary for the jiggy, she’ll give you one last race for her final prize – a cheato page. The route for the race will change once again, becoming longer and even tougher than before. This is often regarded as the hardest challenge in the entire game.

Help! I’m going as fast as I can, but she still beats me!

Canary Mary can be particularly tricky, especially on the fourth race – the final showdown against her in Cloud Cuckooland.

Quoted from Rare’s Scribes:
‘No-one can beat Canary Mary in less than 13 seconds (not even a giraffe) as she cheats and adapts her speed to match the player’s skill. If you play too well she always seems to win. We never did fix that one properly…’

In other words, Canary Mary does not have a set speed. If you go super fast, she will finish right behind you. However, the same applies if you press the A button at an average speed.

Rare used this same programming for Mr Vile and Boggy in Banjo-Kazooie. In Mr Vile’s minigame, the further you are behind, the faster Vile will run; you’ll find that if you’re behind by 3 or more he’ll be reduced to a crawl, so it’s wise to stay level with him or 1 behind him during the game. Similarly, Boggy will beat you if you stream out infront early on, as he’ll try to close the gap between you extremely quickly and end up passing him. A better way to race him is to keep just in front of him or just behind him, then use the slopes at the end to gain speed and beat him to the finish.

The main thing to remember with Canary Mary is to keep the interval between your button presses constant. Don’t go at a speed too fast for you, as you’ll tire out and slow down; however Canary Mary will speed away and leave you in the dust. Keep it consistent, at least until you can see the finish line coming into view – then slam on the accelerator.

There are a few other tricks you can use to beat her though. If you’re into mashing the button as fast as possible, go ahead. However, if you feel like you’re slowing down, press start to pause and get the blood back into your thumb… or finger or whatever (nose?). As long as you can stay ahead, it’s all good.

The last method is one more suited to those who are a little more desperate. If you’re sick of trying everything and anything and just want to finish the game 100%, buy yourself a turbo controller from an online store or your local retailer if they stock them. Turbo controllers allow the user to hold down a button and get the same effect of mashing it at an extremely fast and constant speed – perfect for beating Canary Mary.

I hope I’ve helped. If you have any queries or alternate strategies, email them to kowbrainz@hotmail.com. Thanks!