Banjo-Kazooie Beta Guide 1
WHAT IS “BETA”? (top)
“Beta” is the stage during the development process of a video game anytime before it’s released and shipped to stores. In this case, any screen shot, video or promotional media released while the game is still being developed is known as beta information. More often that not this information gives players an inside look on a game yet to be completed and therefore a taste of the action before officially released. However, in some cases the media or information released is changed or modified before the game is completed, sometimes in the form of large chunks of the game being removed. Obviously seeing these changes when you have the finished copy can be quite a shocker! Often it’s quite interesting to compare these significant changes between the “Beta” game and the finished title via pre-released content.
In the case of Banjo-Kazooie Beta, the game was often heralded as the next Super Mario 64 which in turn offered up a lot of interest to those documenting the development of the would-be Mario beater. This caused an abundant supply of images and video released to get players hyped, some offered an intriguing taste of things to come which we would find again in our future games. Other images and video however document a large array of concepts and gameplay that didn’t make it off the cutting room floor or were canceled prematurely before even making it to a later stage. This features characters, gameplay modes and even in the extreme cases; entire levels which are not found within our current game.
Just as the press would document the ever evolving Banjo-Kazooie up to its release we have an advantage to reviewing this content and comparing it to our own finished product to get a little insight on what exactly we’re missing out on when Banjo was in it’s beta.
Welcome to Banjo Kazooie: An Extensive Guide for Beginners!
This guide will take you through the lineage and development of Banjo-Kazooie, from its early roots to the masterpiece that stands before us today.
However, in order to get a better understanding of the development process, we’ll have to go back to a time where Banjo-Kazooie wasn’t even called Banjo-Kazooie…
EVERYTHING STARTS WITH A DREAM… (top)
Before a bear ran around with a backpack, before a vile witch had hatched her evil scheme, and before the game was even called Banjo-Kazooie, Rare began work on a top secret game called “Dream”, which would soon take the form of the aforementioned Banjo-Kazooie adventure. “Dream”, or “Project: Dream”, as it was so aptly code named in its beta stages, began life on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). Its name derived from Rares experimentation with a new graphical engine titled “Dream Visual Technology”; an advanced system that would replace the ACM engine that Rare had previously used for the creation of the Donkey Kong Country trilogy. Although Dream was destined to be awakened as Banjo-Kazooie at the end of development, it was still very much unlike the familiar Banjo-Kazooie we know and love today; for starters, neither Banjo or Kazooie were even involved in the game at all.
Instead, the game followed a boyish adventurer by the name of Edison (pictured left), who along with his girlfriend Madeleine, gets tangled up with a bunch of no-good -but inept- Pirates, namely; Flintlock Jock, Grim Jim and their leader, the infamous Captain Blackeye respectively. The game was an epic seafaring adventure, featuring a large traversable ocean dotted with locales such as Prickly Pear Isle, boss fights with large Trolls and Squids and an RPG stat element akin to The Legend of Zelda series. As development continued on the pirate themed quest the game proved to be a little too epic, as it was eventually decided that the adventure was too big to fit on the SNES and production was shifted to the Nintendo 64. Initially development picked up where it had left off and Rare continued to create the epic quest utilizing a bizarre and elaborate flooring system which would stretch polygons to create interesting three dimensional environments, however even the Nintendo 64 lacked the processing power to display the game at a steady rate. Once Mario 64 had launched and began turning heads it was clear that Dream was going to need a serious reworking to follow the path of the portly plumber. Meanwhile things were looking fantastic for the Killer Instinct team who used the trusted route provided by Mario 64 to create “Conker’s Quest”, and once the Dream team had gotten a taste of the antics of the Red Squirrel it became clear that Dream was getting stale, and what it needed now was an animal lead to take the protagonist position that Conker had inspired. Once Edison had been removed Rare began to experiment with several woodland characters that had previously been secondary characters, including a ‘dopey dog named Dinger, a rabbit that looked like a man, and a bear’ that would introduce the all-too-familiar anthropomorphic proportions to the Banjo universe.
The Rabbit was the first to be given a chance at the glory, but this appearance was short to say the least and after only three days as the star the bizarre looking bunny was taken out to make room for the next main character; Banjo the honey-bear. (pictured right)
For the time being Rare were still hard at work to make traces of Edison back to Banjo. Early concept art suggests strapping the honey-bear up with Edisons large sword, a bulky belt acting as a holster for what appears to be a bottled water (Protagonists get thirsty too, you know!) and deep set thick boots which would have send the Wading Boots packing. Along with these features however are Banjo’s trademark yellow shorts which have stuck through the conceptual stage and have made it as an essential must have for any Honey-bear of Spiral Mountain. While Banjo may have gone through many odd looking concepts -including one which suited the anthropomorphic bear up in an ill-fitting jersey, large gloves which have since been punctured by Banjo’s claws defeating their purpose, grotty looking trucker boots and to the displeasure of everyone around him, no pants – it was the case that the least will do, and Banjo was given his trademark yellow shorts. Need accessories? Here’s a tooth on a necklace. Ready for action it came time to examine the rest of the game.
Now that Banjo was running around in the RPG, Tim Stamper, co-founder of Rare found that the bear would be better suited in a platformer rather than a Role Playing Game. In order to make gameplay more believable, a few new entries would have to be made for the collect-a-thon title. Namely this involved giving the bear a great blue backpack to keep his enormous supply of necessary items inside. With Banjo suited up for adventure with his modern attire it came time to review the once fitting antagonist Captain Blackeye who now appeared awkward in the new setting, which ended in the old salt getting the boot to star a heartless giant instead. The Captains’ mug still appears around portraits in Mad Monster Mansion confusing gamers for months until an answer was procured.
The newly created Captain Blackeye (pictured left) found a spot in the successful sequel; Banjo-Tooie, where his ‘sea-sick’ mumblings are often said to be referencing his removal in the original Dreams title, eventually indicating that a bear like Banjo stole his ‘glory’ which was to appear in said title.
Rare would need some incentive to have Banjo take on such a daunting foe, and thus was the inclusion of Banjos’ love interest; a female honey-bear named Piccolo. (pictured right)
With the plot firmly set, Piccolo would leave herself to be snatched up by the Giant during a ‘musical jam in the park’ who would than take her to his Lair, and it would be up to Banjo to save the damsel in distress and create a happy ending.
However no such cheerful conclusion was to be had as comparisons were already being made to the previously released Super Mario 64 to the tune that the plot didn’t stray too far from the portly plumbers quest for protecting princesses and so the plot was shaken up once more to give Banjo an original adventure in a fresh new world.
First and foremost the daunting Piccolo thieving Giant was ripped out and replaced with a vile witch with evil intentions.
Gruntilda would than star here-on-out as the envious evil entity that Banjo would be forced to face off against in his adventure. Piccolo’s involvement in the adventure would also be modified, though still an ursine in distress, her relation would be changed to little sister instead of love interest where her model would get a complete makeover.
Last but certainly not least, the handle Piccolo was abandoned for Tooty instead and at last the story had come to a familiar lineage.
During the opening cinematic of Banjo-Kazooie, Tooty makes her debut and is seen playing a piccolo in the Hoedown,(pictured below) a hidden homage to what once was.
But unbeknowst to gamers, and possibly at the appeasement of countless characters within the game, Kazooie was never initially included as a character.
Instead her existence was something of an afterthought – though a brilliant one at that.
The story goes that originally Banjos’ pack served as something of a aesthetic to convince gamers that the many items collected could be stored safely. However the pack would soon be used to solve a problem dealing with the many abilities Banjo would need to execute over the course of his adventure. “Making the moves look “Believable” was a problem that needed to be fixed,” explains Gregg Mayles, Lead Director. To complete the double jump, Banjo would have a pair of wings sprout from his pack, and a pair of long legs would spring out to deal with steep angles that would be peppered throughout the game. Having the wings and the long legs together, Rare came to the obvious conclusion that these elements could connect to form a second character inside Banjo’s backpack, and thus the uncouth pile of feathers which many characters would come to dread in conversation was created. This single decision and would be a large stepping stone that allowed Rare to develop the gameplay of a duo helping each other out which would affect the gaming industry.
The bird was named “Kazoo” in order to bring about the theme that each character played and had the characteristics of an instrument they were named after. In Tootys case the pippy upbeat refrains of the piccolo would capture her essence, just as the loud and obnoxious blurts from a Kazoo would define the red breegul.
Wanting to distance their game away from Sega’s popular “NiGHTS into Dreams” title, Rare would rename their game to feature the titular characters’ names: “Banjo-Kazoo.” This act within itself was not without its setbacks however, as the name “Banjo-Kazoo” had already been copyrighted and using it could have Rare in hot water. This was remedied by adding a characteristic “ie” at the end, further creating another staple that Rare would use in their future Banjo titles.
Debuting as “Banjo-Kazooie” after a long time entry of “Dreams” there was a considerable amount of negative reception from fans, however Rare promised that the title would do for the Nintendo 64 what Donkey Kong Country had done for the SNES.
For gamers thinking Dreams had turned into a nightmare, they would be shocked when Banjo-Kazooie made its first appearance to the world at The Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) June 19th 1997.
As E3 came to an end, Rare fans everywhere were expecting a game of epic proportions that surpassed even the quality of Super Mario 64. Scheduled for a holiday release, promotions for the game even went as far as a Taco Bell toy lineup for Christmas 1997.
But, as Rare continued to develop Banjo-Kazooie, it became more and more apparent that the breakthrough game was not going to meet the initial deadline, and would have to be delayed until March 16th, 1998.
Disappointed fans everywhere would sorely miss having Banjo-Kazooie under the tree come Christmas day.
What they didn’t know however, was that although Banjo wasn’t going to star in his own game come the holiday season, he would ride along side 9 other racers to defeat an intergalactic pig, named Wizpig on November 24th 1997. Rare’s master plan was to introduce some of their future franchise characters in a single game so that gamers would recognize them when they appeared in their own respective titles later on.
Although Banjo was without Kazooie, and his design looked remarkably different from what we would end up with in Banjo-Kazooie, he still dawned bright yellow shorts and blue backpack which would become another staple of the franchise.
Banjo would also cry out some select catchphrases when you bumped into obstacles or took damage from fellow racers, these catchphrases would re-appear in Banjo-Kazooie as you executed certain moves or bumped into an array of enemies or obstacles.
Lastly, even though Banjo did not speak in Banjo-Kazooie, you could still hear him cry out “I’m Banjo!” when you selected him as your racer in Diddy Kong Racing.
As fans of Banjo-Kazooie got their first taste of adventure of the bear without the bird in Diddy Kong Racing, they would have to wait yet again to get their hands on the would-be-holiday-game, Banjo-Kazooie had been delayed until July 27th 1998. During the months of March, fans would soon discover that Banjo-Kazooie was nearing completion faster than anticipated, Banjo-Kazooie would hit stores in Europe on June 17th 1998, and North America on June 30th 1998. Clearly Banjo and Kazooie had experienced a long line of evolution from conception to release including console jumping, character swapping, delays and even dodging trademark lawsuits. However, many of these elements find their way into the development of many games and being that Banjo is no exception to this rule a long line of history also means a long line of content. In that sense the inclusion of screen shots and video from pre-release that differ from our versions can be fascinating, especially when comparisons are drawn between the two. Behold the Banjo of yesteryear when ideas and concepts were still in development and an array of canceled gameplay elements had not been scrapped. This is Banjo-Kazooie Beta!