Banjo-Kazooie XBLA Guide

So, you’ve picked up Banjo-Kazooie for the Xbox Live Arcade, huh? If you need any help with the actual game, then you can consult our full game walkthrough, but otherwise we’ve decided to create this little article to talk about some of the things that may be different in this new version of the game.

Basic Controls:

A: Jump, Kick with Banjo underwater(slow)
X: Attack (roll, claw swipe, rat-a-tat rap in air), Swim with Kazooie underwater(fast)
B: Skips certain text
Y: Look through Banjo’s eyes in first person
START: Pause the game
Left Stick: Move
Right Stick: Move the camera around Banjo
Right Stick (tapped up): Zoom camera in
Right Stick (tapped down): Zoom camera out
Right/Left Bumper: Centre camera behind Banjo, make tight turns underwater and in the air.
Right/Left Trigger: Crouch

More Controls:

Eggs (spit): Crouch, then press Y
Eggs (from behind): Crouch, then press B
Talon Trot: Hold either trigger, tap the other trigger then continue holding one trigger down.
Wonderwing: Crouch, then press the right stick RIGHT.
Beak Bomb: Press X while flying.

Achievements List:

(10) Get Jiggy
It doesn’t matter which two, just successfully collect any two Jiggies.

What to do: After you’ve left Spiral Mountain, you’ll find the first Jiggy atop a tall mound to the left of Gruntilda’s portrait in her Lair. Once you’ve used the Jiggy to unlock Mumbo’s Mountain, you’ll be tasked with completing 10 errands in exchange for 10 Jiggies; collect the second one and you’ll earn the ‘cheevo.

(10) Mumbo Jumbo
Get yourself transformed by Mumbo Jumbo for the first time. Now that’s magic!

What to do: In Mumbo’s Mountain, you’ll need to climb the hills to find the eponymous Shaman inside his skull-shaped hut. Return to Mumbo after you’ve collected the 5 Mumbo Tokens hidden around the level, and you’ll be able to sample his transformation abilities.

(15) Knock out Nipper
Come out on top in a dust-up with Nipper the crab. Watch out, he’s called Nipper for a reason.

What to do: In Treasure Trove Cove, find the giant enemy crab on the beach and watch his attack patterns. After four claw swipes, he’ll be open – jump in and use your rat-a-tat rap on his weak point for massive damage.

(15) Free Clanker
Liberate Clanker, Gruntilda’s rusty and recalcitrant garbage grinder.

What to do: Swim down to the depths of Clanker’s Cavern and through the key of his anvil three times to raise him to the surface. Gloop will provide you with air bubbles to restore your meter in the depths, but if you don’t like going after them, return to the surface each time you swim through the key once.

(15) Chomp, Chomp!
They’re red and no less than 30 of them need chomping. Nuff said.

What to do: Apparently not ’nuff said’. In Bubblegloop Swamp, turn into the crocodile then wander inside the giant croc to play a minigame with Mr Vile. In the first round of his game, successfully eat 30 or more red yumblies to earn this achievement.

(15) Move Master
Discover and master all Banjo’s moves… and Kazooie’s… but nobody else’s. Unless you insist.

What to do: You’ll need to locate each one of Bottles’ molehills in each world for the short-sighted instructor to teach you new abilities. After Bottles has taught you the basic moves in Spiral Mountain, you’ll need to track him down in Mumbo’s Mountain, Treasure Trove Cove, Clanker’s Cavern, Bubblegloop Swamp, Freezeezy Peak and Gobi’s Valley to be entirely prepared for the showdown against Gruntilda. As soon as Bottles has imparted his final bit of wisdom, you’ll unlock the achievement.

(20) Cheating Cheato
Bump into Grunty’s disowned spellbook three times as it hops around the place dishing out cheats.

What to do: You can find Cheato the Spellbook hidden away in three key areas of Gruntilda’s Lair during your adventure. All three of his locations are detailed in our Cheat Codes guide under ‘Cheato Cheat Codes’.

(25) Music Maestro
There are 900 musical notes out there in the world of Banjo-Kazooie. Real gamers collect them all…

What to do: You’ll be tasked with collecting 100 Notes in every world that Banjo-Kazooie has to offer – successfully collect all of the Notes in Mumbo’s Mountain, Treasure Trove Cove, Bubblegloop Swamp, Clanker’s Cavern, Freezeezy Peak, Gobi’s Valley, Mad Monster Mansion, Rusty Bucket Bay and Click Clock Wood to walk away with the achievement. Remember, you can always view your progress by pausing the game and choosing the ‘View Totals’ option, which will provide you with a Note counter for each world.

(20) Jigsaw Maker
Bet you thought jigsaws were boring! Bottles disagrees, and has seven of them to be solved.

What to do: In Banjo’s house, stand on the green rug and look up at Bottles’ portrait to unlock a secret moving picture mini-game called Bottles Bonus. You’ll need to complete all seven of Bottle’s puzzles, which can get quite challenging – luckily you can find the solutions in our Bottles Bonus Guide.

DO NOT attempt Bottles Bonus until you have collected all 900 Notes in the game, or you may find that you’re unable to collect all of them later!

(15) Show me the honey!
Collect all 24 of the extra honeycomb pieces. Yes! Every single one! It’s character-building.

What to do: You’ll find the first 6 Extra Honeycomb pieces in Spiral Mountain during Bottle’s training – after that, you’ll find 2 Extra Honeycomb pieces hidden on each world. Collect all of the pieces, and you’ll snag the achievement.

(20) The quiz master
Complete Grunty’s Furnace Fun quiz show and win the Star Prize. Been paying attention?

What to do: Outside the entrance to Click Clock Wood, you’ll encounter a Note Door that requires 765 Notes. If you can collect enough Notes to pass this door, you’ll find a pad that transports you to Grunty’s Furnace Fun; a gameshow/board game hybrid suspended over lava that tests you on your knowledge of Banjo-Kazooie. If you can reach the end of the board and successfully complete Gruntilda’s heinous quiz, you’ll win the achievement.

(20) Jinjonatored
Fear the Jinjonator. If you’re a witch, that is. The Jinjonator lays the smack down on witches.

What to do: After you’ve beaten Grunty’s Furnace Fun and have enough Jiggies to unlock Dingpot’s room, you can use Gruntilda’s cauldron to blast up to the final battle against the witch on her tower. Once you reach the phase where Gruntilda has been blown off her broomstick, you’ll be tasked with summoning the Jinjonator; a large Jinjo statue with four slots for blue eggs at its base. Once you’ve fired enough blue eggs into the last slot, you’ll unlock the achievement.

N64/XBLA Differences:

WARNING: There are a few spoilers found below. Steer clear if you’ve never beaten BK entirely before.

General Visuals and Sound:
– 16:9 widescreen option
– New healthbar sprites
– New collectable sprites (notes, feathers, jinjos, honeycombs)
– character’s talking sprites updated
– textures crisper, smoother; not nearly as much blurring used
– colours brighter
– Gloop’s bubble sprites different; reflective
– sound not so muffled (both music and sound effects)
– instruments changed slightly in certain areas
– text has been changed: different font and sharper
– Intro: no ‘fighting’ sound effects between Grunty and Tooty

Gameplay Differences:
– free camera control with right analogue stick
– notes and Jinjo systems have changed to become one-time items
– no L+R+B to skip text; B button occasionally skips text
– shorter load times between areas
– crocodile transformation: using bite attack repeatedly no longer gives speed boost
– Non-cheato codes will restrict you from accessing the leaderboards and you won’t be able to save.
– Gobi’s Valley witch switch jiggy trick: you need to use a flap flip then beak bust in the right spot to collect. Slightly Altered
– Gobi’s Valley ‘running shoes’ pyramid: top door closes before timer runs out
– Unable to climb Ticker’s Tower with Banjo anymore

Miscellaneous:
– Bedside ‘forest’ picture in Banjo’s house has been changed, beach picture also changed
– Stop ‘n’ Swop activated automatically when BK:N&B savefile detected rather than through cheat codes.
– N64 logo in intro is gone. Rare logo updated
– N64 logo on Mumbo’s xylophone in the intro changed to a MS studios one
– ‘Demo’ videos in intro feature updated logos, copyrights and slightly changed videos
– All pictures of worlds used in jigsaw puzzles now at higher resolution with seam lines removed
– Beta Berri picture in RBB cabin room now shows drunk picture of Conker
– Rare logos used on crates and flag in Rusty Bucket Bay now show the new logo
– Staff Credits are much longer; Nintendo testers and other names replaced by 4J employees, Microsoft thank-you’s as well.
-Ending references Nuts & Bolts rather than Tooie
– Ending Stop ‘n’ Swop video for Sharkfood Island is glitched (button sequence issue), Banjo falls off tower and never sees egg.
– Game ending sequence features the words GAME OVER rather than THE END.

Glitches:

As a note to players: almost all tricks and glitches which featured in the original game remain in the Xbox Live Arcade version of Banjo-Kazooie. Check the above section to see what’s changed, otherwise view the Advanced Techniques feature for a few helpful glitches. Below is a list of all new glitches.

Disappearing Notes Glitch [MAJOR]
As a word of warning: the original version of Banjo-Kazooie on the Xbox Live Arcade features a particularly game breaking glitch. If you complete all of Bottles’ puzzles in Banjo’s house before collecting all notes in the game, you may find that some notes have disappeared in the later levels. Keep away from the puzzles until you collect all notes to be safe.

Disappearing Jiggies Glitch [MAJOR]
There have been some reports of jigsaw pieces going missing if a player collects all Jinjos then exits the game or level before collecting the jiggy. Just make sure you pick up your jiggies each time you collect the jinjos in a level.

Credits Sequence Glitch
In the end game scenes on the beach, Mumbo shows Banjo and Kazooie some pictures. In the one featuring sharkfood island, the button sequence has gone wrong resulting in Banjo falling off the tower and never seeing the Pink egg like he did in the first game. The most probable cause of this is the shorter load time between scenes as it could have altered the usual button sequence.

Leaderboards and Speedrunning:

Unlike traditional speedruns, the Banjo-Kazooie Xbox Live Arcade version only looks at your notes, jiggies and total time. This means that it’s not neccessary to collect any extra honeycombs or extra Mumbo Tokens, nor is it necessary to enter Furnace Fun or beat Gruntilda to have your time put up on the boards. After you’ve collected your final jiggy, enter or exit a level to have your score updated.

Individual levels only look at your Notes, Jiggies and time, so route planning should focus on a route which gets all items in the fastest way possible and doesn’t involve the witch switch or any Mumbo Tokens, and which quits to the menu as soon as the last item is picked up for optimal time. Naturally it’s a good idea to keep individual level runs on a separate file from full game runs and not to mix each. For individual runs, prepare yourself before you enter a level and make sure you have enough gold feathers, red feathers, eggs, Mumbo Tokens and health for the level and your route.

The real idea is just to practice your routes over and over, perhaps watch videos of others playing the game so that you can learn a few shortcuts and whatnot. You can’t go past the advanced BK guide we have hosted here, either.

Stop ‘n’ Swop:

A new feature of Banjo-Kazooie on the Xbox Live Arcade is the implementation of Stop ‘n’ Swop. This feature first appeared in the N64 version of Banjo-Kazooie and was meant to unlock secrets by swapping information across to the game’s sequel, Banjo-Tooie, however the feature was dropped due to problems with the N64’s hardware. Ten years on, and Rare are using it here as a means of unlocking special secrets within Nuts & Bolts.

On the N64, the player needed to enter seven codes in Treasure Trove Cove’s sandcastle floor before the Stop ‘n’ Swop items would be accessible. Here, it’s a little easier. If you start Banjo-Kazooie on the Xbox Live Arcade and the game detects a save for Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts on your system, the Stop ‘n’ Swop items will be activated automatically. You can check by going into the game’s ‘View Totals’ screen and scrolling all the way to the right to see some empty holograms of the SnS items.

Here are the following places you need to go in order to collect the items, for those who did not play the original:

Ice Key: Freezeezy Peak, Wozza’s Cave. Jump up to the ledge where the Orange Jinjo was and wander in the new cave.
Pink Egg: Treasure Trove Cove, Sharkfood Island. Swim out from the Sandcastle to find a now-raised Sharkfood Island. Climb the pillar inside to find the egg at the top.
Blue Egg: Gobi’s Valley, Hidden Crypt. Remember the weird door which was behind Gobi when you beak busted him for an extra honeycomb piece? Head on through there.
Green Egg: Mad Monster Mansion, Bathroom. On the second floor, break a window to get into the bathroom. The egg’s on top of Loggo the toilet.
Cyan Egg: Mad Monster Mansion, Cellar. Down in the cellar behind the house, one of the barrels used to be blocked off. Head on through to find a secret room.
Red Egg: Rusty Bucket Bay, Captain’s Cabin. On the far side of the ship from the entrance, up near the ship’s bow (or front), rat-a-tat rap one of the windows to find it.
Yellow Egg: Click Clock Wood, Nabnut’s House. Break your way into Nabnut’s house in Winter to find the last egg of the lot.

Once you’ve collected all items, boot up Nuts & Bolts and you’ll see a cutscene showing you the activation of the Stop ‘n’ Swop crates. View the Nuts and Bolts’ Player’s Guide for more details.

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