Banjo-Pilot Speed Tips
So, by now you may have played through a few of the tracks and cups in Banjo-Pilot, maybe a few races in the Time Trial mode as well. You should have picked up a few trophies now; a few golds, perhaps even a platinum. However, there’s always room for improvement on the track, and in the case of Banjo-Pilot, there are many ways to pick up speed other than just picking up an item. The below tips don’t just apply to time trial modes, either; some of them may prove just useful enough to keep your nose in front for the whole race.
START-OF-RACE BOOST
No cart (or mini-plane) racing game would be complete without a way to leave your friends in the dust at the start of the race. Banjo-Pilot is the same, so make sure you press and hold the A button at the right time to get that special speed boost and make all the difference.
What’s the right time, you ask? As soon as the words ‘GET READY’ disappear, press and hold down the A button and you’ll speed off from the starting post as the words ‘GO’ appear.
SHARPER TURNING
In order to bank hard with the plane and make tight turns, press and hold the R Button before you press the direction you wish to turn on the d-pad. This is essential for characters with higher top speeds but poorer turning, else you’ll find that you’ll need to slow down significantly on each turn in order to stay on the track.
BOOST ZIPPERS
This one’s a little bit more obvious, but try and make as much use of the red and yellow zippers on the tracks as possible. They’ll definitely come in handy if you want to boost your time or stay ahead of the pack.
CHARACTER SELECTION
When you’re selecting your character, you’ll usually have to take a few things into mind. Take a look at each character’s stats – their top speed, acceleration and turning, before choosing.
Turning doesn’t matter too much in most races as you’ll be able to compensate for a character with bad turning by holding the R button. Low acceleration isn’t too nice to have, however if you’re playing on a track with very few places where you can crash and some easy turns, then you might want to take a character with a high top speed over one with higher acceleration. Try each character out for a few races before you make any decisions, though; preference varies depending on the player, like any racing game.
That said, there will be a point in the game where you’ll be able to unlock characters which are better than others in pretty much all respects, so this only applies until then. Check the unlockables section of the guide if you need help finding these characters.
LOOP-DE-LOOP BOOST
This one only applies to the Grand Prix modes where you’ll be racing with other characters on the same race. You can perform a loop-de-loop by holding the L Button, then pressing down on the control pad. Whilst this is good for dodging attacks, the special part about this is that if you use the loop-de-loop just before you get hit by a Fire Egg or Saucer of Peril attack from an enemy, you’ll get a special blue boost as you come out of the maneuver. It’s pretty tricky to pull off, but when you do it’ll be worth it.
GLOWBOS
These magical creatures return from Banjo-Tooie to line the race track. You can purchase them from Cheato for use in each of the game modes – see the unlockables guide to see just how.
Each track plays home to either a green or purple glowbo. Find one, then shoot it down with the B Button and you’ll activate a zipper temporarily. Fly through the zipper for some extra speed.
Note that Glowbos are a once-only feature for each track; so after hitting them, their zippers will appear for a limited time, and once they disappear they’ll be gone for the rest of the race. Plan your routes for tracks in the time-trial mode to make the best use of these guys as possible.
Green Glowbos, when hit, will activate a special black-and-yellow boost zipper somewhere on the track. If you manage to fly through this zipper, the glowbo will give you a temporary boost around the track, taking care of your controls around any tough turns whilst speeding you up.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Green Glowbos aren’t always the fastest way to complete a track; in some tracks if you get them, you’ll miss several normal zippers which, if used instead, would have yielded a faster time than the magical creature would have done.
Purple Glowbos are a little more useful than their green coloured counterparts. Hit one and a purple and white boost zipper will appear somewhere on the track for a limited time. Fly through this one and you’ll get a regular boost like you would from a red and yellow zipper, but another purple zipper will appear in front of the first. Try and fly through all of them to get as much of a boost as possible; if you fly through the last one of the set for that track, you’ll get a special double boost.