It actually happened.
Banjo- Kazooie is in Super Smash Bros.
Ultimate as DLC, and Nintendo’s E3 Direct gave us a taste of the bird and bear in action.
For those who grew up with the series, their moveset is an absolute love letter to the
googly-eyed 3D platformers, particularly the first two games.
But there’s always more to see.
So let’s have the old Analysis Machine get jiggy with it as it finds all the secrets
and hidden details in Banjo-Kazooie’s reveal trailer, with a little help from series experts
Andre Segers, Ash Paulsen and Aimee ‘BelleAim’ Clark.
Let’s get right to it.
The trailer begins with a recreation of the K. Rool reveal trailer except this time, he’s
there hanging out with DK and Diddy.
As they lounge, we see a Jiggy puzzle piece bounce by, hinting at who’s coming.
It’s more than appropriate to focus on these characters though as all of them were created
by Rare, or at least redesigned by them in the case of Donkey Kong.
The only exception is Duck Hunt, but they work as well since many compared them to Banjo-Kazooie
when they were first revealed.
But it’s a Rare reunion when the duo finally arrive, their namesake instruments in hand,
hence the cheers from the others.
Before we get to their moves, let’s talk briefly about their designs as they’re a
return to the rounder appearance of the first two games rather than their angular Nuts & Bolts
look, with the biggest change being Banjo’s head.
It’s now a little smaller and more in proportion with the rest of his body.
But both Banjo and Kazooie have a ton of personality in their facial expressions.
One of the first that we see is that as Banjo ducks, Kazooie will cautiously look out of
the bag before popping her head up fully.
You really get a sense of teamwork between the two as the trailer goes on.
So let’s go ahead and dive into their moveset.
And the first “move” we see is the Talon Trot from the original game, which is fitting
given it’s one of the first moves you learn in Banjo-Kazooie.
But rather than being an attack, we think it might just be the duo’s dash animation,
as we can see Banjo take a few steps before Kazooie takes over as they enter a full run.
And this is strengthened by the fact that they harmlessly pass by the other characters
as they dodge out of the way.
But a fun little detail in this maneuver is how Banjo is always glancing ahead to see
where they’re going, even if he is bouncing around helplessly.
It gives context to how the two switch out and know how to fight together.
Next we see Banjo’s standard combo, which is based on his Claw Swipe ability from the
first game.
And rather than say which move comes from which game every time, we’ll only specify
if it originated in one of the sequels.
With that said, the Claw Swipe consists of three attacks, a slash from both hands before
finishing with an uppercut.
But again, the detail is pretty great here as Banjo is clawing his opponents rather than
punching them, and his uppercut shows just how much muscle he’s actually packing.
Then we see them perform the Beak Barge Ability, which is a low diving attack.
Kazooie actually reaches as far as she can, even stretching out of the backpack to get
farther and pulling Banjo onto his stomach.
This feels pretty appropriate as the Beak Barge could only be used from a crouched position
in the original game.
Looking at it in Smash Ultimate though, we believe this is their down tilt which absolutely
could catch opponents off guard.
They then follow this up with their back air, which is a variation of Kazooie’s Rat-a-tat
Rap.
It should be noted though that their forward air is never shown and is very likely the
traditional appearance of the Rap.
In fact, we don’t see their down air either, and we’d guess that would be the Beak Buster
where Kazooie slams her beak into the ground like Mario’s ground pound.
It could even have a meteor effect though that would make it even more dangerous to
use off the stage as the move presumably launches the duo down very quickly.
Again there’s no evidence, but it all seems pretty likely.
The next ability has us a little perplexed though.
It seems simple enough as we see Kazooie use the Egg Firing ability from her mouth to shoot
ahead.
And like the original game, the egg doesn’t appear to be affected by gravity and instead
travels forward until it hits something.
We should also note that this gives us our best look at the classic Rare logo that can
be spotted on Banjo’s backpack, underneath the closed flap.
But here’s where it gets weird.
Kazooie only shoots one Egg before they redo the animation a second time.
However, we think this is a conscious choice by the player.
In the games, Kazooie could fire three in a row before needing to reset in the backpack.
So why would they purposefully spread the shots out here?
Well, we think this is how the Breegull Blaster from Banjo-Tooie is accessed.
With this ability, Banjo grabs Kazooie like a shotgun, allowing them to fire Eggs faster
and even move.
So although it’s not shown, we think both methods of Egg Firing are available as the
standard Special.
If the players holds it down, they’ll shoot three Eggs before exiting the animation.
But if players stagger the shots like we see here, they’ll enter Breegull Blaster mode
where they can actually move and fire.
Alternatively, another possibility is that you tap the special for single shots, including
the three in a row, and hold down the special to transition into the Breegull Blaster.
This mode seems like it’d always be better, but it’s possible that entering it locks
them into the animation for a short time and prevents them from doing any other moves,
leaving them wide open.
It’s also possible that the Eggs will do less damage over time in this mode.
No matter what, we don’t think that they’re two different Specials as we’ll see the
rest in the trailer.
Another Tooie move is then shown as their side smash is the Breegull Bash where Banjo
slams Kazooie down in front of him.
We can even see her shocked expression, just like the original game.
But a fun bit of animation comes afterwards, where Banjo “sheathes” Kazooie into the
backpack.
The top flap is even open when he does this.
In the next scene we see Banjo hanging onto a ledge, which isn’t exactly exciting as
every Smash character can do that.
What makes this potentially unique is Banjo’s Grip Grab move from Tooie.
In that game, Kazooie could actually peck nearby enemies while they were hanging, and
we’re curious if she could do that here as well.
It could be an entirely unique skill.
Or it could simply be referenced when performing their edge attack to climb back up.
Maybe it could even replace their edge attack so that they’re just different.
Either way, we get another wonderful bit of animation as Banjo struggles to pull himself
up.
Kazooie pops her head out of the backpack to cheer him on before looking at the camera
and hiding back inside when he fails.
It’s a cute example of the humor maintained through the relationship of the two characters.
Next up is another of their Specials.
For this one, Kazooie uses a Grenade Egg thanks to the new bottom flap on their backpack.
These were the most damaging Egg types in Banjo-Tooie and this is likely their down
Special.
Now Snake also uses Grenades, which are assigned to his standard Special, but considering where
Kazooie’s comes from, we think it would be appropriate if this was their Down Special.
We are curious about one other aspect of this though.
In Tooie, Kazooie had multiple Egg types that she could use.
Is this Special always the Grenade Egg?
Or will it cycle through all the different Egg types from that game, such as the Fire
Egg and Ice Eggs?
Again, we can’t know for sure yet, but it is a possibility.
At the very least we can see that the Grenades can be grabbed by other players and thrown
for their own use thanks to Diddy.
But this entire scene is a reference to the original Banjo-Kazooie as Donkey Kong is holding
an orange from Pac-Man, just like how Conga threw oranges at the pair on Mumbo’s Mountain.
And Diddy represents Chimpy, who helped them to reach Conga and defeat him.
For their up Special, they use the Shock Spring Jump.
We can even see that the Shock Jump Pad, which allowed them to use the move in the original
game, spawns underneath them in a similar manner to Sonic’s Spring or the Rush Coil
for Mega Man.
And the whole process of having the Pad appear is instantaneous as the frame shifts from
Banjo on his own directly to Kazooie preparing the jump.
What’s unclear is if this is a damaging attack.
It wasn’t in the original game, but we can see Kazooie’s beak pointed up this time
so we think it’s quite possible.
Our bear-and-bird duo then show that they can jump a few times in the air as Kazooie
uses a variation of the Feathery Flap while Banjo hangs far below and eventually snaps
back toward the backpack.
We can even see the feathers fly off Kazooie as she carries them along though unfortunately,
we don’t know how many extra jumps the pair can do.
The final Special, their side Special, is the Wonderwing, which grants them invincibility
as long as they have golden feathers.
And this aspect of the move remains as we see a counter above their head with five feathers
represented.
One disappears as they ram through the Unira with no trouble and even barrel through Bowser
Jr.’s attack, damaging him in the process, just like in the original game.
But we have several questions when it comes to this move.
We know they’re invincible, but does this mean they’d be unaffected by Final Smashes
when in this state?
And how do the golden feathers refill?
Are they always returned to five after each use?
Or do they need time to recharge once they’ve all been used?
It never appears during the trailer, but perhaps there’s a meter indicating the recharge
near their icon?
But then the one that appears above them seems a little redundant.
Another possibility is that one is used each time as they seem to charge forward automatically
when using it, rather than having direct control like in their games.
It would still need to be recharged eventually though and we think it’ll gradually refill
in this case since this is invincibility we’re talking about.
It may even be faster if they land attacks or take damage themselves, much like Joker’s
Rebellion Meter or Cloud’s Limit Break.
There’s one more of their basic moves that we want to point out.
We only see it from a distance, but when Banjo backflips out of the way of Piranha Plant,
it’s the same animation as when he uses the Flap Flip.
However, Kazooie doesn’t make an appearance when doing this even though she was required
in the original game.
That said, Banjo could perform a less potent version of it on his own when separated from
Kazooie in the sequel.
It just goes to show how many little details Sakurai and his team focus on when crafting
a new character.
Speaking of, we see a few of their taunts during the reveal trailer.
One of the first has them looking at each other before posing.
The second features Banjo bowing, just as he does when opening up a new level or completing
it 100%.
Finally, we see Banjo stretching as the new Spiral Mountain stage rotates, but it’s
unclear whether this is the final taunt or it’s simply his idle animation.
Personally, we think it’s the latter.
As for what the final taunt could be?
Maybe it’ll reference one of the activities they did on the File Select screen such as
Banjo pulling out a Game Boy to play?
Or maybe they’ll just play the banjo and kazoo?
After doing this stretch, we see them use one more move, the Beak Bayonet from Tooie,
that appears to be their forward tilt.
And finally we see them use their Final Smash, which is the Mighty Jinjonator from the end
of the first game atop Grunty’s Lair.
It attacks opponents in the exact same way as that finale as we can even see the Jinjos
in tow.
This is actually the first time the Jinjonator has reappeared since that game.
Now while that’s all of Banjo-Kazooie’s moves in the reveal trailer, we still have
their stage to look at, Spiral Mountain.
As the gameplay begins, we get our first look and can clearly see Banjo’s house in the
background, complete with garbage cans on the side.
But this seems to based on the Nuts & Bolts design as it has a chimney with yellow trim
and Banjo’s name on the front door.
The next vista we see features the waterfalls near the mountain along with the platforms
where you could grab an Extra Honeycomb Piece that would increase Banjo’s max health after
gathering six of them.
There was also an extra life in the form of a Banjo statue behind the waterfall, but neither
can be seen here.
Perhaps because they already collected them?
They then pass by Bottles, who’s trying to wave them down from atop his molehill.
Poor guy probably just wanted to teach them a new move.
Notably, this molehill location is exactly where it was in the original game, as we can
see the beginning of the rope bridge to Grunty’s lair.
But this is the only time we see his molehill so it’s likely that he appears and vanishes
throughout the fight.
Bottles isn’t the only thing that vanishes though as a later wide-shot reveals that there’s
no bridge connecting Spiral Mountain to Grunty’s Lair.
That’s something that just appears later.
But there is a bridge at the base of the mountain along with the vegetable garden, the tree
stumps, and the boulder area.
All of these areas served as tutorials in the original game.
Bottles taught the pair how to use the Claw Swipe, Rat-a-tat Rap, and the as yet unseen
Forward Roll in the garden (though it could appear as their dash attack), the Feathery
Flap and Flap Flip at the tree stumps, and the Beak Barge at the boulders.
So everything really is here in Spiral Mountain.
What’s odd about this scene though is that as the characters fight, we can see the items
rotating around them, keeping the fight to a 2D plane.
So it seems like Spiral Mountain is something of a traveling stage that rotates the camera
around the mountain until settling at the top where we presume the bridge appears at
the same time as Grunty, who naturally rides in on her broom.
It’s also possible that the bridge could be destroyed at one point, resetting the traveling
aspect of the stage.
This would make it at least a little like the Gerudo Valley stage as it too had a destructible
bridge...and even witches!
As a final note on Spiral Mountain, there’s a scene where Banjo is looking toward the
entrance of Grunty’s Lair, but there’s no one else around.
However, in a released screenshot, we can see Mumbo Jumbo near the entrance.
He never appeared there before, but perhaps other Banjo characters will make cameos.
Could we actually see Tooty again?
Alright, we’re almost done here, but there are still a few references to Banjo-Kazooie’s
games that we wanted to point out.
We already mentioned the one featuring DK as Conga, but later we see Banjo running with
the beehive item while bees follow behind.
This is a nod to how health honeycombs could be found in beehives in their game, and how
the bees would even give chase so you had to be careful.
At the end of the trailer, K. Rool is sent flying off of a mountain and makes a cartoonish
hole in the ground before a giant rock falls on him, the same fate as Grunty at the end
of the first game.
Maybe that’s why he hasn’t been in a DK game lately?
Either way, Banjo-Kazooie soon make their appearance and pose along with a variety of
other characters before a bunch of puzzle pieces form around them.
This is only the second Nuts & Bolts reference in the trailer as the game used this method
to transition between scenes.
And as one final moment, there’s a sequence where Banjo sneaks up and steals food from
a giant sleeping Ivysaur.
They had to sneak around a few times in their own games, but this is likely a callback to
when they had to steal a Jiggy from the sleeping Ssslumber in the Jade Snake Grove area of
Mayahem Temple in Banjo-Tooie.
Lastly we wanted to note another screenshot of the pair, this time showing off one of
their alternate colors.
Banjo is pink while Kazooie is more orange.
This makes Banjo resemble Mumbo Jumbo so maybe his other colors will reference other well-known
Banjo characters or even the hidden Dragon Kazooie transformation from Tooie.
But the two are also flying near a Super Launch Star which, considering the icy background,
is likely meant to be a stand-in for the star on top of the Christmas tree in Freezeezy
Peak.
And that’s everything we could find in the Banjo-Kazooie reveal trailer for Super Smash
Bros.
Ultimate.
They might not be arriving in the game until Fall, but it’s fantastic to see just how
much care was put into crafting their moveset.
There’s still plenty more to see and we still don’t know how certain moves will
work exactly, but they seem incredibly fun.
Of course let us know if we missed anything in the comments.
Thanks for watching and be sure to subscribe to GameXplain for more on Banjo-Kazooie, Smash
Bros., and other things gaming.