Banjo-Pilot

Banjo-Pilot
Developer:	Rare
Publisher:	THQ
Release date:	January 11, 2005
Genre:	Racing
Game modes:	Single player, 2-4 Multiplayer
ESRB rating:	Everyone (E)
Platform:	Game Boy Advance
Media:	128-megabit cartridge

Banjo-Pilot is a video game for the Game Boy Advance featuring characters from the Banjo-Kazooie series of video games. Players race around various locales from the Banjo-Kazooie universe.

Precisely where in the Banjo-Kazooie timeline Banjo-Pilot takes place is subject to debate by fans of the series. In the original Banjo game, Gruntilda was her regular self, as she is in this game. However, Humba Wumba and Jolly Roger were not met until Banjo-Tooie, and in this game, Gruntilda had withered away to a walking, talking skeleton due to being stuck under a rock for two years straight.

Characters

Playable characters for the game include:

• Banjo the bear
• Kazooie the red-crested Breegull
• Mumbo Jumbo the masked shaman
• A purple Jinjo
• Humba Wumba the Native American magician
• Gruntilda (aka 'Grunty') the witch
• Klungo, the loyal manservant of Gruntilda
• Bottles the mole
• Jolly Roger the frog

Tracks

Tracks in the game are based on areas in the three previous Banjo-Kazooie games. A BK next to the track name indicates that it is from Banjo-Kazooie, BT indicates Banjo-Tooie, and GR indicates Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge. No text indicates that the track is specific to Banjo Pilot.

• Spiral Mountain - BK
• Jinxy's Dunes
• Freezeezy Peak - BK
• Hailfire Peaks - BT
• Treasure Trove Cove - BK
• Clanker's River
• Grunty Industries - BT
• Gobi's Valley - BK
• Freezing Furnace - GR
• Mayahem Temple - BT
• Steamy Vents
• Jolly Roger's Lagoon - BT
• Witchyworld - BT
• Breegull Beach - GR
• Terrydactyland - BT
• Cauldron Keep - BT

In addition to these tracks, there are also reversed versions of the tracks where the pilots race around anticlockwise.

Trivia

• Banjo-Pilot was originally going to be called Diddy Kong Pilot and feature characters from the Donkey Kong Country series of games. Due to the Microsoft buyout of Rare in 2002, the Donkey Kong license was dropped and replaced with the Banjo-Kazooie license, which is owned by Rare. Ironically, the character of Banjo originally appeared in the Nintendo 64 racing game Diddy Kong Racing, of which Diddy Kong Pilot was going to be a pseudo-sequel to.
• At one point early in development, Banjo-Pilot was going to be titled Banjo-Kazoomie, to keep the tradition of bad puns in the title - Banjo-Tooie is a pun on the number "two". THQ's marketing department probably would have squashed this potential title early on due to fear of people not getting the joke. (A surprisingly large amount of people still ask Rare who the "Tooie" character is in Banjo-Tooie.)