Banjo-Kazooie

Trouble brews when Gruntilda the witch captures the unbearably beautiful cub, Tooty. But before the grisly hag can steal the bear's good looks, big brother Banjo and his fine-feathered friend, Kazooie, join…

78 29 June 1998

Adventure Platform Quiz/Trivia Action Comedy Fantasy

Banjo-Kazooie is an adventure developed by Rare, released 29 June 1998 on Nintendo 64.

Verified 18 Oct 2026 Sources: IGDB , Wikipedia

What Banjo-Kazooie is

Banjo-Kazooie is an adventure game developed by Rare and released in 1998. It was published by Gradiente. It is available on Nintendo 64 only.

The premise, in the publisher's words

The evil witch of Spiral Mountain, Gruntilda, is inside her lair, asking her cauldron Dingpot questions about who is the 'nicest and fairest of them all', to which Dingpot reluctantly answers, "You are, mistress". She gloats over her "beauty", until Dingpot finally breaks his 'silence' and tells the witch that Tooty, another inhabitant of Spiral Mountain, is actually the prettiest and the fairest of them all. Grunty reacts angrily and decides to kidnap Tooty in order to steal her beauty. She grabs her broom and sets off immediately. Meanwhile, Tooty is running around Spiral Mountain, when she is greeted by Bottles in front of Banjo's House. She eagerly tells Bottles that she is going on an…

Description from the publisher · source

How it plays

It is played from a third person perspective. Its themes are action, comedy and fantasy. It is a single-player game with no multiplayer component.

Where it sits in the Banjo & Kazooie series

Banjo-Kazooie is the second of 11 entries we hold in the Banjo & Kazooie series. It arrived 7 months after Diddy Kong Racing. The next entry was Banjo-Tooie in 2000. Its critic score of 78 is 17 points above the series average of 61. The highest-rated entry is Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts at 87.

See all 11 Banjo & Kazooie games in release order →

How it was received

Banjo-Kazooie holds a critic score of 78 out of 100. That places it above 59% of the 7,527 rated adventure games in our database, which average 72. Games released in 1998 averaged 70, so it scored 8 points above the year average. Player ratings track closely with critics at 82, across 371 votes.

How long it takes, and what that costs

A full completion run takes around 18.4 hrs.

What it launched against

Banjo-Kazooie launched on 29 June 1998, within three weeks of Street Fighter Alpha 3, Colin McRae Rally, Heart of Darkness and Wetrix. It reviewed better than 3 of the 4.

Released around the same time: Street Fighter Alpha 3, Colin McRae Rally, Heart of Darkness, Wetrix.

Cheats and codes

We have not confirmed any working cheat codes for Banjo-Kazooie yet. Rather than reprint a list we have not tested, this section stays empty until one is verified.

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