Banjo-Pilot

From RWP Wiki

Banjo-Pilot
System	Game Boy Advance
Release Date	NA January 11, 2005 EU/AUS February 1, 2005
Publisher	THQ
Genre	Racing
Rating	E for Everyone
Players	Single player, Multiplayer
Controller Pak
Rumble
Expansion Pak
Link Cable	2-4 Player Multiplayer
Xbox Live
Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection

Banjo-Pilot is a racing game for the Game Boy Advance. The game is a part of the Banjo-Kazooie series, although it is merely a spinoff with little relevance to the main series, having no storyline. The game was released on January 11, 2005 in North America and February 1, 2005 in Europe and Australia. It is the second Banjo-Kazooie game not released in Japan, the first being Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge.

Contents 1 Gameplay 1.1 Grand Prix 1.2 Quickrace 1.3 Time Trial 1.4 Trophies 1.5 Jiggy Challenge 1.6 Cheato 1.7 Head-To-Head (Multiplayer) 1.8 Dogfight (Multiplayer) 2 Characters 3 Tracks 4 Items 5 Development 5.1 Music 6 Gallery 7 External links

Gameplay

Banjo-Pilot is a pick-up-and-play kart-style racing game. As the title implies, the vehicles used for racing are planes. The point of the game is to race through various tracks and finish in first place and as fast as possible in order to win trophies. The game features various items that can be used to gain an edge over opponents, as well four Musical Notes scattered on each track. Collecting the Musical Notes on each track will earn the player Cheato Pages, which can be used to buy useful things. The game features many different modes, listed below.

Grand Prix

The Grand Prix mode is the core of the game, featuring various cups to race through, all with different tracks. There are four Grand Prixes in the game: Bottles GP, Grunty GP, Endurance GP, and Jinjo GP. Each GP features four cups named after items in the Banjo-Kazooie universe and after each cup is a dogfight against another character. Grand Prix mode is available in both single-player and multiplayer.

Quickrace

The Quickrace allows the player to play a single race on any track from the Bottles GP and Gruntilda GP.

Time Trial

In Time Trial, players can go for the best time on any track, and race the time trial "ghosts" of Bottles and Gruntilda to beat their times.

Trophies

In the Trophies mode, players can view all the trophies they've won from the Grand Prixes.

Jiggy Challenge

In the Jiggy Challenge mode, players can race against Bottles on any track in the Bottles or Gruntilda GPs, collecting six Jiggies scattered along the tracks. Collecting all of the Jiggies and besting Bottles on each track will unlock him as a playable character.

Cheato

This is where players can spend the Cheato Pages they have earned to buy useful items from Cheato, such as Glowbo boosts or battle tracks.

Head-To-Head (Multiplayer)

In Head-To-Head mode, players can participate in a single race with up to four friends on any track, essentially a multiplayer Quickrace.

Dogfight (Multiplayer)

In Dogfight mode, players can battle against each other using weapons.

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 magician, rival of Mumbo.
• Gruntilda the witch.
• Klungo, the monstrous servant of Gruntilda.
• Bottles, the shortsighted mole.
• Jolly Roger the bartending frog.

For all characters in the game, including those that appear in minor cameos, see Banjo-Pilot characters

Tracks

Banjo-Pilot features many tracks to race on, listed below. Many of the tracks are based on worlds from previous Banjo-Kazooie games.

• Spiral Mountain
• Jinxy's Dunes
• Freezeezy Peak
• Hailfire Peaks
• Treasure Trove Cove.
• Clanker's River
• Grunty Industries
• Gobi's Valley
• Freezing Furnace
• Mayahem Temple
• Steamy Vents
• Jolly Roger's Lagoon
• Witchyworld
• Breegull Beach
• Terrydactyland
• Cauldron Keep
• Mumbo's Mountain (Multiplayer battle track)
• Temple Tussle (Multiplayer battle track)
• Arctic Blast (Multiplayer battle track)
• Rusty Bucket Bay (Multiplayer battle tracks)

Items

The game features various items scattered along the tracks, contained in honeycombs. These items can be used to gain an edge in the race. The items available in the game are listed below.

• Golden Feather: Protects the player from any weapons for a short period of time.
• Mumbo's Head: Temporarily disables every other player. Note that despite being called "Mumbo's Head" in the manual, this item is actually the head of Mingy Jongo, an evil robot built in Mumbo's image.
• Turbo Trainers: Gives the player a temporary speed boost.
• Saucer of Peril: Seeks out and temporarily disables the racer currently in first place.
• Red Fire Eggs: When fired, homes in on the nearest opponent and sets them on fire. Fire Eggs are available as a single egg or as a pack of three.
• Blue Ice Eggs: When fired, is dropped behind the player and remains on the track until another racer knocks into it. Ice Eggs are available as a single egg or as a pack of three.

Development

Banjo-Pilot was initially annouced in 2001 as Diddy Kong Pilot, a Donkey Kong racing game, presumably as a handheld accompaniment to Donkey Kong Racing for the Nintendo GameCube. The game featured a cast of Donkey Kong series characters such as Diddy Kong, Donkey Kong, King K. Rool, Krunch and more. However, after the buyout of Rare by Microsoft in 2002, the game had to be either changed or canceled, as Rare no longer held the rights to develop new Donkey Kong games. In 2003 it was announced that the game would be released as Banjo-Pilot.

Early in the game's development cycle, a graphical style that replicated the 3-D look of the Nintendo 64 Banjo-Kazooie games was experimented with,^[1][2][3] but this was unfortunately dropped before release, with Rare opting for a more standard Mode 7 style. The reason for this is unknown, but it can be presumed that it may have been because the earlier style was too hardware-intensive.

Music

The music of Banjo-Pilot was composed by Robin Beanland and Jamie Hughes. Pilot is the second Banjo-Kazooie game not featuring Grant Kirkhope as a music composer. The game, since originally being a Donkey Kong game reskinned as a Banjo-Kazooie features some music tracks based on the music from the Donkey Kong Country games.

Gallery

Logo

Beta logo

NA box art (front)

NA box art (back)

External links

• Banjo-Pilot on Rare's official website.

Banjo-Kazooie series Main series Banjo-Kazooie (1998) • Banjo-Tooie (2000) • Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts (2008) Spin-offs Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge (2003) • Banjo-Pilot (2005) Ports Banjo-Kazooie XBLA (2008) • Banjo-Tooie XBLA (2009) Related games Diddy Kong Racing (1997) • Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing with Banjo-Kazooie (2010)