Easter Egg Sunday: Hunting for eggs in ‘Banjo-Tooie’

Welcome to the third episode of Easter Egg Sunday. This week’s game will be “Banjo-Tooie,” a game developed by Rare, Inc. for the Nintendo 64 in 2000. The game was also rereleased on the Xbox Live Arcade in 2009. The game is the sequel to “Banjo-Kazooie,” which released in 1998.

“Banjo-Tooie” is a platforming and adventure title where the player stars a bear named Banjo. He is accompanied by a bird named Kazooie, who travels inside Banjo’s backpack for most of the game. Their enemy is a witch named Gruntilda, who is trying to regain her body that was destroyed during the original game. The game takes place across many different worlds, which are spread around a giant overworld. This overworld is honestly one of the most well developed overworlds in gaming. The game offers a large variety of worlds, most of them being rather peculiar in some way. The game also has a variety of gameplay, and as such the player is not restricted to simply running and jumping. The game was rated high and sold quite well, and is considered one of the best adventure games for the Nintendo 64.

Below are many of the secrets that can be found in “Banjo-Tooie.” Remember that not all of these will be strictly Easter Eggs, as some of them are just major secrets within the game. However, they will still be labeled as Easter Eggs for consistencies sake.

Please note that some of these Easter Eggs are very different in the Xbox Live Arcade rerelease of “Banjo-Tooie,” mostly due to the expanded Stop n’ Swop features that were added in that version. Some were also changed due to copyright issues.

Easter Egg #1: This secret will require the Grip Grab ability. At the entrance to the Jinjo Village, travel to the right (when looking forward after entering from Spiral Mountain). Down in this sandy, dirt area there is a ledge that can be shimmied across. At the end of this ledge is a cave containing this secret.

Easter Egg #2: This secret also requires the Grip Grab ability. In the Spiral Mountain, there is a flight pad at the top of the central platform. Using the flight pad, the player can reach the top of the waterfall at the back of the area. The player can swim into the cave that the water flows from. Inside, the player can shimmy into a cage area. The secret is inside.

Easter Egg #3: This secret is also in the Spiral Mountain area. There is an area on the left side of the mountain (when walking away from Banjo’s house). There is a cage inside the mountain here, which can be opened using Grenade Eggs (or maybe the Beak Bomb). Inside this cage is another secret.

Easter Egg #4: While the player is traversing through the Jinjo Village, they will have to travel through Bottle’s house. His wife and children live here, waiting for him to come home. Inside the children’s rooms are two posters that are Easter eggs. A similar Easter Egg can be found in the Worker’s Quarters in Grunty Industries.

Easter Egg #5: This next Easter Egg is in Jolly Roger’s Lagoon. Inside the pub here is an odd pirate. His whole character is a big Easter Egg.

Easter Egg #6: This Easter Egg is also in Jolly Roger’s Lagoon. This egg can be found by going into Mumbo’s Skull and then taking the alternate exit on the side of the skull. The character found here is an Easter Egg.

Easter Egg #7: There is one additional Easter Egg in Jolly Roger’s Lagoon. This one can be found under the water in the first room. At the bottom of the large central pool of water is a circular building that may be entered. One of the characters in here is an Easter Egg.

Easter Egg #8: This Easter Egg is located in Hailfire Peaks. On the ice side, the player will encounter a character frozen in ice. He can be thawed and helped to get a Jiggy, and the character himself is an Easter Egg.

Easter Egg #9: This next Easter Egg is also in Hailfire Peaks. This egg is on the ice side, and is inside the igloo found in the area. The Easter Egg can be found on the TV that is located on the top floor of this igloo.

Easter Egg #10: This Easter Egg is in the Worker’s Quarters inside Grunty Industries. The egg is located on the refrigerator in the room.

Easter Egg #11: This Easter Egg is also in Grunty Industries. This egg is found on the various crates located in the level.

Easter Egg #12: This Easter Egg is located in the trash can in the level Cloud Cuckooland. There is a milk carton inside this area. One of the sides of the milk carton has the Easter Egg on it.

Easter Egg #13: This Easter Egg can be found by taking the train to ice side of Hailfire Peaks. This train station leads to a small, normally inaccessible area. There is a large safe here that can be opened. The Easter Egg requires the item found inside.

======== Below this line are the secrets themselves, so there are spoilers ahead. ========

Easter Egg #1: Inside this cave is a Banjo-Kazooie cartridge with eyes on it. It will bounce around the area, and can be killed with attacks. Killing it will make it drop the Ice Key, which unlocks a large safe in Hailfire Peaks.

Easter Egg #2: Inside this cave is another bouncing Banjo-Kazooie cartridge. This one drops the secret Blue Egg. This egg can be hatched at Heggy’s house, which will unlock a code which will make the player’s eggs home in on enemies.

Easter Egg #3: Inside this cave is a final bouncing Banjo-Kazooie cartridge. This cartridge will drop the Pink Egg. This one can be taken to Heggy’s house and hatched to unlock a new move. This move makes Banjo slam Kazooie on the ground, dealing a lot of damage to enemies that it hits.

Easter Egg #4: Inside Bottle’s children’s rooms are posters of characters from the Jet Force Gemini series. They are Juno and Vela, who are the male and female protagonists of the game. Another of these posters can be found in the Worker’s Quarters in Grunty Industries.

Easter Egg #5: This pirate’s name is Blackeye, and he is a reference to “Project Dream.” This was a game that Rare had originally planned to release on the Super Nintendo, before “Banjo-Kazooie.” He says various things, including how a bear stole his glory (referencing how Banjo became the lead in the game that his game was replaced with).

Easter Egg #6: This character is named Tiptup, and is a recurring character in Rare’s Nintendo 64 games. He first appeared as a racer in “Diddy Kong Racing.” He then appeared as a minor character in “Banjo-Kazooie” before this appearance.

Easter Egg #7: This building is actually an alien ship. One of the aliens says that Banjo can call him Elvis, which is a double reference. It refers not only to how some believe the real Elvis was an alien, but also to a character in the game “Perfect Dark” (also made by Rare) who is an alien named Elvis.

Easter Egg #8: The character in the ice is named Sabreman. He is the main character in “Sabre Wulf,” a title that Rare (then known as Ultimate Play The Game) created back in the 1980’s.

Easter Egg #9: The player can see an odd character on the TV in this room. This character is Mr. Pants, who is Rare’s mascot.

Easter Egg #10: On the refrigerator are a variety of magnets. These magnets show logos from various things Rare has worked with. These games include Donkey Kong, Banjo-Kazooie, Jet Force Gemini, and Perfect Dark. There is also a Rare logo on the refrigerator.

Easter Egg #11: On the various crates is a shipping address. The address is Twycross, England. This is the town where Rare’s headquarters is located.

Easter Egg #12: On the side of the milk carton is a missing person’s picture. The missing person is Tooty, Banjo’s sister from the original “Banjo-Kazooie.” It is likely that she was meant to be in “Banjo-Tooie” but had to be cut during development.

Easter Egg #13: Inside the giant safe is a large Glowbo. It is called a Mega Glowbo, and must be taken to Humba Wumba’s wigwam in the overworld to be used. This tent is located outside of the main entrance to Witchyworld. Using Wumba’s pool here will turn Kazooie into a dragon, with the ability to breathe fire when the B button is held down. Kazooie can be changed back to normal if the player jumps back into the pool.

To learn more about Banjo-Tooie, visit the link below:

"Banjo-Tooie" on the "Banjo-Kazooie" wiki

Also, the link below goes to last week’s issue of Easter Egg Sunday.

"Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time" Easter Eggs