Much like how Majora’s Mask is the dark roast to Ocarina of Time’s house blend, Banjo-Tooie does without the cream & sugar of Banjo-Kazooie as a straight shot of black espresso Even as a kid, I picked up on just how grim the opening sequence is and it’s left an impact since
I never finished the game until now, but I always remembered it in a somber light and it’s no wonder why- after reveal that Grunty is still alive as an animate skeleton, Bottles the Mole: your teacher companion in the first game is killed off immediately by a blast that destroys Banjo’s home The entire cutscene is moody: it takes place at night during a poker match, raining- the music is intense and turns into a depressing rendition of the cheery overworld theme from the last adventure Seriously, comparing the first 5 seconds of both games after taking control of Banjo is a stark difference You start out in front his house- in the first game you can turn around and go inside to see a lively setting- friendly faces looking back as portraits on the walls, a cuckoo clock and a fully stocked kitchen In Tooie, there’s nothing left
It’s all charred with a single scorched, picture of the bear’s sister in sight The windows are broken, it’s sad! Want some helpful hints from a happy Bottles to start in the original? In Tooie, that same Bottles is now a spirit hovering over his burned corpse But it doesn’t end there! So let me put this into context The character in Banjo-Kazooie was standalone He’s the only mole around with no mention of a family
In Banjo-Tooie, the game that has him murdered at the very beginning makes it a point to introduce him as a family guy After he’s dead of course You’ll first meet with his curious wife- wondering where her husband has gone off to Banjo can’t work up the courage to admit what’s happened, so the entire game is played with the woman furious her spouse hasn’t returned for dinner She’s mad at her husband, because she doesn't know he’s actually deceased
Worse, Bottles has two small children- Goggles and Speccy Both wonder where their papa is, and some honestly black humor comes into play when Kazooie tries to tell them he’s been blasted with a fatal spell With this all said, Bottles does revive at the end I want to make that clear: but that does not change the fact that his fate isn’t known until after the final battle I never got there as a kid, so I had no idea! The audience doesn't know that he comes back to life, so experiencing this blind for the first time is quite horrifying
Besides, his family circumstance never gets better: Mrs Bottles doesn’t believe that her husband died, and forces him to eat over-cooked supper by the time he finally returns By the time of Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, there’s a rumor that his wife took the children and left: when questioned, Bottles comes up with two conflicting stories: one is that they’re still together and she never left Jinjo village: the other is that she was mowed over and killed by Grunty Whatever the case, they have a pretty messed up family life built on lies and distrust Who knew I would ever say that about a fictitious family of freaking moles? Furthering the topic of death that seems to permeate Tooie in a similar shadow to Majora’s Mask: several characters that do NOT revive are revealed soon after Bottle’s passing when entering Jinjo village
The Jinjos, if you remember from the original- are friendly NPCs to be rescued by Banjo, and were responsible for sending the witch plummeting to her two-year imprisonment beneath a boulder In Tooie, the Jinjos home is shown- a village where each family (one for every color) lives in harmony under rule of King Jingaling Unfortunately, after being freed from her grave, Grunty disrupts this peace by driving a giant drill straight through their settlement Each of the nine Jinjo families are scared away and separated with their houses still standing, but a tenth building -home to the Grey Jinjos- was completely demolished by the hag It’s presumed the Grey Jinjo’s were the largest family: but they all perished as denoted by a signpost clearly outlying their fate
This isn’t subtle: an entire family of friendly creatures were murdered on behalf of Grunty: something the player can discover within the opening half hour If that’s not dark, then my name isn’t Bob Ross As a now abandoned village, King Jingaling is the sole inhabitant- and the first victim for our skeleton antagonist’s newfangled plan to absorb all organic life in the isle and restore her old body The machine is called BO
B (which was Rare having fun with acronyms, as that can also stand for “battery operated boyfriend” with a blow and suck option), which activates and drains the poor King until he’s no longer of the living He’s a zombified ruler in a lifeless castle, with his poor pet reduced to a pair of eyeballs on a pile of ash King Jingaling’s fate after Grunty’s defeat is better than Bottle’s, but it’s still very much deserving of a dark aspect award as again, we’re not even an hour into the game yet Calming down a bit, let’s talk about minor deaths- besides that of defeated bosses which doesn’t really count
In the 7th world: Hailfire Peaks (which is um, clearly similar sounding to Hellfire, nice) where its icy side sees three characters that either pass away on screen or have already died and need reviving through Mumbo’s magic Sabreman is the latter: an explorer frozen solid and without a pulse by the time he’s uncovered- so fire eggs do not work in making him come to Additionally, the father of an alien tribe falls from his high-flying saucer and dies upon hitting the ground, but more shocking is that one of his three missing children is found already dead and buried beneath a patch of ice That’s a whole lot of dying in one E rated title, especially in just one small area of a massive level But those are accidental deaths
Let’s get back to the topic of murder, shall we? At the end of the game, Grunty’s equally naughty sisters meet a fate they don’t come back from when crushed by a 1-ton weight And their demise isn’t met by the hands of Banjo- Gruntilda is the one that kills off two members of her own family, simply for losing at her “Tower of Tragedy” quiz Maybe that’s what happened to Brentila So as much as I love talking about the afterlife, it’s uh… time to see what else developers Rare snuck past the radar to have fun The precursor in writing to what would become Conker is a step up from the original in terms of adult jokes And that’s really saying something, if you watched my first video The creators went no-holds-barred and it’s a wonder how a lot of this obvious content didn’t get cut If you liked Grunty’s wonderful life-sucking machine reading B
OB, then you may be happy to hear that her other machines have abbreviations equally inappropriate For example, her giant TI
T, which stands for “Time Interfering Truck” Granted, this isn’t in an actual game, but it was part of Rare’s published news column “Disinformation Central” back when Nuts & Bolts was in development The fact that they joke about this potentially being in the third game clearly cements their humor They even refer to the witch in the original game over sequence as “sexy post transformation grunty”
An abbreviation that does make it into Tooie though is the Big O’ Blaster “Big O” commonly refers to an orgasm Yeah! “Big-O-Pants” are also plastered all over the crates at Grunty Industries, probably getting ready for shipment to your local Good Stuff Grunty Industries is the source of pollution in Jolly Roger’s swimming hole- to the dismay of child friends Piggles and Trotty The two are sad because the water’s too cold and grimy- unfortunately, Trotty was pushed in as a prank and mutated from the waste
He grew a third arm after surfacing, and expresses concern that he may also be growing “a third leg” It’s probably not a leg he’s referring to there The poor kid is sensitive about his arm, and Kazooie takes advantage by yelling “freako”! Since we’ve arrived at Jolly Roger’s Lagoon… let’s talk about Jolly Roger himself He’s the mayor and owner of a harborside tavern: serving “ginger beer” which is traditionally non-alcoholic, but apparently not in this universe, as it’s strong enough to get Captain Blackeye to fall off his chair What? The floor’s comfy
His other menu items include “Salty Dumplings”, “Toad in the Hole”, and “Seaman’s Surprise” His partner, Merry Maggie even invites the pair to “Grab a Sailor Night” at the bar, where they can get five tankards of that Seaman’s special It’s a good thing you rescued her, because there’s mention of Jolly needing “a little relief” during Happy Hour Highly suggestive Ginger beer is also Cockney rhyming slang for “queer”
Paired with his flamboyant nature, Jolly is depicted as the stereotype of a gay man, which is a big no-no for Nintendo’s censors, especially in the year 2000 Diving deep into the lagoon depths hides Lord Woo Fak Fak, and he’s an interesting case The “self-important anglerfish” is based on a real person! Paul Machacek, an engineer at Rare who had a reputation for swearing and saying “woo!” after figuring out a problem You can guess what “Fak” is inspired by in this case Besides language, the fight is a bit visually disturbing as it involves shooting and popping boils that actually bleed out
Later versions of Ocarina of Time censored Ganondorf coughing up blood to uh… make him vomit- so why was Tooie okay? Speaking of suggestive themes in boss fights, Mr Patch, the “Strange Wobbly Inflatable” has a sealed air tube sticking out right in-between his legs When he’s eventually defeated by exposing the patched-up air holes, the tube pops open and causes the living balloon to fly away deflating It’s an… interesting design choice by Rare Funny they decided to move the plug to his belly in Nuts & Bolts
In another world, Terrydactyland, the pathway to Mumbo’s skull is unapologetically in the shape of an *ahooga*! Mumbo’s spell for this level happens to be “enlarge”, which he performs on the pathway to paint an even more obscene picture- especially when looking down from the cliffside Fun fact, too- this and EarthBound are two of the things that inspired me to make Dark Aspects, just because this is so shocking I cannot believe they put it into the game and got away with it!
