Banjo-Pilot
North American box art
Developer	Rare
Publisher	THQ
Composers	Robin Beanland Jamie Hughes
Series	Banjo-Kazooie
Platform	Game Boy Advance
Release	NA: 11 January 2005 EU: 18 February 2005
Genre	Kart racing
Modes	Single-player,multiplayer

Banjo-Pilot is a 2005kart racing video game for theGame Boy Advance (GBA) and the fourth installment inRare'sBanjo-Kazooie series. It plays similarly to theMario Kart series byNintendo: the player races one of nineplayable characters aroundtracks, attacking other racers with bullets and collectingpower-ups. The game features a number ofsingle-player andmultiplayer modes, such astime attack and item hunts. Unlike other kart racing games, characters controlairplanes instead ofgo-karts.

Rare and Nintendo announcedBanjo-Pilot atE3 2001 under the titleDiddy Kong Pilot. At this point, it was the sequel to Rare'sDiddy Kong Racing (1997), and featured characters from Nintendo'sDonkey Kong andMario series. However,company politics and Nintendo's concerns about quality delayedDiddy Kong Pilot past its planned release date in March 2002. AfterMicrosoft acquired Rare in September 2002, it lost the rights to the Nintendo characters and replaced them with characters from itsBanjo series.

THQ, which made a deal with Microsoft to publish Rare's GBA projects, releasedBanjo-Pilot in January 2005 to mixed reviews. Although critics praised its visuals, they felt it lacked originality and labelled it an inferiorclone ofMario Kart.

Banjo-Pilot is akart racing game featuring characters and environments from theBanjo-Kazooie series ofplatform games.^[1][2] It plays similarly to theMario Kart series byNintendo:^[3] the player, controlling a character in their vehicle, must race opponents aroundtracks. The player views the gameplay from behind the character's back, and must manoeuvre their character throughout the race. All races are three laps long and feature elements that confer advantages, such as offensivepower-ups.^[3][4] Collectible, goldenmusic notes, an element from theBanjo platformers, are scattered around tracks as well.^[2]Banjo-Pilot is distinguished from other kart racing games because the player controlsairplanes instead ofgo-karts,^[1] allowing them to move up and down.^[4] However, the planes do exhibit behaviours normally associated with karts, such as slowing down over rough ground.^[5] The planes are equipped with bullets that can be shot at other players; they can also do abarrel roll to avoid attacks from others.^[5] The game features a total of nineplayer characters;^[4]Banjo, Kazooie, Mumbo Jumbo, and a purple Jinjo are initially available, while Humba Wumba, Gruntilda, Klungo, Bottles, and Jolly Roger can be unlocked through gameplay.^[6]

The game features 16 tracks accessible through four differentgame modes for asingle-player.^[7][8] In Grand Prix, players race opponents through a series of four consecutive tracks and earnpoints based on their finishing position.^[3] At the end of Grand Prix, players must participate in a Champion Challenge—an aerialdogfight against aboss.^[2][3] Jiggy Challenge retains the emphasis on collecting items from theBanjo platformers: the player must look for and collectpuzzle pieces called Jiggies for points while racing Bottles the mole.^[2] Quickrace allows the player to choose from any of the game's tracks to race on, whiletime trial challenges players to finish a course in the fastest time possible.^[7] The game also featuresmultiplayer modes for up to four players: a multiplayer version of Grand Prix, a one-on-one race, and a dogfighting game.^[2] Competing in races will earn players "Cheato pages", loose book pages which serve as a form of currency. How many they earn is based on their race placement and how many musical notes they collect. These pages can be given to theanthropomorphic book Cheato in exchange for various bonuses, such as new game modes and characters.^[2]

Rare developedBanjo-Pilot for theGame Boy Advance (GBA) for nearly five years.^[1][2][9] At the beginning, Rare was asecond-party developer for Nintendo and was known for creating games in Nintendo's long-runningDonkey Kong franchise.^[10] As such, the game was originally titledDiddy Kong Pilot, a sequel to Rare's 1997 gameDiddy Kong Racing,^[11] and would feature characters from Nintendo'sDonkey Kong andMario franchises.^[11] While it could be played using the GBAD-pad,Diddy Kong Pilot allowed players to control the characters by tilting the system, as the cartridge contained the sameaccelerometer technology used inKirby Tilt 'n' Tumble (2000).^[12] Rare chose to focus on planes rather than cars because it wanted the game to stand out against other GBA racers.^[13] Nintendo and Rare announced the game atE3 in May 2001,^[12][14] and presenteddemos to attendees there and atNintendo Space World in August.^[12][15] Journalists reacted positively to the demos, with particular praise for the visuals.^[12][14][15]

Nintendo aimed to releaseDiddy Kong Pilot on 4 March 2002,^[16] but became concerned with its quality around the time of Space World. One programmer recalled that Nintendo felt the tilt was not working well, that the GBALCD only functioned as intended when aligned with a light source, and that a racing game with planes was pointless without a3D world.^[17] Rare was expected to finish the game by October 2001 although it still had to implement numerous game modes; the programmer believed it should have been cancelled instead.Company politics also complicated development. According to the programmer, Rare was "micro-managing us into different directions, disregarding any hardware or cartridge space limitations".^[17] By September 2002, the game was still unreleased and Nintendo rivalMicrosoft acquired Rare.^[18][19] As Microsoft did not compete in the handheld market, the buyout did not affect Rare's plans to produce GBA games,^[20] but it lost access to Nintendo'sMario andDonkey Kongintellectual property (IP).^[11]

After developing the GBAport ofDonkey Kong Country 2,^[13] Rare staff were told they needed to finishDiddy Kong Pilot, but would have to retool it using elements from theBanjo series.^[11]Banjo was one of the IPs Rare retained after the Microsoft buyout,^[18] so the project was retitledBanjo-Pilot.^[11] The IP change came to light in July 2003 when Microsofttrademarked theBanjo-Pilot title.^[21] Rare's Paul Rahme said the retooling took five months.^[11] The game underwent "radical changes" during the transition; the graphics and presentation were altered, and different racetracks were added. Rare also removed the tilt controls as they were unable to improve them.^[22] The soundtrack, composed byRobin Beanland and Jamie Hughes,^[23] was unaltered as Rare was unable to implement new music.^[11] Staff who developed theNintendo 64 (N64)Banjo games had little involvement, but the lead designer supervised to make sure the content was in line with the N64 games.^[13] Both theDiddy Kong Pilotprototypes and the final game use aMode 7-stylegame engine, but at one point Rare switched to one that rendered environments usingvoxels.^[1][24] Rare quickly discarded the voxel engine due toframe rate problems that arose when characters and weapons were added.^[13]

On 11 August 2003, Microsoft announced it would collaborate withTHQ to publish Rare's GBA projects, includingBanjo-Pilot,Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge (2003),Sabre Wulf (2004), andIt's Mr. Pants (2005).^[25] THQ releasedBanjo-Pilot in North America on 11 January 2005^[26] and in Europe on 18 February.^[27] On 5 November 2011,Diddy Kong Pilot was released due to the (19 February 2003) prototype of the game gotleaked online.^[17]

According toMetacritic, a video gamereview aggregator,Banjo-Pilot received "mixed or average reviews".^[28] Many reviewers thought the game lacked originality and believed placing the characters in planes was not enough to set it apart from other kart racing games on the GBA.^[1][4][8]GameSpy andNintendo World Report (NWR) noted the planes still had behaviours traditionally associated with go-karts, such as slowing down when not on the track.^[2][5]NWR also argued the manoeuvres the planes could do were worthless and did not add anything to the experience.^[5]Eurogamer thought the planes made the game feel more 3D but reduced it to favouring luck over skill.^[3] Additionally,NWR believedBanjo-Pilot lacked what made Rare's prior racing gamesR.C. Pro-Am (1988) andDiddy Kong Racing great,^[5] whileVideoGamer.com wrote that removing Nintendo characters and the tilt controls prevented the game from bringing innovation to the kart racing genre.^[8]

The game was often labelled aclone of Nintendo'sMario Kart games.^[3][8] While critics generally feltBanjo-Pilot was one of the betterMario Kart clones—Cubed3 andIGN both called it the second-best GBA racer afterMario Kart: Super Circuit (2001)^[1][9]—they wrote that players would be better off playing a game from that series.^[2][3]Eurogamer thought players should tryBanjo-Pilot before deciding to buy it,^[3] andGameSpy andVideoGamer.com said there was no reason to have it when better games likeMario Kart andKonami Krazy Racers (2001) were already available on the GBA.^[2][8]IGN, on the other hand, argued that the similarities toMario Kart were not necessarily a bad thing as it allowed for balanced game design,^[1] andGameSpot called the game entertaining and favorably compared it to the originalSuper Mario Kart (1992).^[4]Eurogamer andVideoGamer.com also questioned how appealing the game would be to players, noting characters such as Banjo were relatively obscure and would likely only be recognised by those who played the N64Banjo games.^[3][8]

Reviewers said thatBanjo-Pilot, as aMario Kart clone, was fine gameplay-wise, but disagreed over whether this was enough to make it a successful game.^[1][3][4] WhileIGN arguedBanjo-Pilot improved upon the kart racing formula because of its new features and believed its planes controlled better than go-karts,^[1]VideoGamer.com said the game modes were unfulfilling.^[8] Reviewers fromCubed3,^[9]GameZone,^[29]IGN,^[1] andNWR praised the controls as intuitive and simple,^[5] althoughIGN believed they "scream[ed]" for compatibility with ananalogue stick.^[1] However,GameSpy called the controls overly sensitive and noted they were set to those of a standard airplane, which they called counter-intuitive.^[2]Eurogamer characterised the controls as hard to get used to.^[3] Reviewers singled out the multiplayer mode as a highlight, withGameSpot andGameZone respectively calling it the game's strongest feature and the GBA's best sinceThe Legend of Zelda: Four Swords (2002),^[4][29] althoughEurogamer wrote it was challenging to find others who owned the game.^[3] Boss fights received criticism for their inconsistent difficulties and some felt they distracted from the overall experience,^[1][3][8] althoughCubed3 andGameSpy praised Rare's effort to innovate.^[2][9] The difficulty of opponentAI enragedVideoGamer.com.^[8]

Critics were more generous towards the presentation; many praised the amount of detail in the visuals and animations.^[2][3][29]Cubed3 andGameSpot respectively compared them to that of a low-end N64 game and a Mode 7Super NES game,^[4][9]Eurogamer felt they were impressive and used the GBA's otherwise subpar 3D capabilities to the fullest andGameZone called them eye-catching.^[3][29] The steady frame rate was also praised.^[1][2][3] One of the only problemsIGN noticed waspop-up that occurred when weapons were picked up.^[1] Visual perception was an area many reviewers faulted, as they noted sometimes other racers would block their line of sight.^[1][4][9]VideoGamer.com andGameZone both praised the audio, which they called one of the bearable aspects of the game and humorous.^[8][29]IGN felt the music was well-composed and fit theBanjo theme, although they did note similarities the tracks bore to those from other games and films likeAladdin.^[1]

• 2005 video games
• Banjo-Kazooie
• Game Boy Advance games
• Game Boy Advance-only games
• Kart racing video games
• Multiplayer and single-player video games
• Rare (company) games
• THQ games
• Video games developed in the United Kingdom
• Video games scored by Robin Beanland

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