Nintendo Direct: Smash Bros. Ultimate Banjo-Kazooie Details – Moves, Music, New Stage

In a presentation following the September 2019 Nintendo Direct, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate director Masahiro Sakurai detailed the game’s newest fighter: Banjo and Kazooie. The bird-and-bear pair, which are arriving in Ultimate today, bring with them a new stage, 10 music tracks, and a moveset that’s been faithfully adapted from the original Banjo games.

Sakurai gave a full rundown of Banjo and Kazooie’s moves and some strategies associated with them, which you can watch above. Highlights include their Down Special, a grenade egg that Kazooie can fire from behind (inspired by Banjo-Tooie’s egg selection); their sprint, which is a direct adaptation of the pair’s Talon Trot move, in which Kazooie comes out of the backpack to walk; and their Side Special, a Wonder Wing attack with limited uses per stock. Banjo and Kazooie’s Final Smash, the Final Jinjonator, is taken directly from the final boss fight in Banjo-Kazooie.

Their new stage is Spiral Mountain as it was in Banjo-Kazooie, complete with honeycomb pieces, the intact entrance to Grunty’s Lair, and Banjo’s house in the background. The stage rotates around the top of Spiral Mountain, and platforms will appear periodically. You can also spot a number of characters in the stage, including Bottles the mole, Banjo’s sister Tooty, the shaman Mumbo Jumbo, Jinjos, and Grunty herself.

As for music, Ultimate is getting 10 Banjo-inspired tracks, seven of which are new arrangements. Grant Kirkhope, who composed music for the original Banjo games, contributed to the arrangements. They include a number of tracks from Banjo-Kazooie–Mumbo’s Mountain, Gobi’s Valley, and Treasure Trove Cove, for example–as well as mini-boss themes from Banjo-Tooie, including Vs. Klungo.

Banjo and Kazooie will be available in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate from today. The bear and bird were first announced during Nintendo’s E3 2019 presentation.