The Amiibo figure line is the long lasting survivor of the toys to life boom from a few years ago, and it’s great that as of 2021 Nintendo are still putting out new Amiibos for fans to add to their collections.
Part of the reason they have endured so long where as other brands have faded is the ever increasing roster of the Super Smash Bros games. With the Switch Smash Bros game famously bringing everyone back who had ever appeared in a Smash Bros game before, and featuring most if not all the stages, it really would have felt lacking if the Amiibo support which was a main feature of the Wii U and 3DS games had been missing. So good news that this also meant that with every new fighter added to the game that we also got a new Amiibo!
And although their reintroduction to the world of Nintendo is now a couple of years old, it was only earlier this year that Nintendo finally released the Banjo-Kazooie Amiibo.
The return of Banjo and Kazooie into the Nintendo fold for their appearance in Super Smash Bros gives us this brilliantly detailed figurine, which can be used primarily in the Super Smash Bros Ultimate game on Nintendo Switch, but can also function to work with a range of other games. Of course for many fans who pick up this Amiibo, it will sit on a display shelf and may not even leave it’s packaging.
The design of the figure thankfully is in line with the Nintendo 64 era Banjo-Kazooie designs and not like the more recent Xbox 360 entry in the series Nuts and Bolts. As characters who were clearly requested by fans to Nintendo it of course would only make sense that when included their appearance represent their time as Nintendo mascots, and the nostalgia here is high.
The base of the figure of features the standard Smash Bros emblem, but as a cool extra, rather than feature some of those weird clear pieces of plastic to strengthen the character’s attachment to the base, Banjo has his right foot balanced onto a large jiggy, which was the main item that you would have to collect in the Banjo-Kazooie games.
The pose of the characters is also an action based pose which could be part of a mischievous run cycle with Kazooie up to hijinks and catching Banjo’s attention. Both characters are smiling as they look in each other’s direction which highlights the bond between the famous duo.
The detail on the paintwork and mould is also top notch. Fur is nicely detailed as part of the mould, as are Kazooie’s feathers, and areas of colour gradient on the wings and multiple lights catching Banjo’s eyes look great to add life to the design.
Collectors and fans of the Banjo-Kazooie series may have already picked up the Banjo-Kazooie Totaku figure that came out in 2018, and whilst that is a pure collectible figure without toys to life connectivity with any video games, it will come down to personal preference as to which most would choose as the better design.
The Totaku figure is everso slightly larger in scale and features the bear and bird playing their signature instruments, although with a more static and less action orientated pose, and with Banjo looking slightly more down as he plays the Banjo I may lean towards the Amiibo here. Fans of the games which likely want both and who could blame you?!
In terms of in game connectivity, the Banjo-Kazooie Amiibo works in the same way as all the other Super Smash Bros series Amiibos. That is you can use them to train up a CPU controlled version of the character to be a partner in Smash Bros. We’re probably past the point where a speculated Switch release of the classic Banjo games may come out an that these could in some way be the icing on the cake to finally make the much discussed ‘Stop N Swap’ feature that was never properly implemented into the N64 Banjo games a reality. One can dream that in the future this could still happen though!
Outside of Smash Bros, the Banjo-Kazooie Amiibo can be used with a variety of games where scanning any random Amiibo may cause some effect to happen. The best example of this is The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild where you can scan an unlimited amount of Amiibos once per day to get bonus items.
Conclusion
The Banjo-Kazooie Amiibo is a brilliant addition to the Amiibo collection that will rank high on any collectors to get list, especially as it represents a return to Nintendo for the former mascots who are now owned by Microsoft. In this sense without knowing what the future will hold, who knows if this will be a more rare Amiibo (pun intended) in the future. Fans of the games by Rare will definitely want this in their collection to sit next to the various Donkey and Diddy Kong figures.
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