Nintendo loves suddenly dropping cool things, and it did exactly that with the Challenger Pack 3. While we knew Banjo-Kazooie were coming to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate soon, we weren't quite ready for RIGHT NOW. Even the 7-11 leak only indicated something within two weeks. But here we are, with another challenger pack added to our game. That means another character, another stage, and more music added to Ultimate.
Thankfully, fellow Rare fans, everything here continues the Sakurai tradition of paying loving homage to the source material.
Banjo And Kazooie Are In The Fight
The centerpiece of this content, of course, is the new Smasher. The two-in-one combo of Banjo-Kazooie is cheerfully animated and technically solid. It's only been a few hours, but the general reaction so far is positive. From my time playing with them, I can definitely say that I'm pleased with how balanced they are. Their moves all feel similar to those of past Smashers but with slight differences that call to mind the physics of their own series. After the sheer craziness of Hero, it's nice to have a more straightforward character.
Spiral Mountain Makes For a Stable Battleground
Much like the fighters themselves, Banjo and Kazooie's home stage doesn't bring any weird new tricks to the table. The central platform stays the same while floating platforms occasionally appear. But these platforms move slowly when they come and go, so they don't pose the threat a moving stage would. The stage's "gimmick" is that the camera rotates, showing the land around Spiral Mountain. This lets the cast of the Banjo-Kazooie games have their cameos. As usual, they're given a lot of detail. Probably too much, as fighters won't really be paying attention to Banjo's sister Tooty as she happily skips through the background. But the fact that she has an actual routine, and even appears at all, shows how much work the developers put into the tiny details.
Only One Man Could Have Composed This
The Nintendo 64 Banjo-Kazooie games stay in our memories for many reasons. The music is one of the bigger reasons. To give Smash's version of Spiral Mountain the same feel as the N64, Nintendo brought back the original composer of Banjo-Kazooie. His name is Grant Kirkhope, and he's actually responsible for many classic N64 tunes. For Smash Ultimate, he remixed the more relaxed, twangy Banjo-Kazooie music to pep it up for battle. This resulted in the most songs of any Smash DLC. As you'd expect from a master such as Kirkhope, the songs perfectly split the difference between sounding like the old and fitting in with the rest of Smash Ultimate's legendary soundtrack.
Banjo-Kazooie HD
In many ways, Smash Ultimate's treatment of Banjo and Kazooie is like getting an HD remaster of the duo. Their fighting style, stage, and songs all feel comfortably familiar and yet fit right in with this top-notch modern Smash Bros. As a child who grew with the N64 games, I couldn't ask for more.
4.5 Out Of 5
The Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Fighters Pass was purchased by TheGamer for this review. It's available now for Nintendo Switch.