Last year in March, there was a story doing the rounds about Rare's famous bear and bird from the 1998 Nintendo 64 game Banjo-Kazooie being named after the grandchild and son of the former Nintendo president, Hiroshi Yamauchi.
History suggested that Banjo's name was based on a musical instrument of the same name, and Kazooie's name was inspired by the kazoo. Both of these characters even played the instruments they're named after within the game.
At the time, Gregg Mayles, who served as the game's designer and is still at Rare to this day, confirmed the "Banjo part" was true but wasn't so sure about Kazooie. Now nearly a year later, writer and former Playtonic staffer Andy Robinson has "finally" been able to document it:
During my travels the topic of Yooka-Laylee, a spiritual successor to Rare’s Banjo-Kazooie games, would naturally come up, since I worked on it. And during one such conversation, a revelation was uncovered. With the blog section of this site launched, I can finally document it.
Former Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi has a grandson called – funnily enough – Banjo Yamauchi. His son is named Katsuhito Yamauchi, or ‘Katsuhi’ for short. When you combine these names you end up with ‘Banjo-Katsuhi’ – and it’s not a coincidence. I know, because the original game’s developers confirmed it.
The legendary video game composer Grant Kirkhope, who also worked on Banjo-Kazooie back in the day, even took to Twitter to share the news:
So, there you have it – case closed. One other interesting fact shared by VGC was how Banjo and Katsuhito both inherited Hiroshi Yamauchi's Nintendo stock when he passed away in 2013. They ended up becoming two of the company's biggest shareholders and were eventually sold back for more than $1bn.
[source videogameschronicle.com]
Comments 16
All the more reason I should come to Switch don't you think?? I mean, it only makes sense 😁
Cool story.
Its weird that Rare Replay still hasn't come to the switch. I've never played Banjo Kazooie.
Apparently some Japanese people are super into US Bluegrass. Shiggy himself is a huge bluegrass fan.
I wish my name were Banjo.
Filing this under: The Truth is Stranger Than Fiction.
@Kevember That can still happen.
@BANJO True. There's a possibility that they come when N. Switch Online has N64 😄
@Diddy64 Wouldn't that be great, after all they already made an appearance in Smash Ultimate 😀
That's great, more reasons Banjo-Kazooie needs to come back to Nintendo.
@BANJO
Microsoft says no.
@Liam_Doolan
Minor typo in the final paragraph of Kastuhito’s name as ‘Katshuito’!
@BANJO I'm good just emulating you
@PickledKong64 Yes, both Kazooie and Tooie play well on Xbox 360/One and PC. However, Rare Replay on the Switch really would be great.....
As Microsoft has just said that they aren't competing against Nintendo surely they can green light Rare Replay for the Switch 😁
@BANJO guh huh
When will we get it Microsoft . I want Rare Replay so I can play all the banjo games, i like them all, even N&B.
Interesting information.
Tap here to load 16 comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...