BANJO-KAZOOIE

AS EARLY MASCOTS OF THE NINTENDO 64, BANJO THE FIST-SWINGING BEAR AND KAZOOIE THE EGG-SHOOTING BREEGULL WERE HERALDED AS BRITISH DEVELOPER RARE'S ANSWER TO SUPER MARIO 64. NEARLY 30 YEARS ON, WE SPEAK TO SERIES COMPOSER GRANT KIRKHOPE FOR HIS MEMORIES OF WORKING ON THE ACCLAIMED PLATFORMER

- LIAM HEITMANN-RYCE-LEMERCIER

Shifting more than 3.6 million copies in its lifetime, Banjo-Kazooie has secured its place as one of the top-ten bestselling N64 titles of all time – and it’s easy to see why. Teleporting between huge, colourful worlds, each with their own distinctive feel, the sense of adventure open to players made the first Banjo-Kazooie title an instant hit back in 1998.

Beyond the game's wonderfully sarcastic sense of humour, employed by developer Rare in the Banjo universe's roster of quirky characters, the player experience was also heightened significantly by the work of composer Grant Kirkhope.

Providing an insanely catchy soundtrack that serves just as well within the game itself as a standalone listening experience, the Scottish composer - now residing in the US, where he has been based since leaving Rare over 15 years ago - gave us one of gaming's most memorable theme tunes.

But making an earworm out of the unlikely fusion between banjo and kazoo is still a musical feat which, nearly three decades later, Grant can't quite say how he pulled off. He admits that he just closed his eyes and imagined what these instruments would have sounded like. “I thought it was a cool thing, to have to do it!” he says today, explaining that the N64's slim memory storage left little space for complex instrumentation. “You had to kind of make the best of it. It’s nice to get those things that challenge you a little bit. I think it's good fun to do odd things, right?”