Hello?note
Well, these are the guys behind Donkey Kong Country after all, not to mention the copious amounts of subtle adult humor. No surprise that there's some genuinely scary shit in a game like this.
- All in all, there's actually a surprising amount of disturbing content in both games. And, as the characters themselves acknowledge, "this is a family game" - which might well be a shameless acknowledgement of what they managed to sneak past the censors.
- The Game Over screen, true to Rare tradition, where Gruntilda succeeds at stealing Tooty's beauty: the former becomes a shapely, sexy villainess, while Tooty turns into a green monster and starts lashing at the camera repeatedly: "Banjo, your sister wants a word with you...now!". What makes it worse that, as it happened in Donkey Kong 64, the sequence is also triggered when quitting the game. All of this is backed up by the BGM, a brief rearrangement of the main theme
played by a Banjo and a Kazoo. - Treasure Trove Cove. A beautiful tropical island/beach area. Just be sure to stay out of the water... A great white shark, called Snacker, will suddenly appear out of the blue, and Suspiciously Similar Song of the Jaws theme kicks in. Also, one of the Jinjos and a honeycomb piece are underwater, several platforming segments take place across the water, and there are two occasions in which you absolutely need to swim for your life across a stretch of the sea. While this example may not be the most threatening in writing, it's fair to say that this was, to many, one of the most tense parts of the game.
- Clanker's Cavern. You start looking around a horrible, oily, grimy, scrap-metal waste tank-like area, in stark contrast to the bright and cheery atmospheres of the last two levels, and finding the only way to go is through a narrow pipe in grimy yellow-brown water. You swim along the pipe, until you see what's on the other side. Razor sharp teeth. A giant, metal shark is looking right at you as soon as you arrive.
- Not only that, but you have to go inside that metal abomination. Luckily, the creature isn't malicious in any way — the sharp teeth he has are used exclusively on garbage — but all the bloody looking stuff meshed in with all that rusty steel stuff looks rather discomforting. The music that plays sounds so melancholy only adds to the creep factor.
- The entire level, in general, forces you to explore underwater, worried about your oxygen meter, through grimy tunnels which seem to go on forever, and one even stops at a grill, revealing the main area, and the surface with air you would be able to relish if only you had more time... And enjoy the realistic drowning animation.
- Early in the level, you're going to have to swim to the bottom of the place to free Clanker so he can ascend, as both getting inside him and using him as a stepping stool is critical to finding around half of the items hidden in the area. The lock keeping him down is very very very deep underwater, so deep that your air gauge isn't sufficient to go straight down from the surface and then get back up before you drown. Your only source of air down there is a friendly fish who provides oxygenated air bubbles, but the finicky swimming controls make them hard to grab. And all the while you're down there, the music adds "helpful" Psycho Strings. Like so.
- The same "Psycho Strings" soundtrack also plays, appropriately enough, inside certain sections within Clanker the Shark's body.
- The above tension about drowning gets taken up to eleven in the later stage Rusty Bucket Bay, where the water is so polluted you can't even breathe while swimming on the surface. Not only that, you lose air twice as fast underwater. Oh, and in one section, Snacker's back. And this time, he doesn't talk.
- The pyramid maze in Gobi's Valley; there is a maze in a mummy king's tomb. Said mummy king is pissed off that you broke into his tomb, and forces you to complete the maze. The maze is very frantic and fast-paced, and you only get about 60 seconds to complete it, with urgent-sounding, panic-inducing music playing the whole time and tons of enemies trying to attack you. The camera also does sporadic rotations that make it even more difficult, not to mention the fact that the Witch Switch is located in a seriously hard-to-reach place that's about as far from the exit as possible. All in sixty seconds.
- While the maze itself isn't any more difficult than the one in Mad Monster Mansion, the consequence for losing is the player's controls are locked as the view goes first-person, looking straight up at the lowering spike ceiling...
- One particularly unnerving enemy in Gobi's Valley are the Slappas, which are giant mummified hands that emerge from the sand to chase after and crush you. They aren't difficult enemies to deal with, but unlike most other enemies in the game, they don't have anything resembling a face or Rare's signature googly eyes to push them into Ugly Cute territory. Worse, when you kill them, you can see their bones and flesh when they break apart.
- Mad Monster Mansion: although many claim it's supposed to be a "goofy, kiddie" ghost house, that still doesn't stop it from being very frightening with its giant ghost in the dining room, the nigh-invincible skeleton and ghost enemies, the creepy-voiced flower pots and creepy music in the churchyard as well as the creepy church with the disembodied ghost hand inside.
- The Grimlets in Rusty Bucket Bay are especially terrifying. They're basically disguised as cowl vents with huge fangs that lunge at the duo when they get too near. They look like this◊ in the actual game, but their beta designs were◊ even worse. One tell-tale sign that the cowl vent is actually a Grimlet in disguise is by their relatively light gray exterior and reddish-brown interior. Another warning sign is that they menacingly growl and give a nasty glare if Banjo gets close; they will make a biting sound if an egg is fired. Grimlets are one of the few completely invincible enemies in the game - even the Wonderwing is ineffective against them and will make Banjo bounce back after touching these baddies.
- The final area of Gruntilda's lair qualifies. Unlike the jaunty theme that's been played throughout the rest of the lair (and its various remixes near each of the world entrances), the music here is grim and haunting. Combined with the forboding architechture, it's a chilling indicator that Gruntila's through playing around — your adventure is almost over, and the Wicked Witch is playing for keeps.
- The final battle shows why Gruntilda is a Not-So-Harmless Villain as she goes all-out to kill Banjo and Kazooie while tossing out sadistic one-liners. When she scores a hit, she has several lines talking about how she enjoys the sound of them screaming in pain.
- When the Jinjos show up, one of Grunty's possible lines is "So your little furry friends, come here to share your bitter end!" It really shows how evil she is that she's fully willing to murder the Jinjos just for trying to help Banjo and Kazooie. As the Grey Jinjos found out in Banjo-Tooie, she's not bluffing either.
