It’s still crazy to think that Banjo-Kazooie is a fighter in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Grant Kirkhope had to keep it a secret for about six months leading up to the big reveal.
“Don’t hold your breath,” famously said Kirkhope on X with the hope of throwing fans off the trail that Banjo-Kazooie was indeed set to join the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate roster. During a recent podcast with Kit & Krysta, Kirkhope recounted what it was like to first learn about of this.
“Davide Soliani, who’s the creative director on the Mario + Rabbids games… and Nintendo bizarrely enough had emailed him to [ask] ‘Could you ask Grant if we could get in touch with him?'” said Kirkhope on how it all began.
“They sent me an email, and it was, you know, super polite. It said ‘Mr. Kirkhope, we have something we’d like your collaboration on. Are you interested?’ I was like ‘Are you joking? Yes!'”
Of course, before Kirkhope could learn about the juicy details of this collaboration, he had to sign a bunch of non-disclosure agreements. During that time, he found himself wondering what it was that he was getting involved with.
“I kind of though, for a minute, ‘Is it Banjo?’ I thought ‘No, it’s been years since Banjo.'”
After getting through all the legal hurdles of being in the know, Kirkhope was eventually told that Banjo-Kazooie was coming to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. “I nearly exploded. I was like ‘What!?'”
Overall, Kirkhope felt humbled by the experience. He didn’t necessarily believe that his involvement would be necessary to have Banjo-Kazooie in Super Smash Bros. since Nintendo already had a number of other composers involved in the project.
Funnily enough, it would seem that Kirkhope’s kids did have some inklings as to what he was working on, but Kirkhope made them swear to not breath a word of the project to nobody.
Check it all out in the video below: