This page explains in detail the interactions between the Banjo-Kazooie series and the Mario series.
Super Mario in Aloha Hawaii[]
A panel from the comic.
December 1998
Banjo-Kazooie
Mario
In this episode of the Super Mario comic published on the german Club Nintendo magazine, Mario meets Bottles and they go to Hawaii via a hole he digs through the earth.
Banjo-Tooie[]
November 20, 2000
Banjo-Kazooie
Mario
In the Inferno section in the Haunted Zone in Witchyworld, there is a picture of a face at the top of the large slide here which many believe looks exactly like Bowser's head.
Banjo-Kazooie
Mario
In Grunty Industries, Banjo and Kazooie find Loggo, a talking toilet from the previous game, who says that someone fill him with paper and needs unblocking. After talking a second time with him, before unblocking him, they'll reference Mario in their dialogue:
- Loggo: "I'm all blocked up... Help!"
- Kazooie: "Then call a plumber. I think Mario's free at the moment."
- Loggo: "I don't think he actually does that kind of work anymore."
In the Xbox 360 Live Arcade version of the game, Kazooie's line is replaced with: "Then call a plumber! I do not think That Well-Known Italian one is doing anything at the moment.""
Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts trailer[]
May 2008
Banjo-Kazooie
Mario
In the first gameplay trailer to show the game's vehicle editor, a Mario on wheels is shown in Nutty Acres. It then gets destroyed by Banjo and Kazooie.
The trailer was later edited to remove the portion when the 8-bit Mario is destroyed. However, the shot of it prior to the destroying remains.
Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts[]
Screenshot from the game (Click to enlarge and read the text).
November 12, 2008
Banjo-Kazooie
Mario
In the opening sequence, when Banjo, Kazooie, and Gruntilda encounter the Lord of Games for the first time, he references Mario in the dialogue:
- LOG: "Very well then, failures, listen carefully."
- Kazooie: "Failures? We've been in several games already!"
- LOG: "But nowhere near as many as that italian gentleman, correct?"
- Kazooie: "He does have a point."
This only count as a type 3, or out-universe link, because even if this is an obvious reference to Mario, he's not directly referenced.
License[]
Being a Nintendo magazine, Club Nintendo had the right to write about not only first-party games, but also third-party games releaed on Nintendo consoles, so they could include a Banjo-Kazooie character in their comics.
Banjo-Tooie, being a Nintendo 64 game, was licensed by Nintendo and could include elements from the Mario series.
Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts is instead an original Xbox 360 game, so Rare had no right to use Nintendo's characters, in fact they could only do subtle references. This also applies to the Xbox Live version of Banjo-Tooie.