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Kazooie has been decapitated, but Banjo’s ok

Poor Kazooie's out of action. What next for Banjo, then?

February 11, 2020 Good news, folks – Banjo’s ok and Kazooie’s on the mend.

Poor, poor Kazooie. Storm Ciara ravaged parts of the UK this weekend with gales blowing at over 90mph in some places, and it looks like Sea of Thieves and Banjo-Kazooie developer Rare has been hit hard. The studio posted pictures of the storm’s damage to the studio’s headquarters – and Kazooie has been decapitated. But the good news is he’s now on the mend.

Yesterday Rare tweeted pictures of Storm Ciara’s work around its Twycross-based studio, including some uprooted trees and a now nearly horizontal bird house. Shockingly, a big statue of the red-crested Breegul – bear-shaped hero Banjo’s best bud in the whole world – had fallen over and lost its head.

Snapped clean off at the neck, the model of Kazooie looked forlorn lying in the wooded grounds of Rare’s HQ – and it seems fans of the classic platform-adventure games feel the loss keenly. “RIP Kazooie” is echoed throughout the replies on Twitter, with one user exclaiming, “Get some honeycombs stat”, and another saying: “Gone, but never forgotten”, alongside a picture of Banjo looking more sad than we can bear. Sigh.

Suitably, another commenter posts a clip of the Game Over music from the original Banjo-Kazooie, but it’s quite difficult to listen to at this tragic time. One interesting theory posted by user Conkerhimself is that the hero of Rare’s Conker games might be behind it, sabotaging one half of his sister series’ hero team. He does have that chainsaw, after all…

If you can stand to look, you can see Storm Ciara’s work below.

However, Rare has since tweeted a picture of Kazooie’s counterpart Banjo, who seems to have weathered the storm and is bear-ing up ok. It also says Kazooie “has been rescued for repair and will be back to eyeing everyone sassily as they drive into the car park soon”. Phew.

There’s no sign of a new instalment in the Banjo-Kazooie series ariving any time soon, but Rare’s newer IP Sea of Thieves continues to thrive, with the studio recently announcing it’s hit the ten million player milestone.

In the meantime, check out our lists of the best platform games and the best action-adventure games on PC, which you might find handy if you’re a Banjo-Kazooie fan, but can’t stand to fire up your copy at this difficult time. RIP Kazooie.