Spiral Mountain
| Banjo-Kazooie Spiral Mountain | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Universe | Banjo-Kazooie |
| Appears in | Ultimate |
| Availability | Downloadable |
| Crate type | Normal |
| Maximum players | 8 |
Spiral Mountain (クルクルやま, Round-and-Round Mountain) is a downloadable stage in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. It is bundled with Banjo & Kazooie as part of Challenger Pack 3 and was released on September 4th, 2019.
Stage Overview[edit]
The players fight on the peak of Spiral Mountain. After a warning signal, the plane of gameplay rotates around the center of the mountain, changing the overall layout of the stage and causing characters and objects on the spiral pathway to be pushed up or down. Wooden platforms and floating patches of ground occasionally appear in the various layouts. Several Banjo-Kazooie characters, such as Bottles, Mumbo Jumbo, Tooty, Buzzbombs, the Jinjos (which come in groups of one to five), and Gruntilda Winkybunion appear as cameos on this stage, with Gruntilda flying in the background on her broom. Various objects from the original game, such as Extra Honeycomb Pieces and Extra Lives, can be seen in the background; the placements of which are almost identical to their respective placements in the original Mountain of Banjo-Kazooie.
Ω form and Battlefield form[edit]
The Ω form and Battlefield form are set on top of the mountain similarly to its regular form; however, in both forms, much of the mountain is now gone, with the main platform acting as an island floating high above the moat. The stages are also resized and reshaped to match Final Destination and Battlefield, respectively. The three soft platforms of the Battlefield form are also based on the wooden platforms of the normal form. The background characters still appear and the background still rotates (although the arrows and sound indicating rotation are gone), but since the stage is a flat circle, this does not interfere with gameplay.
Ω form
Battlefield form
Hazards off[edit]
With hazards off, the stage doesn't rotate, and stays in its initial form. At the start of a match, the layout features two platforms, one on each side of the stage. These platforms float and go away after a certain amount of time, and never return.
Origin[edit]
Spiral Mountain is the starting area in Banjo-Kazooie and every other game in the series afterwards. Banjo's house is located at the foot of the mountain, and Gruntilda the witch resides in a lair near its peak, connected via a rope bridge. In the first game, it serves as a tutorial area, where Bottles the mole teaches Banjo and Kazooie some basic abilities to prepare them for their adventure. The duo can explore around the mountain, find a set of Extra Honeycomb Pieces and some extra lives, and fight the mountain's living vegetation before heading into Gruntilda's Lair.
In Banjo-Tooie, Spiral Mountain has been trashed by Gruntilda's minions just after her revival by her sisters Mingella and Blobbelda; many chunks of the landscape have been broken off and litter the ground. The bridge to Gruntilda's Lair is broken off, and its inside has partially collapsed; only the initial lobby, occupied by Cheato the spellbook, is accessible. The top of the spiral also has a Flight Pad, letting the pair explore more of its surroundings, including a waterfall cave. Banjo and Kazooie are intended to briefly review their returning abilities here before pursuing the Winkybunion sisters through a hole in the side of the cliff opposite Gruntilda's Lair.
In Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge, Banjo, Kazooie and Gruntilda travel back in time 20 years prior to the events of the first game. Spiral Mountain appears much more expansive than its counterparts in other games, and serves as the hub world, with an abundance of collectibles, five passages to other worlds, and several NPCs being found there.
In Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, Spiral Mountain is overviewed and briefly explored in the prologue before Banjo, Kazooie, and Gruntilda warp to Showdown Town with the Lord of Games. The duo return there for the final boss fight against Gruntilda, and stay there after their adventure ends. A significant portion of the upper cliffs is now able to be explored, though it does not contain anything of interest.
The physical layout of Spiral Mountain and its surrounding area in Ultimate is largely based on its appearance in Nuts & Bolts, with notable examples of this including the shape of Banjo's house, the shapes and abundance of trees, and the geometry of the mountain and landscape as a whole. However, the lively, largely undamaged state of Ultimate's Mountain hearkens back to its original Banjo-Kazooie appearance, and several collectibles that appeared in that game can be seen, including an Extra Life statue above Banjo's chimney and behind the waterfall, and Empty Honeycomb Pieces atop a tree stump, on a platform in front of the waterfall area, above a tree next to the mountain, and in the vegetable garden. Interestingly, while Spiral Mountain is surrounded by tall rocky cliffs throughout the original series, much of these cliffs are gone or are drastically shorter in Ultimate's stage, allowing Banjo's house to be fully visible from the peak of the mountain despite this not being possible in said original games.
With the exception of the Buzzbombs, the characters that cameo in the background each play an important role in the first game of the series, Banjo-Kazooie, and with the further exception of Tooty, the entire series. Gruntilda Winkybunion serves as the main antagonist of the series, often causing trouble for Banjo and Kazooie. Tooty is Banjo's younger sister who was kidnapped by Gruntilda in order to steal her beauty in the first game. Jinjos are creatures who Gruntilda consistently causes trouble for throughout the series. Bottles is an intelligent nearsighted mole who teaches Banjo and Kazooie new abilities in the first game prior to his death at the beginning of the second (although he is eventually revived, he does not continue to teach them). Mumbo Jumbo is a shaman whom Banjo and Kazooie visit in the first game and Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge to be transformed into various unique creatures to help them access more Jiggies, is a playable character in the second game who can use his magic to help solve puzzles, and is a major supporting character to varying degrees in other games. Buzzbombs are enemies introduced in Bubblegloop Swamp in Banjo-Kazooie, with one lone Buzzbomb making an appearance in the intro movie to that game as well. One of Mumbo Jumbo's animations on this stage, in which he pulls his eyeballs from his skull and juggles them around, is based on one of his idle animations from Nuts & Bolts.
Tournament Legality[edit]
Spiral Mountain has been widely banned from tournaments due to its unorthodox, frequently changing layout being considered too disruptive for a competitive match. Specific issues include an incredibly low bottom blast zone and a wall present on the right side of the stage that can enable infinites.
Gallery[edit]
Banjo & Kazooie, Mario, Duck Hunt, and King K. Rool fighting on the stage.
Gruntilda and Mumbo Jumbo in front of Gruntilda's Lair.
The Smash design of Banjo's house takes influence from both Banjo-Kazooie and Nuts & Bolts.
Names in other languages[edit]
| Language | Name | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| クルクルやま | Round-and-Round Mountain | |
| Sprial Mountain | — | |
| Montagne Perchée | Perched Mountain | |
| Sprial Mountain | — | |
| Montaña Espiral | Spiral Mountain | |
| Monte Spirale | Spiral Mountain | |
| 螺旋山 | Spiral Mountain | |
| 빙글빙글산 | Round-and-Round Mountain | |
| Spiral Mountain | — | |
| Спиральная гора | Spiral Mountain |
Trivia[edit]
- Buzzbombs never appear on Spiral Mountain outside of Gruntilda's Lair in the Banjo-Kazooie series.
- In Banjo & Kazooie's showcase video, the reason Masahiro Sakurai gives for the Buzzbomb's inclusion is that their wings allow them to float into the stage. However, given the humorous tone of his other statements within the video, it is likely that he was purely joking; instead, its appearance on the stage may reference the opening sequence of the original Banjo-Kazooie, which features a Buzzbomb flying in the sky before it crashes into a Rareware logo, falling into a lake in an unidentified grassy area somewhat resembling Spiral Mountain.
- Oddly, despite its prominence as a point of interest in Banjo-Tooie and hosting a large, gaping cavern since then, the cliffside directly opposite Gruntilda's Lair and above the tree stumps is entirely absent from the Ultimate stage.
- As the original Banjo-Kazooie's vegetable enemies are absent in Ultimate's stage, an Empty Honeycomb piece appears in the vegetable garden where one could be obtained by defeating a cauliflower enemy called Colliwobble. However, no such Honeycomb piece appears in the area with boulders, which could, likewise, all be defeated for a piece (although the boulders in Ultimate lack the eyes of said original boulders).
- Additionally, despite four of the six original game's Empty Honeycomb pieces being represented in Ultimate, with a particular camera position, it may be observed that there is no Honeycomb piece in the moat beneath the wooden bridge as there was in said original game, although this is likely due to this not being something meant to be visible in normal gameplay.
- Though still fairly minor, this stage is Tooty's most prominent appearance since her debut in the original Banjo-Kazooie. While she appears in both Banjo-Tooie and Nuts & Bolts in easy-to-miss cameo photos inside Banjo's house, only this stage and the original Banjo-Kazooie feature her as an animated character.
- The ink left behind by Inkling's Splat Roller will aesthetically rotate with the stage, but its effects on grounded movement remain in place, which causes a minor visual discrepancy.
- The following Assist Trophies cannot appear on this stage: Jeff, Ashley, Riki, Dr. Wright, Vince, Yuri Kozukata, Arcade Bunny and Shadow the Hedgehog. Additionally, Marshadow cannot be summoned from a Poké Ball here.
- When this stage appears in spirit battles, it functions differently. It will rotate once, to face Gruntilda's lair, and then will never rotate again for the rest of the battle, though the platforms will still fly in and out.
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| |
|---|---|
| Fighters | Banjo & Kazooie (SSBU) |
| Stage | Spiral Mountain |
| Other | Jinjo · The Mighty Jinjonator |
| Spirits | Spirits |
| Music | Ultimate |
