I have been a huge fan of the "Banjo-Kazooie" franchise since my parents got the first to games for me to play on my Nintendo 64. I spent countless hours collecting everything there is to collect in the game and I have the fondest of memories doing so. I have a similar soft spot in my heart for the "Super Smash Bros." series. So naturally, when Banjo & Kazooie were announced at E3 this past year as downloadable content for "Super Smash Bros. Ultimate", I decided I would main them regardless of how they play. Well it's been roughly 48 hours since Banjo & Kazooie have been in the game and I have spent a lot of time playing as them, so let's see if I'm going to stick to that.

I typically use fast characters or characters with crisp movement so I can navigate the battlefield comfortably and have some room for error in case I make mistakes with my positioning, so right off the bat, they were a little slow for my taste at first. Banjo & Kazooie did not quite have the power of a heavy character or the speed of a lighter character, but they weren't right smack in the middle of those two worlds either.

Normally, the mark of a great character is the combos and kill confirms they have. I was worried when I wasn't seeing any combos or confirms off their throw attacks, other than an up-smash follow up at high percent off down-throw. I then thought that maybe they were supposed to use their projectiles to make up for a lack of combo game, but was disappointed to see that their projectiles come out at wonky angles and slow speeds.

However, Banjo & Kazooie appear to rely on being tricky with their projectiles. Their down-b grenade is unlike anything in the game up to this point, and their neutral-b egg does not seem like the best projectile at first glance. Luckily, Banjo & Kazooie have a triple jump while most characters only have a double jump. This makes for some more movement options, and some better angles to drop their grenade from, while still having a jump left. If you mix up how you use their grenade and their eggs, and avoid spamming them predictably, you'll find that you're connecting with a lot more of them, which will allow you to get in and connect with a follow-up hit. This extra jump also makes their recovery a lot better, and more mix-up heavy.

Another noteworthy thing about them is their side-b, which has a tremendous amount of priority and kill power, which is checked by the fact you can only use it five times per stock. Their up-air is pretty weak, but it has a wide hitbox, meaning you can keep opponents in the air for a while and get some juggles off. I don't think their normal attacks are very good or very bad, so as long as you don't do anything too unsafe, everything on that front is pretty standard.

My final verdict on Banjo & Kazooie is that they seem unlike any character I have ever frequented in smash, or ever would frequent, but I will continue to try to main them anyway because I don't think they are bad, so much as they are tricky to use. Characters that are tricky to use, are even trickier to fight against when the person wielding them knows what they're doing so I will do my best to learn how to use them effectively and hopefully become a force to be reckoned with in the online ladder.