Bottles’ Revenge

Bottles is killed when Gruntilda destroys Banjo’s house in the opening of Banjo-Tooie. In the normal adventure his pale, angelic ghost remains beside his body in Spiral Mountain while the heroes search for a way to revive him. The unused mode gives that spirit a second, devilish appearance: Devil Bottles glows red, has horns and a pointed tail, and carries a pitchfork. His introductory scene begins with the apparently harmless ghost announcing that he is free, before revealing the less friendly form. It turns a character normally associated with teaching and assistance into a source of trouble during exploration. This scene belongs to the disabled mode, so speaking to the ordinary ghost during an unmodified playthrough does not start a second-player session.

The main player retains control of the adventure, camera and route through the worlds. Devil Bottles accompanies the pair and moves to an eligible enemy nearby, giving the other controller access to that creature. The second player can chase, obstruct or attack Banjo using that enemy’s available actions, making a familiar encounter less predictable. The original intention also included exchanging the players’ roles when the possessed enemy defeated Banjo, giving the challenger a turn with the heroes. Treat that exchange as part of the intended design rather than a guarantee that every reactivated build behaves identically. This is a competitive variation on the campaign, even though it is sometimes described as co-op; the second player can choose to help, but the mode was designed around interference.

The original Nintendo 64 release has no normal menu option or completion reward that enables Bottles’ Revenge. To access the surviving mode, use a compatible GameShark or Action Replay setup, or an emulator supporting the corresponding Nintendo 64 memory codes. Match the code to the game’s region, enable both lines of the same pair, and configure a second controller in controller port two. Start or load the adventure and enter a normal area containing a possessable enemy. Returning to Spiral Mountain can trigger the retained introduction when its scene conditions allow it. The historical activation flag did not behave like a permanent, ordinary save-file unlock, so keep the external activation enabled when returning to the mode. These are Nintendo 64 codes; they are not Xbox cheats or phrases for Mayahem Temple’s Code Chamber.

Ice Mario and SubDrag published the four pairs below through The Rare Witch Project after recovering the mode in September 2004. Enter each line as a separate line in one enabled cheat and keep the pair together; the country label identifies the game build rather than the controller or television setting. A United States cartridge uses the NTSC US pair, while PAL UK and PAL Australia have different first addresses. Use an emulator’s verified game identity when the cartridge region is unclear, since a code for another region can simply fail to activate the expected behavior. The original recovery article remains the attribution and source for these codes. They are transcribed here for reference, rather than presented as codes tested on hardware during this guide’s preparation.

Use the second controller’s analogue stick to move a possessed enemy and B for its attack where supported. The retained tutorial says to press R when purple sparkles identify a suitable target, although the original recovery also observed automatic possession. A radar marks eligible nearby foes. Try moving the enemy before assuming that a missing button prompt means the mode failed. Some creatures have extra actions, including L-button sounds or animations, and their movement remains tied to their own behavior. Flying enemies are not freely steerable substitutes for Banjo. Possession can end when an enemy disappears or moves beyond the active area, after which Devil Bottles returns to the heroes to find another target.

An occupied enemy no longer has to follow its usual predictable routine, so the second player can make a narrow route more dangerous or move a threat away to let Banjo pass. This also explains why leaving controller two idle can make an encounter seem easier: the possessed creature may wait for an input instead of carrying out its ordinary attack. Possession offers another useful distinction when a Jinjo-like creature is suspicious. Devil Bottles can inhabit the hostile Minjos, while genuine Jinjos are rescue targets rather than enemies. That behavior can reveal an impostor before Banjo approaches it. These uses come from controlling existing creatures; Devil Bottles does not give the second player a separate route for collecting the campaign’s Jiggies or solving all of its puzzles.

In the recovered retail mode, entering a boss encounter makes Devil Bottles leave rather than handing the boss to controller two. That limitation is easy to confuse with Rare’s account of an earlier development version. In its December 2006 Scribes answers, the team described Old King Coal as the only boss it had working before the mode was abandoned. The second player could hide in one corner of the boiler, run to another when Banjo approached, and keep evading him until his air ran out. The example illustrates a prototype that Rare had running internally; the published Nintendo 64 activation codes do not restore a documented, playable Old King Coal option. The same distinction applies to claims that every boss can be possessed.

Rare gave a specific explanation in its December 2007 Scribes answers. Boss fights depended on attacks and openings that a player could learn, but a person controlling the boss could break those sequences and make the fight difficult to balance. The mode was also added late enough that the whole adventure would have needed another complete round of testing, once with the normal behavior and once with the second-player interference. There was not enough time to do both. Rare said work stopped when the feature was dropped. This accounts for the mixture of usable enemy controls, retained dialogue and unfinished integration found in the cartridge. Its survival should not be mistaken for evidence of an undiscovered normal unlock requirement.

Ice Mario and SubDrag brought the mode back to public attention through The Rare Witch Project in September 2004, demonstrating the retained scene and enemy controls and publishing regional activation codes. The discovery established that Bottles’ Revenge was more than a name left in dialogue, although early enthusiasm about its completeness preceded Rare’s later explanation of the testing problems. A familiar trace is visible without any modification: Devil Bottles’ dialogue portrait appears among the character icons in the Tower of Tragedy Quiz. His image also appears in Grabbed by the Ghoulies. Those appearances preserve the design without enabling the campaign mode. Its enemy-possession idea also resembles Perfect Dark’s Counter-Operative mode, but that resemblance alone does not establish which feature directly inspired the other.

The Xbox Live Arcade version of Banjo-Tooie did not restore Bottles’ Revenge as a playable feature. Rare Replay runs that Xbox version, so its inclusion in the collection does not add the missing mode either. The standard Nintendo Switch Online release presents the Nintendo 64 adventure, but it does not provide a GameShark-style route for entering the regional memory codes above. Unlocking other bonuses, defeating Gruntilda or viewing Devil Bottles’ quiz portrait does not change these access limits. In particular, the Ice Key, Mystery Eggs and Stop ’n’ Swop rewards serve other purposes. Check the actual release you are playing before following an emulator demonstration, because a modified Nintendo 64 session can look very similar to an ordinary playthrough.

On 14 September 2026, Time Extension reported that Bottles’ Revenge was included in the forthcoming Evercade Banjo-Kazooie Double Pack, following footage from an Evercade event. The collection was scheduled for 30 October 2026. At this guide’s 24 October update, that release was still upcoming, so its finished unlock conditions and controller behavior had not been verified here. The announcement concerns a new Evercade implementation and does not retroactively add a normal unlock to the Nintendo 64 cartridge or Xbox game. Keep the historical regional codes separate from instructions for that announced version.

First confirm that the activation code matches the Nintendo 64 game region and that both lines are enabled. Then check that the second controller is assigned to port two and has working analogue and B-button inputs. Move Banjo into an ordinary area with nearby enemies and try a different creature if a stationary or unusually large target does not respond. Use the possession indicators rather than expecting the ghost to move like a freely playable character. Boss rooms intentionally interrupt the recovered feature, and unsupported behavior is not evidence that more Jiggies or a hidden dialogue choice are required. If you are using the Xbox or standard Switch release, return to its supported multiplayer options rather than trying to enter a Nintendo 64 memory code in an in-game cheat screen.