Secrets in games come in all manner of varieties, from funny little easter eggs to actual cheats that enable all sorts of craziness. Normally, secrets are meant to be found, albeit with a little sleuthing effort, but there are those that were never meant to be found at all. For a long time in Banjo-Kazooie, there existed an entire system of secrets that players were not (at first) ever meant to be able to interact with. This was the Stop ‘n’ Swop system, and I want to explore it a little together with you today.

What was Stop ‘n’ Swop?

Stop ‘n’ Swap was a feature that Rareware had planned for Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie which would allow players to unlock secrets in Banjo-Tooie after first finding them in Banjo-Kazooie. After finding the secret items they’d talk to a certain character and hot swap out Banjo-Kazooie with Banjo-Tooie, which would then detect the data from the first game and unlock the secrets.

The feature worked by taking advantage of an issue with the N64 that allowed RAM to linger longer than it was supposed to, which is how the data would be transferred between the games. Nintendo was afraid that this could damage the cartridges and console, so it asked Rareware to scrap the feature. It did so, but there was just enough left over to ignite fans’ imaginations.

What were the secrets?

Originally, players would be able to stumble across six colored Mystery Eggs and an Ice Key over the course of their journey in Banjo-Kazooie. Again, collecting them did nothing in Banjo-Kazooie, but would grant secret items and abilities in Banjo-Tooie. In normal play, though, the Mystery Eggs are completely absent from the game and the Ice Key is visible but inaccessible. It’s actually the Ice Key that started the ball rolling on the Stop ‘n’ Swop theorizing, since it’s the only visible clue left in the original game.

What’s kind of crazy about all this, though, is that the Mystery Eggs are all still in Banjo-Kazooie; you just need to enter a very long password for each of them on the sand castle’s floor in Treasure Trove Cove. If you wanna get the eggs, here’s what you gotta enter:

• Cyan Mystery Egg – Found in a barrel in the cellar of Mad Monster Mansion.
  Code: CHEAT DONT YOU GO AND TELL HER ABOUT THE SECRET IN HER CELLAR
• Pink Mystery Egg – Found in Sharkfood Island in Treasure Trove Cove.
  Code: CHEAT OUT OF THE SEA IT RISES TO REVEAL MORE SECRET PRIZES
• Blue Mystery Egg – Found behind a normally unopenable door next to Gobi in Gobi’s Valley.
  Code: CHEAT A DESERT DOOR OPENS WIDE ANCIENT SECRETS WAIT INSIDE
• Green Mystery Egg – Found on top of Loggo in Mad Monster Mansion.
  Code: CHEAT AMIDST THE HAUNTED GLOOM A SECRET IN THE BATHROOM
• Red Mystery Egg – Found in the Captains Quarters in Rusty Bucket Bay.
  Code: CHEAT THIS SECRET YOULL BE GRABBIN IN THE CAPTAINS CABIN
• Yellow Mystery Egg – Found in Nabnut’s house during winter in Click Clock Wood.
  Code: CHEAT NOW BANJO WILL BE ABLE TO SEE IT ON NABNUTS TABLE
  Ice Key – Found in the back of Wozza’s Cave in Freezeezy Peak.
  Code: CHEAT NOW YOU CAN SEE A NICE ICE KEY WHICH YOU CAN HAVE FOR FREE

This is only necessary on the original N64 cartridge, though. More on that in a second.

What did they unlock?

We actually only have a partial answer for this as far as the original games are concerned. Since Rareware had to can the feature, it had to implement some of the items in Banjo-Tooie so that players could get their unlocks. Only the Ice Key and the Pink, Blue and Yellow Mystery Eggs saw implementation, so we really have no idea what the Cyan, Green and Red Mystery Eggs would have unlocked originally.

As for the first three items, the Ice Key unlocks the vault holding the Mega Glowbo, which can be used in Humba-Wumba’s hut to transform Kazooie into a dragon. The Pink Mystery Egg unlocked the Breegull Bash move, the Blue Mystery Egg unlocked the Homing Eggs cheat, and the Yellow Mystery Egg unlocked Jinjo in the Squackmatch multiplayer mode.

Is that it?

No! The feature was brought back and fully implemented for the Xbox Live Arcade releases of Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie, it was also incorported into Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts. All it took to make the eggs accessible normally in Banjo-Kazooie on Xbox Live Arcade (or just Game Pass nowadays) is to have a save file from the XBLA version of Banjo-Tooie. Also, don’t enter the codes above in the Xbox version of Banjo-Kazooie, as it’ll disable saving since they’re considered cheats. Anyway, here’s eveything they unlock:

The Pink, Blue and Yellow Mystery eggs unlock the same things as before, only now you don’t have to find them in Banjo-Tooie first. As for the other three, they don’t seem to have anything specific tied to them and will unlock an Xbox Live gamer pic, an Xbox theme and Stop ‘n’ Swop II regardless of the order they’re hatched in. And, yeah, the Ice Key still opens the way to the Mega Glowbo. These all apparently grant access to special cosmetic blueprints in Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts, including a Beacon, Goldfish, Mole-on-a-Pole, Googly Eyes, Fluffy Dice, Flag (2x), and Disco Ball.

Unfortunately, it has not been integrated into any other ports of the two N64 games, including those on Switch. Guess it’s back to being abandoned from now on.

Stop ‘n’ Swop II

This was intended to be a sequel feature to Stop ‘n’ Swop, unlocked in Banjo-Tooie by hatching all the eggs and using the Crystal Key in Banjo-Tooie. It is still in the game and is triggered by finding Banjo-Tooie’s three mystery eggs (bronze, silver and gold), but instead of unlocking something in a new Banjo adventure (as seemed to be the intention), it simply adds something to L.O.G.’s Lost Challenges DLC for Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts. I’m assuming more cosmetic items since I couldn’t find anything on what they actually do in it. (I’m not surprised, though. I doubt many people would have bought DLC for that game.)

Why didn’t this idea go anywhere?

I’d like to say it’s a shock that unlocks via save data (or cross-game data) never really became a thing. In my experience, I only ever saw the feature in the PS2 Ratchet and Clank games, and maybe something in Jak II or Jak 3. There might be others though, so let me know about any other’s you’ve played or heard about. Anyway, I think it’s a simple matter of practicality. I mean, why make content that’s contingent on someone buying two or more games? It’s a condition that prevents you from making it cool since, you know, most of your customers will only have one game or the other.

Stop ‘n’ Swop is kind of a warning not to do it. It was killed before it could even be implemented and was only partially resurrected years later to help drum up some buzz for the developer again after they became a Microsoft label. Ah, but it’s still such an intriguing idea, isn’t it? It’d be so cool to get credit in newer games for finishing older ones, but, unfortunately for all of us, it’s just not a feature worth investing in. Sayanora Stop ‘n’ Swop, you were a fun idea that was just a little to good for us.

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Sneaky Secrets in September continues all this month! Be sure to check out The Duck and Cary’s stuff and tell us about your favorite secrets too!

Image is a screenshot of the Banjo-Kazooie, Super Smash Bros Ultimate reveal trailer