Banjo-Kazooie is a platform game series developed by Rare. The games feature a male bear named Banjo and his friend, a large female red bird named Kazooie, both of whom are controlled by the player. Banjo originally made his debut as a playable character in 1997 as part of the cast of Diddy Kong Racing. Throughout the various games, they are tasked with thwarting the various evil schemes of a witch named Gruntilda. The first game, Banjo-Kazooie, was released in 1998 to critical acclaim and was followed by three sequels and a spin-off racing game. The franchise debuted on the Nintendo 64 and subsequent entries in the series also appeared on Game Boy Advance and Xbox 360. The three main titles then saw a release on Xbox One as part of Rare Replay. The franchise has been largely dormant since the release of Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts in 2008. However, Banjo and Kazooie have made occasional appearances in later crossover titles such as Sega's All-Stars Racing series and Nintendo's Super Smash Bros. series.