Jinjo

CONCEPT

Race of placid creatures that routinely get kidnapped in the Banjo-Kazooie series. They have evil counterparts that are called MInjos.

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Overview

In Banjo-Kazooie, Jinjos were scattered across every major level in groups of five, each of a different color, those being Blue, Pink, Yellow, Green, and Orange. Finding all the variety of Jinjo in a single stage (during a single visit in the N64 version) resulted in Banjo receiving a Jiggy for his troubles. Aditionally, the final boss was defeated ultimately by releasing several large Jinjos from statues using eggs, the last of which being blue and known as the Jinjonator.

'King Jingaling and his Pet Thing

Banjo-Tooie's Jinjos were also distributed five per level, however the color of each Jinjo was random, and Jiggies were only awarded once all the Jinjos of a certain colors are united. Once collected, Jinjos returned to a matching home in Jingo Villiage, which a large Yellow Jinjo named King Jingaling governs.

Jinjos make another appearance in Banjo-Kazooie, Grunty's Revenge, where Jinjos are again broken up into color based families, however they are not randomly placed around worlds, instead each color of Jinjo inhabits a single world.

Jinjos also were playable in Banjo-Pilot (Game), and had a mode devoted to racing against a pack of super hard Jinjos, and two distinct appearances in Nuts andamp;amp; Bolts, where they waited around the worlds, requiring a quick mission be completely before being saved, or waited in jail for Banjo to bust them out and bring them to their homes, after which you could place Minjos in their cells. After being saved from the worlds, Jinjos became credit for a little table King Jingaling kept in his head, in which there are several rows and columns filled with random colors, and you put matching Jinjo credit in each box. Fill a row, you get some notes. Fill a column, you get parts.

Activities

Jinjos are very friendly and sociable, enjoying kickball from time to time if conditions allow. Outside their cozy villiage, Jinjos tend to stand in one spot, waving their arms about and calling for help. When any member of Banjo's posse touches a Jinjo, they fly up into the air yelling "Jinjo!"

In Nuts andamp;amp; Bolts, Jinjos demonstrated an ability to inflate themselves into a ball in order to participate in races and other assorted challenges.

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Minjo

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Minjos

Minjos are the Arch-Enemies of Jinjos, and share many characteristics with them, such as appearance and a knack for standing in one spot while yelling for help. However, when approached they growl and run at the hero in question, generating yellow sparks and matching sound effects. That said, their color is random on every encounter even on the same Minjo, and like the Enemy Spy they are not immune to knockback or fire, making a fire egg a fool proof Minjo checker. In Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, Minjos had a different design from the Jinjos. The player was tasked with rescuing each colored Jinjo from its prison in Showdown Town, then capturing the same colored Minjo and putting it in the prison instead, even if all they ever did was run around town cackling rather maniacally.

Within Popular Culture

Jinjos have been part of a well-known GameFAQs meme for quite some time. Based on the Monty Python sketch "Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition", users would post topics in the GameFAQs forums, usually with an innocent-yet interesting looking title. Other users would click the topic before finding a post comprising of an ASCII image of a Jinjo alongside the text "Nobody expects Jinjo!", a prank not too different from the rick roll. While it's not certain where this prank originated, over time it managed to make its way across the internet as a well-recognised meme.

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