Mumbo Jumbo (Banjo-Kazooie)

Mumbo Jumbo is a shaman in the N64 games Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie, as well as the Game Boy Advance games Grunty's Revenge and Banjo Pilot. He lives in his many skull-shaped huts scattered around the lands visited within the games. In Banjo-Kazooie, he offered his assistance to the bear and bird team with useful (and sometimes comical) transformations in exchange for his missing Mumbo Tokens. He also had his own level, Mumbo's Mountain. In Banjo-Tooie, he was featured as a playable character who could use his wand to levitating objects, oxygenate bodies of water (which is not normally possible with water, but can be done with certain fluorocarbon liquids), and other such magical procedures, as long as there was a nearby Mumbo Pad and the player could find the hidden Glowbo.

Mumbo's origin is not altogether clear. In the time-travelling storyline of Grunty's Revenge, we learned that Mumbo was still a shaman in training in the 1970s, which indicates that he was trained under the same witch doctor as Gruntilda, the antagonist of the series, was (previously, he was believed to be Gruntilda's teacher). What is clear is that Mumbo's face was disfigured by Gruntilda. What he was before the transformation is anyone's guess. It is speculated that he was once a purple Jinjo, as his body resembles one of a purple Jinjo, but the people at Rare have specifically stated that theory as false. It is also possible, but has not been confirmed, that the impish-like creatures in the level "Mumbo's Mountain" are related to Mumbo, or at least admire him since they have built a village around his hut.

Also of note is that an evil robotic Mumbo look-alike named Mingy Jongo was introduced (and subsequently destroyed) in Banjo-Tooie, however he is shown as a power-up in Banjo Pilot to hurt all enemies, like the Thunderbolt in Mario Kart 64.

Mumbo appears to have a "native accent", but this cannot be confirmed. This is because, unlike the 2001 Rare game "Conker's Bad Fur Day", which used real voice clips, only short sound effects were used to represent a character's voice. For example, Banjo's "voice" sounded like "Guh-huh!" while Kazooie's sounded like "Bree!". Grunty's "voice" sounded scratchy, suitable for a witch, and Sergeant Jamjars' sounded like "Hup-ho!" (or something along those lines), like the voice of a stereotypical military sergeant.

In a 2006 poll by Nintendo Power magazine, Mumbo was voted "most badass shaman".

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