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- Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts
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| Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Dec 6 2008, 12:14 AM (916 Views) | |
| LK | Dec 6 2008, 12:14 AM Post #1 |
iminspace
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Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts Developer: Rare Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios Release Date: November 11th, 2008 Genre: Vehicular Platformer Platform: Xbox 360 Rating: E - Everyone Banjo Kazooie and Banjo Tooie for the Nintendo 64 were classic games, and still have a place in my heart. Both games took the Platforming genre to a similar level, but absolutely nailed every single part that made the Platforming genre so special. Though not everyone loved the games, and some consider them to be a so-called “collectathon”, since you collect so many different things. While some of it may be true, it never changed the fact that they looked beautiful, sounded great, and were fun. After Microsoft bought Rare, I was always waiting impatiently for another Banjo game, preferably Banjo Threeie, like Grunty says at the end of Banjo Tooie. But when Rare first showed off Nuts and Bolts to the press, I, and many other fans of the series, were extremely disappointed with the new direction. But you can never judge a book, or a game in this case, by its cover. Nuts and Bolts may look like vehicular combat - like Twisted Metal - but it comes nowhere close to that ridiculous genre. What makes Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts so special, is that it took the platforming genre that made the past games amazing, and added a bunch of vehicle parts to spice things up. You still do little mission to get Jiggies, like racing, collecting a bunch of items, and all sorts of different things, it’s only different because you’re using vehicles, instead of Banjo and Kazooie by themselves. The Banjo games never took pride in their stories, and Nuts and Bolts is no different. Sure, it works, but it’s not going to win an Oscar for amazing dialog and fantastic ending or anything. Banjo and Kazooie start out at home, chilling, playing Xbox. During the introduction, it shows the events of the first Banjo Kazooie games, and after the introduction, Grunty is at her ways again, this time, she’s only a head, and cannot do anything to Banjo if she even tried. Banjo and Kazooie, on the other hand, are now overweight, and have trouble moving around since they’ve been gone for a while. The video game king himself, LOG (Lord of Games), comes in and wants to stir things up for a change. He gets Grunty a new body, and brings Banjo and Kazooie to a whole new world with more collecting of Jiggies to do, pitting them against each other once again. Going to different worlds, collecting as many Jiggies as humanly possible is the objective here again. But Rare has a great sense of humor, like always, and has Banjo and Kazooie facing off against Grunty in a collectathon, but LOG gets bored watching them collect, and it doesn’t last very long. They also like to poke fun at other parts of the past Banjo games, like having load screens saying things like, “If you don’t like Nuts and Bolts, why not try the original Banjo Kazooie on Xbox Live Arcade?”. Stuff like that. The coolest, and most appealing part of Nuts and Bolts is that it plays extremely like past Banjo Kazooie games. You go to a world unlocked by collecting a certain amount of Jiggies, and while there, you do little missions for classic characters to gain more Jiggies. The object of the entire game is to collect as many Jiggies as possible, and eventually unlock 75 to face Grunty in one last (and frustrating) battle. It’s awesome because doing a mission can be totally different from the next mission. Some missions have you collecting as much Coconuts as possible, putting them in your vehicle, and delivering a certain amount before time runs out, but then another will have you race around the entire level. The variety is great, and I never once got bored of doing the same thing over and over again. All of the missions you do throughout the game have you drive 3 types of vehicles: Land, Water, and Flying. Most of the missions will be done with a normal land vehicle, but lots will have you drive others as well. Most missions let you pick your own vehicles, while some of them give you certain vehicles to use. If you complete the mission with a good time, or a good score you will get a Jiggy, but if you somehow do it even better, you’ll gain a T.T. Trophy as well, and when you collect 4 Trophies, you gain an extra Jiggy. The HUB world is Showdown Town, like Grunty’s Lair in Banjo Kazooie, and Isle o’ Hags in Banjo Tooie. You can either run around town, collecting notes (which act as currency), or you can drive the Showdown Town Trolley that is the complete basics (4 wheels, a seat, and a tray for carrying things around). The town starts out small, but once you gain more abilities for the Trolley, you gain more areas you can access. One part of Nuts and Bolts I never understood - and will probably make people kind of angry - is that collecting Jiggies isn’t as easy as picking it up, but instead, you have to go back to Showdown Town, take it from a vending machine that corresponds to the level you got it from, then deliver it to a giant holder in the middle of the town. It just seem like more work to make the game longer or something. But the majority of your time will probably be spent in the vehicle creator at Mumbo’s Motors. The creation is so easy, even a baby could put some pretty decent together, and it could work. What you’re given is a bunch of different menus like body, power, fuel, fly or float, wheels, etc, and all you need to do is clip parts together like lego. The only things you’ll need to keep in mind is that you’ll need an engine, some fuel, and a seat to make a vehicles go. You can literally build a vehicle with just motors, a seat, and four wheels, and it’ll work perfectly fine. When you want to build a plane, just attach a propeller to the front, and some wings at the side, and it’ll fly. If you want a boat, put some propellers on the back, and make sure it can float, and you’re all set. It works extremely well, and is really satisfying building that works really well, and near the end of the game, you’ll need to build some pretty impressive vehicles. You can also buy parts for your vehicles, and stock blue prints from Humba Wumba in Showdown town. What makes most of the rest of the game so special is the designs of most levels. Nutty Acres, the first level of the game, is a giant mechanical beach with giant gears surrounding the level controlling the clouds above. LOG Box 720 (a play on Xbox 360) is a level that takes place inside a video game console, and Banjoland is a amusement park that pays homage to the previous Banjo games before it. Most, and I mean MOST of the levels are designs brilliantly, but Terrarium of Terror is why they draw the line. Terrarium of Terror is a plant/jungle-like level that takes place floating in space. It’s.... Not fun to play in, let’s just leave it at that. If it wasn’t for the awesome levels, I don’t think Nuts and Bolts would be as fun as it is, and I really applaud Rare for the great designs, they really know what they’re doing. These levels wouldn’t be complete without some awesome visuals, and Banjo Kazooie fully complements. But not only does it complement the great level designs, Nuts and Bolts is easily one of the best looking games on the console. Every part of the game is clear as a bell (besides night in Showdown Town), the lighting is absolutely fantastic, the character and environments have superb textures, as well as amazing geometry. I was in awe when I first started playing in Nutty Acres (the best looking level of the game). The level absolutely blew me away, you could see the giant gears from miles away, and the water sparkled with light. Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts also has some great effects like rippling water, and amazing physics to boot. The vehicular parts of the game would suck without the brilliant physics engine the game has. And like the past games as well, Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts has a fantastic soundtrack that will be pleasing to the ears, but some of the sound effects might drive people mad. You’ll hear a lot of classic tunes that you loved from the past games, as well as new tracks that are even better than before. Nuts and Bolts features absolutely no voice acting, but for the type of game it is, it suits it perfectly fine. The grunts the characters make are always funny and charming, and I wouldn’t want a Banjo Kazooie game any other way. While Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts is a positive game throughout most of the adventure, there are some bad points as well. You will be frustrated a lot during the game, the difficulty can jump from far too easy, to ridiculously hard, there’s barely any in-between. The last boss will sometimes make you throw your controller, but I don’t remember the other Grunty’s being easy anyways. Another negative point is that the creation tool can screw you up pretty bad if you don’t know what you’re doing. Some vehicles will control terribly if not made correctly. I never had this problem, but I saw one of my brothers having trouble with this. There’s also online multiplayer as well, but like above, this is another bad point of Nuts and Bolts. You can do a bunch of different events like racing on ground, air, and on water, but you can also battle each other with weapons, but the weapon combat is kind of hard to control unless you have the powerful homing-missiles. I also had connection problems when trying to connect to players, but I don’t think it was because of my connection, there was just too little amount of people playing the game online. Once online there was absolutely no slowdown or lag, but getting into the match is the hardest part. The online portion is pretty much the regular mission of the adventure, but against human opponents instead, so it’s still fun, it’s just nothing that will make or break the game. Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts can also be connected with Banjo Kazooie the Xbox Live Arcade game. If you collect any of the Stop n’ Swop items from the Xbox Live Banjo Kazooie game, you can transfer them over to Nuts and Bolts for vehicle parts, though most of the vehicle parts are nothing special. Stop n’ Swop was supposed to work on the Nintendo 64’s Banjo Tooie where you would quickly take out Banjo Kazooie, then pop Banjo Tooie in, but it was scrapped when Nintendo told Rare that it can wreck the console itself. You may also notice that I don’t have the “Stop n’ Swop” achievement that’s worth 0 points. I actually have never done the stop n’ swop, but I can imagine that it’s not very useful considering the parts you get are rubbish. But overall, Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts exceeded my expectations in nearly every possible way. It’s funny, good looking, it sounds great, and like the Banjo games before it, it’s fun. Nuts and Bolts is easily one of the best looking games on the 360, the art is nearly unmatched, and the vehicle creation is as easy as connecting Lego pieces together as a kid. I highly recommend Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts, especially if you liked the past Banjo games. I can’t suggest to everyone though, there are parts that will make you want to throw your controller, and I wouldn’t blame you. The game is selling at a wee $40 price point, so if you’re thinking about buying it, by all means, buy Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts, it’s awesome. 
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| Wolf | Dec 7 2008, 10:53 AM Post #2 |
Next stop, the Twilight Zone
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Great Review. I seriously hate how this game is not a traditional platformer though. The vehicle stuff looks like a pain in the ass |
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| Olimar001 | Dec 7 2008, 11:42 AM Post #3 |
Clarke.
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I've been looking at this game a lot on YouTube. It looks awesome. Although too bad I don't have 360. I'd buy this in a heartbeat. Although I've heard it sucks compared to Banjo Kazooie and Banjo Tooie. |
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| Firestrife2 | Dec 10 2008, 10:13 PM Post #4 |
God Of Kings
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I loved Banjo as a young boy..and I still do. But the new one looks weird.. I will have to try it first before I judge it though ^_^. |
 
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| Propaganda Man | Dec 14 2008, 07:57 PM Post #5 |
Who are you?
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I haven't played the prequels but got this game and I love it. I explore the main town for hours trying to find what ways I can sneak into areas not meant to be open to me yet. 
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| LK | Dec 14 2008, 11:57 PM Post #6 |
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iminspace
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LOL! I actually got on top of the roof of the Banjoland area in Showdown town where you need the springs, before I had them. I used the fences in the ally to make a ramp, and I just walked up there no problem. I couldn't do any of the mission though since they were all spring-based.
Edited by LK, Dec 14 2008, 11:57 PM.
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| King Leon | Dec 15 2008, 01:06 AM Post #7 |
It ends tonight
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I love the look of this game. It doesn't look right on 360 though. *creates petition to bring Rare back to Nintendo* |
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| DeBlob | Jan 2 2009, 08:38 PM Post #8 |
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Goomba
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yeah i love banjo kazzoie and im cool with the 360 thing cause i own one. |
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