A number of titles have seen a transition onto current-generation consoles, to take advantage of the additional horsepower they have and to build on their predecessors strengths.
After much waiting from a large number of fans, Rare have finished work on a new Banjo-Kazooie title, Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. For many fans of the original two titles, there will be a withdrawal phase as Rare have done away with the old formulas and changed Banjo-Kazooie substantially. The question is, is it a change for the better?
Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts sees the player introduced to Banjo and Kazooie, who have grown terribly overweight and unfit due to the evil witch Gruntilda (Grunty) (having been destroyed in the previous title) coupled with there being little work for heroes such as themselves.
Banjo is a brown honey bear, and Kazooie is a red-crested Breegul, who hides out in Banjo’s backpack and aids Banjo in the game by guarding the magic wrench (we’ll come to this). Gruntilda unfortunately (or fortunately for the continuation of the series) makes a return and attempts to claim Spiral Mountain as her own. However the Lord of Games (L.O.G.) shows up and states that the only way to find a true owner is to have a showdown between the two. These will take place across a number of worlds that L.O.G. has created for the purpose, and each will have its own unique challenges that need to be successfully completed to put Grunty back in her place, and take Spiral Mountain back (by collecting jiggies of course).
The main element to Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts are the vehicles. Gone are the continual run and jump platformer days, at least for Banjo and Kazooie. They now use vehicles to complete the challenges, and to get around the game worlds. This is also where the game comes into its own, because these are no ordinary vehicles. They are hand-crafted by you, the player, to suit whichever purpose you imagine them for, and are assembled at Mumbo’s Motors. As you play through the game you will find parts in crates which you can bring back to Mumbo to unlock. These parts can be used to build boats, planes, helicopters, floating vehicles, hovercrafts, submarines, indeed everything you can imagine can be created.
From the outset you can’t build such a wide range of vehicles as you are limited in parts, but as the game progresses so do your construction options. Each vehicle will need to have an engine and fuel, and this will need to be chosen wisely as it changes the speed and weight of the vehicle, which in turn affects handling.
This can be slightly frustrating at first, as the real fun is to be had when you are creating bizarre flying machines and transport ships, and other more advanced vehicles. You can also buy new parts and new designs if you are too lazy to create your own, although they won’t be as effective. To do this, you use the in-game currency, which appears in the form of musical notes that are littered all around the game for you to collect. Each vehicle also has what feels like a pretty accurate physical representation of its performance. A vehicle that is top heavy is likely to tip over, and we designed a three-wheeler that kept tipping backwards because it was overpowered and didn’t have enough weight in the front. As you can imagine, the more you play the wackier things become and the crazier the contraptions are, and this element is enormous fun.
Of course you can also add on weapons to your creations, and each of these have a different effect. The longer you play, the more advanced they become.
The starting area is the beautiful town of Showdown. It is a bustling community filled with wacky characters, such as rhinos wearing board shorts and other similarly outlandish creatures. It is rather large, and the first vehicle you are given will speed up your travel, but it is simply a transport vehicle. Over time you unlock upgrades for it (i.e. high grip tires) which will allow you to access new parts of the town that you couldn’t before. This town is where you will access L.O.G.’s worlds to complete challenges. The more jiggies you collect, the more worlds will open up to the player, slowly progressing you through.
Each world becomes generally more challenging and requires you to think about the vehicles you build. One level for example required us to knock a coconut out of Grunty’s car, and we needed to create a vehicle that would ram the top of her car to tip it or bash the coconut out. However, we could have also built a helicopter and airlifted the coconut out - the game really challenges you to come up with innovative approaches to completing the levels.
From Showdown town you will have access to six very different environments. Nutty Acres is a gorgeous environment with pastures that are stitched together like cloth, along with beautiful mechanical clouds and wind up cows. It is wacky and fun and visually stunning, with some of the most amazing water effects you can imagine, along with wind-up whales.
L.O.G. Box is essentially the inside of a game console, where a number of disc spindles turn with all of Rare’s games over time, including Viva Pinata. There's also Banjoland which is something of a theme park combined with a museum. Jiggoseum is a huge arena along the lines of ancient Rome. Rounding out the list is Terrarium of Terror and of course finally Spiral Mountain where the final missions will be completed.
The graphics across all the worlds are spectacular, and there is a strong influence from titles such as Viva Pinata here, with the cutesy effects and the fantasy art style. Everything is very crisp and their is a massive draw distance. Each environment is very different to the others and is fun to explore. That said however there is little to do in the individual worlds other than completing the races, which does make the game feel a bit one-sided.
During these races you will be challenged by Grunty’s friends, the mechanical Gruntbots. These are small balls of what appears to be mechanical anger that power up and fly at your vehicle (or you) from all angles. When they hit your vehicle they will often knock parts off, which will then need to be repaired on the fly by the magic wrench. This is done automatically by simply holding a button on the controller. The enemies themselves are not much of a challenge, but occasionally they really can get in the way of a good showing in a race, or whatever the challenge might be (soccer, anyone?).
There is a small amount of platforming integrated into the title, especially around Showdown where you will be running and climbing around to get to higher points to collect parts crates, and of course musical notes to fuel your consumerism. However this element is relatively minor, and is a bit slow to really use as an alternative. Banjo can also be upgraded by going to the gym in Showdown town, improving his performance considerably. Fortunately Kazooie is given a magic wrench to make up for the powers that L.O.G. takes away from him. The magic wrench is used to not only repair vehicles and to build them, but also to summon a vehicle when it is too far away to walk. You will be using this very often to avoid walking any huge distance. The wrench is also used by Kazooie to attack enemies on foot, but this again is rarely done as vehicles are your medium.
An area that will be an enormous amount of fun is the ability to challenge your friends to races on Xbox Live. This is a sort of wacky races style, with everyone bringing their mad contraptions into a race to see who can complete it first. This, along with the wide range of vehicles you can build, is what will keep Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts exciting long after people finish the single-player. The online even allows you to setup team games with up to eight players, which is a pretty good number for the kind of racing you’ll be doing. The wacky creations you do create can then be shared amongst your friends if you so choose, and therefore you can help your mates complete challenges. Similarly the co-op mode allows you to compete together against AI opponents. All of this makes for a solid online experience, and we can’t wait to see more of you online to share our designs as well as test them in some races.
Overall Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts is a totally unique platforming title, in that it’s more of a wacky racing title than it is a platformer, but retains elements that still make it very much a platformer at heart. Essentially it's about the races, and building crazy vehicles in which to compete with, and it really does make the imagination go wild. The ability to challenge your friends adds a level of longevity and replayability, as well as giving you a chance to show off your most bizarre creation.
The spectacular graphics and the hilarious characters and environments are totally commendable, and Rare have really done a top job. The only real criticism we can come up with is that the title lacks diversity, being so focused on one element, but the more parts you unlock the more interesting and exciting the game becomes.
