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Review:
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Cars, as a rule, don't hop up and down. It's not very good for them or the people inside them. Given the option though, we obviously would put springs on the bottom of ours, so when we stumbled into Banjo-Kazooie's Jiggoseum for the umpteenth time and were asked to join a three-lap checkpoint race of the arena, we were pleased to discover there would be hurdles. Made of bricks. But, alas, our satisfaction was only fleeting, as we turned out to be rubbish at car hurdles, because we only had two springs available at Mumbo Jumbo's garage, and it's rather difficult to balance the up-thrust of a pair of ACME Tigger-tails against the delicate immediacy of jet propulsion. Still, we weren't stumped for long. New solution: snow plough. Bye bye bricks.
This isn't a platform game, then. You can eke out hidden extras on-foot in the hub world, Showdown Town, but this is a driving, flying and boating game, with almost no player death or hairy jumps to worry about. You are collecting 131 jigsaw pieces (jiggies) - in much the same framework as Mario gathering stars - but every task begins by asking you to select or build a vehicle to fit the brief. You're never let loose on foot and then given the choice, and if you were, you wouldn't enjoy it, because the vast, ornately detailed openworld level environments would take several minutes to cross, and their thick bridges, riverbeds, hills, pathways, iceflows and buildings are impractical for platforming. They're either there to absorb your rubber, or look sexy as you deliver coconuts to a supply ship, barge Mr. Patch into a cactus with a biplane, or launch yourself off a ski-jump in a homemade toboggan.
Along with the usual collect-'em-up incentives, the Achievements include a good one involving a cow and a volcano. Amidst all this detail, which the game happily displays without trickery or obfuscation - even directing a nod to Crackdown's Agency tower at one point - the frame-rate will dip below the stock 30 from time to time, and some of the load-times are appalling, but the overall effect is decent recompense. The first world, for example, is a charmingly fake and beautiful island of patchwork hills and fields with a tumbledown farm in the middle (it only takes a nudge), Playmobil flora and square cows in the meadows, a smouldering volcano to one side, and massive whirring mechanical gizmos off-shore operating a system of rotating metal rods in the sky, from which stitch-covered clouds are suspended by string. The whole level is surrounded by flickering, scan-line-covered panels of deep blue pretend. It's a very pretty place.
Obviously, it's all marionettes and Nanna's quilts for a reason. In Nuts & Bolts, a plump, latter-day Banjo is plucked out of retirement to take on a rejuvenated Gruntilda by the Lord of Games, who claims to have created all videogames, and who has built each of the game's levels to test your reflexes and showcase antics. So we get Banjo Land, which references every platform trope imaginable in a deliberately congested museum of deserts, snowdrifts and football pitches, with winding walkways and knowingly arbitrary and half-hearted traps like rotating saw-blades in a meaningless tunnel. The old Rusty Bucket tanker is icelocked to one side, and each of the game's visual recollections comes with a description of its place in Banjo history. Prior to Banjo Land, you visit the Logbox 720, the inside of the Lord of Games' own console, where every ramp is an interface cable, every obstacle is a circuit, chip or capacitor, the indigenous enemy is a knee-high, green Darwinia reject (a bug, see), and half the missions involve fixing the console's broken cooling system. (Oh no they diiiiidn't).
Load screens - of which you'll see rather a lot - include tips and messages. One suggests that if you don't like the new vehicle gameplay, perhaps you should buy Banjo-Kazooie on Xbox Live Arcade instead. Touchy!
Whatever you think of the developer's decision to reject platforming, it's harder to argue with the humour and fan service, with some good game-related jokes (Humba's manufactured girl game clan, for instance - the "Hag Trolls"), pre-level video riffs on TV-show title sequences, and gratuitous self-deprecation, as Kazooie bemoans Klungo's ineptitude by noting that there's almost no point doing this level because he'll just break something in the next. Actually, special mention has to go to Grunty's erstwhile henchman, who seems to be doing very well in Showdown Town, running the pier and even hosting his own 2D platformer, Klungo Savesss Teh World, in which players time jumps to avoid getting caught by the forced scrolling.
CRITICS CORNER:
911UP
The combination of a surprisingly lengthy single-player game and a robust multiplayer mode make this one game that just about anyone can enjoy. While the challenges get a little repetitive, the ability to create and operate custom vehicles -- both online and off -- make Nuts & Bolts a unique, entertaining spin on the everyday platformer.
90NZGamer
With so many vehicle parts, places to go and people to see, Nuts & Bolts is going to be a game you keep going back to. Just getting to the end will require hours of commitment, but, it's not like you need an excuse, right? Apart from a confusing premise (the story is a little bit weak) and the small text, this game is a massive success.
90VideoGamer
Nuts & Bolts offers true next-gen gameplay, with user created content being core to the experience. Simply making vehicles is good fun, and with the ability to instantly test them out you can sink hours into one creation alone. It certainly won't be for everyone, but with spectacular presentation, highly entertaining Robot Wars style multiplayer and a lot of good hearted humour, the bear and bird are back.
853DJuegos
Despite its quality Banjo Kazooie is a videogame very difficult to locate, especially because it refuses the legacy of the previous games and because it's friendly looking masks a gameplay deep and sometimes even complex. Brainless car racing, engaging vehicle creation and plenty of fun are its main values.
85Meristation
Banjo is back. A whole new adventure featuring several old friends and some new characters, but in a completely new world. It's great to see Banjo this well, as Nuts & Bolts is really funny, but the new gameplay is something users must get used to. Vehicles are fun, but not as much fun as they should be.
83IGN
A game that never stopped being fun for me. It's an odd duck that doesn't fit into any conventional game genres and probably isn't right for everybody. Despite its friendly appearance, Nuts & Bolts isn't exactly easy to pick up and play and might be over the head of some small children. There's a lot of depth here and the vehicle creation tools allow you to flex your mind and your fingers at the same time.
80Official Xbox Magazine UK
Rare's best game in years is quite obviously intended for a younger audience, one that will almost certainly love every minute of it.
80Official Xbox Magazine
There's a big difference: instead of hopping and bopping on one foot, you spend most of your time in tricked-out vehicles you make yourself. [Holiday 2008, p.72]
80GamePro
The game's new vehicle-based emphasis will probably turn off some long-time fans, but I really enjoyed the game's premise. [Dec 2008, p.95]
74Team Xbox
The main issue is that there are a ton of games out this holiday season that are fun from start to finish, while Nuts and Bolts will probably take most of you up to a point before you lose interest in the Lego-like construction projects and the pursuit to beat all of the challenges.
70EuroGamer
Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts is not a platform game. The game it has become instead demands thoughtful, exciting challenges that inspire the player to pitch in and help get the most out of each level, but it fails to provide them, and even though it's worth persevering with for the occasional hurdles race, egg-and-spoon and a game-world in aptly Rare form, ultimately it's a brilliant shell with a mostly hollow centre.
70GameSpy
It's a shame, then, that vehicle handling feels so clunky and awkward, since it's such an integral part of the experience. It's also quite possible that the tutorial and construction will be too complicated and frustrating for younger gamers. Those are two major issues, but if you can look beyond them, there's fun to be found in Nuts & Bolts.
65IGN UK
There's a great idea at the core of Nuts & Bolts and, from superb construction tools right through to lavish presentation, there are plenty of individual elements worthy of praise. When it fails though, Banjo fails badly and the lack of any fundamentally engaging framework to support the game's creative elements renders the game pretty much obsolete for anyone looking for something to appreciate beyond the incredibly flexible building component in isolation.
50Wired
Banjo is what you get when you put a lavish coat of polish on nothing: A beautiful, funny game with a clever concept that is utterly lacking in fundamentals.
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