Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts
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Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts
The best platform game on the Nintendo 64 is hard one to choose. Many will say it was Mario 64, while others would say it is Banjo-Kazooie. Both are true platformers, but Banjo-Kazooie was a deeper game gameplay wise then the chubby Italian plumber was in his Nintendo 64 title. Rare continued making great games and continued on with the very fun Banjo-Tooie, and then Banjo and Kazooie seemed to have been retired from gaming. That is how Nuts and Bolts starts with a very fat Banjo and Xbox 360 addicted Kazooie sitting on their duffs, eating pizza until their arch nemesis Grunty, yes shes back again, comes back from the dead to cause more trouble. The problem is Grunty is missing her body and is just a head and Banjo can not walk more then 3 steps before passing out. So in steps the Lord of Games or L.O.G. who wants to settle this conflict once and for all and have Banjo-Kazooie and Grunty face off for hopefully the final time. Making Banjo thin and giving Grunty a body and setting some ground rules, L.O.G. starts the fun and leaves them to their own devices.
While the story is interesting and the humor is not very funny, Rare did change most of the overall gameplay from the first two games and build something fairly fresh and new. But I would think it will not impress most fans of the original two games since it is a giant change. The biggest question has to be will this new Banjo-Kazooie game bring the fans back in to the fold or chase them away?
Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts is a game of many unique or cool parts. It is part platformer, something we have seen and played before, but it is also a game where you build your own vehicles and use them to beat the games tests and trials, a gameplay feature I would love to see in a future game as long as the game is more fleshed out in its overall design. But while the use of vehicle invention mixed with platforming elements sounds like a great idea, the end result is a game too difficult for kids and too out of place for adults to enjoy.
Banjo-Kazooie has you travelling many separate worlds, doing the bidding of L.O.G., competing and completing tasks for jig-saw puzzle pieces which are used to open other worlds. The tasks you will compete in are mostly racing games or what in the end come across as racing games as well as some shooting and fetching missions. Using various vehicles that you build via blue prints or even from your own imagination and then you will use specific vehicles for specific tasks. Such as sometimes you need to be fast or powerful, or even have a 4x4 vehicle for some off road experiences. In the end though the poor controls, rather than the opponents you compete against is what will hurt you.
Building vehicles is the best aspect to Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts with plenty of parts to find, win and buy you can build an enormous amount of cars, trucks, taxi-cabs, planes and boats. Putting the pieces together to build a vehicle is just as easy as the Lego kits you owned as a kid or still own today. With only your imagination holding you back it is fun to see what you can build once you find most of the game vehicle parts.
The parts range from engines, tires, guns, seats, and even parts that are nothing more then basic bling for your vehicle and this is very nice because once you enter multiplayer you can show off your Banjo-Pimp-Mobile to your friends. But if they have not played the game and completed much of it and found many parts, their vehicles will not look as good, nor will they be as good for the limited multiplayer racing. Rare should have had a matching system where your friends could borrow parts and vehicles for the multiplayer side of things so it would not be so mismatched.
Graphically the latest Rare game is its best, full of colorful characters who are all animated in a wonderful cartoonish way. The level design is well thought out and suits a wide variety of vehicle types that you can use to defeat the various goals of each level. Plus the general graphics for small items and buildings are great with each item and building having its own personality almost. The stock vehicles you use look great, even the weird ones and you can build your own great vehicles in many different ways.
What is most disappointing in this game is how often the frame rate drops to some ridiculously low numbers and how often it does is a shame, especially since Rare is part of Microsoft and this is far from their first game. Rare needs to patch this graphic issue or for their next game make sure it’s not going to suffer from this issue.
Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts has excellent audio in every way, from the gibberish voice over works which is fun and engaging, to the music which is upbeat and is even a touch humorous and finally the sound effects are great with every sound having a distinct and goofy sound across the board. The music is a touch of the old Banjo-Kazooie music but sounding new and clean and it changes in every world to keep it fresh and fun.
The multiplayer is lame and lacks any true gaming value and this is something I am shocked over because as you play the game you will think of many better ways to play the game with a friend then the choices you are given by Rare. The multiplayer would have been better I guess if all of my friends would have built more custom machines to race around in or even a co-op campaign of sorts outside of the actual single player campaign.
I love(d) the Banjo-Kazooie series for years and they were the best reason to keep your N64 around for many gamers. But while this new Banjo-Kazooie title is one game I liked, I found it to be a bit boring to play at times and it honestly lacks or feels that it lacks a true identity to be either a game for kids or for adult gamers. Highly recommend it as a rental, but make sure this is a game for you before buying.
Pros
+ Great graphics and audio across the board
+ Controls are great
+ Inventing stuff is fun and a great innovation in gameplay
+ Tons of levels and dozens of hours of gameplay
Cons
- The game feels like it is for adults, but looks like it is for kids and it suffers for its lack of identity
- Tries to hard to be funny most of the time
- Too many load screens
- Multiplayer is useless
- Not a compelling game to finish for adults
- Game is hard at times and easy other times, it needs consistency
- Frame rate issues are horrible
Final Verdict
Here's a small guide to help you understand our evaluation of games.
PRESENTATION GRADE
Can be from the game's box to the contents of the booklet, and even the game introduction. (Intro, menus, options, etc)
GRAPHIC GRADE
Up to what point the graphics have been worked on my the developper. The design type, the effort used for textures and environments, as well as animations and framerate.
AUDIO GRADE
Is the soundtrack a good match to the game's style, he ambient sounds keeping with the gameplay and the sound effects clear and convincing?
GAMEPLAY GRADE
Placement of the controls and the inferface that the player with be using during the game.
REPLAY VALUE GRADE
The most important factor in the evaluation of a game. It identifies the lifespan of the game and the fun of coming back again and again.
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