[Official] Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts


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This Is What Those Guys Were Watching

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We're done counting the tens of thousands of votes you people cast in our "What The Hell Are These Guys Watching?" poll, and the results are in! So just what was it that had the Japanese crowd enthralled/confused? Was it Microsoft's star show-stopper, Star Ocean 4? Or perhaps the other Square Enix attention-grabber, Last Remnant? Or maybe, just maybe, it was the other other Square Enix 360 exclusive, Infinite Undiscovery?

Nope. It was none of them. Believe it or not, the video presentation that was showing at the time was for Rare's Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. Really. And every other time I saw it shown, people stopped, turned, and watched, where for most other titles (Star Ocean 4's STUNNING cinematics aside) they'd just keep on walking.

Guess it's not being marketed that heavily here, and looks, I don't know, different. Unique to Japanese eyes, maybe. Who knows! If you guessed wrong, chin up. There are more important things in life. If you guessed right, remember, internet bragging rights are yours for a day.

Source: Kotaku

  • 2 weeks later...
40 mins till I can download, more impressions would be good!

Like Spookie said there is a lot of reading at the beginning. You start in the main town area and you are instructed to pick up a box and bring it to Mumbo. He opens it and it has vehicle parts in it (I guess these boxed are scattered across the game worlds). Then you go into the shop to get instructed on building the only vehicle you can drive around the main town (you can build and use any other vehicles in any of the game worlds though, just not the main town). This vehicle is basically just a cart with wheels on it. It's got a tray that you can put stuff in to drive around.

Building vehicles is really easy. They did a good job with the creator tools so it's not confusing about where parts can go or what you can do, etc.

I went into the first game world and tried one of the challenges. Upon entering the first world, Mumbo gives you three vehicle blueprints that you can use in challenges. I had to push soccer balls across a field into the goal within a time limit. The amount you push in determines whether you win music notes (which are currency in the game), a jigsaw piece, or a T.T. Trophy. When you start the challenge you're instructed to pick a vehicle. A good choice is a vehicle that can push balls around fast or carry balls. Well the Humbapusher (one of the blueprint vehicles Mumbo gave me) seemed like a good choice, as the name implies.

I found fast though that it's not as easy as it looks. There are obstacles, vehicle control differences, and baddies that push the balls the other way. So I started modifying the vehicle. It's really simple and quick to quit a challenge and go immediately to the shop to edit or create a vehicle. After about 5 or 6 unsuccessful tries in tweaking the Humbapusher I got it right by extending the 'V' shape at the front for pushing the balls, and adding a tray onto the back so I could carry a ball and push it at the same time. That one got me the T.T. Trophy.

All in all it was a decent experience, in my opinion. The vehicle aspect is different, but I felt like the vehicle was really just an extension of BK. You could say that the whole vehicle is BK I guess and then it feels closer to the original. The challenge I tried kept me intrigued and kept me wanting to keep tweaking my vehicle so I could do better and they made it really easy to do that.

The graphics/artistry is just amazing. I love the style. It's very colorful and immersive. The controls take a little bit of getting used to (they're slightly touchy), but they're easy to get. Loading times are generally pretty short. Ill be going back to the demo probably next week sometime before GoW2 comes out (I've got a busy week the rest of this week and probably won't get to gaming too much).

-Spenser

Been playing for the last hour, so far ive learnt no new moves and instinctively i was trying to crouch jump already to get onto house's :) . The levels are massive and the home map and first level are well set out and have bits and bobs tucked away. It looks great and the sounds from theold games are in the first level.

The objects in the game tend to be too light though as walking into large boxs and signs they fall over or move like paper, like more weight added maybe to these as using these to jump onto is slightly annoying and after halflife's ray gun the banjo one seems lacking and putting objects onto other ones dosnt work very easily.

The build options for vehicles are great and very easy to set up test and modify.

Looking forward to the full release.

I played the demo all the way through (4 activities inside the first world) and I enjoyed it. I realize that the majority of the gameplay IS vehicle oriented, but hey... It's not all that bad.

I think it would be awesome if they used the same engine and made another Banjo true to the platforming genre, but this works for now. It still has plenty of platforming going for it to make it worthwhile. It's really good looking too. I've already pre-ordered the game so now it's just a waiting game...

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