With Killer Instinct and Goldeneye in legal limbo and Donkey Kong owned by Nintendo, Rare doesn’t have a lot of popular pre-existing franchises to fall back on for the 360. Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts is the struggling developer’s latest attempt to prove Peter Moore wrong and simultaneously fill a much-needed casual void in Microsoft’s game library.
The adventure starts with some exceedingly tedious cutscenes and mind-numbingly basic tutorials which should be common sense to anyone who has been gaming for more than five minutes. After spamming the skip button for ten whole minutes, you finally get to play the game. In standard Rare fashion, players will run around a central hub (Showdown Town) finding additional items for their vehicles, Jiggies, and unlocking new stages similar to Mario 64. Or rather, exactly like Mario 64. Except that, for some strange reason, the same stage is often split up into different “acts”, which is the developer’s thinly-veiled way of tricking players into thinking there are more areas than there really are; imagine if in Mario 64 you had to enter two different paintings to complete all the tasks in a single level.
Although Banjo can run around on foot and engage in the mildest of platforming, all of the special moves from previous games have been completely removed, instead forcing the bird and bear to build increasingly capable vehicles to travel by land, air, and sea. In concept, there is an infinite amount of possibilities to be had with this mechanic, especially considering the absurd creativity that users have shown in games like Spore and LittleBigPlanet. While that still rings true to some extent, Rare unfortunately decided to limit the customization of vehicles to specific building blocks rather than allowing you to build contraptions out of trees and pillows. Players can pick up and interact with many of the props scattered throughout each area, such as torpedoes, bushes, and giant shells, but there’s not really anything you can do with them. Obviously it would’ve require a far more complex vehicle system and *gasp* more work on the part of the developers, yet it would have gone a long way to making Nuts & Bolts more than just the ho-hum action game that it is. Given Rare’s track record of omitting major features from their games at the last minute and the suspiciously pointless inclusion of the prop interaction, it would not be at all surprising if something more robust had been their intention.
Rare was quick to dismiss the notion that this would be a racing game when it was first leaked to the public, but ironically most challenges are exactly that. You are required to reach a certain location in a set amount of time, race other characters, or random objectives such as finding molten rocks and dragging them to the nearest water supply. Each challenge has three rewards (Jiggies, a puzzle piece, and a trophy) and awards them accordingly on how quickly you finished. It’s all pretty simplistic and the gameplay is further marred by the horrible, horrible physics engine. Hitting a bump, bush, or even an ant (seriously) will cause your vehicle to erratically spin out, flip over, or get stuck on the environment, and then spin out and flip over. It just doesn’t feel right, which is a major oversight for a game that is only as good as the way it handles.
Nuts & Bolts has a very self-aware sense of “humour” that kids may find mildly amusing, but—just like the gameplay—older players are going to be left rather unfulfilled. Frustrated even. Aside from the slightly improved graphics, Nuts & Bolts feels an awful lot like an obsolete N64 game. In fact, if it had been released back in 1999 at the height of the franchise’s success, even then it would have felt subpar in comparison to the anthropomorphic duo’s original outing, which is conveniently available on XBLA for less than half the price.
Recommendation:
Nuts & Bolts is far from Rare’s best work, although some gamers will find the same flawed-yet-addictive quality that Viva Pinata has to offer. For $40, it’s a relatively small risk and a decent buy if you have indiscriminate children, but as the saying goes you really do get what you pay for.
Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts
System: Xbox 360
Developer: Rare
Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
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All reviews are based on final retail code unless otherwise noted.
December 27th, 2008 at 11:08 am
I still think you should have used the “~”. Maybe next time.
December 27th, 2008 at 5:18 pm
And I think that is what’s really important here..
December 28th, 2008 at 2:23 am
Nice review! I’m still on the fence about buying this game. I thought the demo was ok. I really liked the graphics and scope of the level. I just wish it was more like the first game.
January 30th, 2009 at 6:38 pm
I found the controls very clunkly and uninviting as well. I was really looking forward to this one, but came away very disappointed. For shame, Rare!
January 31st, 2009 at 7:50 pm
Horrible, horrible game. First it lulls you to sleep with its exceedingly tedious exposition, then it bludgeons you into a frenzied stuper with it’s horrid controls and bullshit physics. For shame, Rare! FOR SHAME!!!