Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts

[Hero-of-Time]

@ ipaul - I didn't realise you could pick up the ball and put it in the trolley which is why I had such a hard time doing the football game. I thought you had to push it all the way. Guess I'll try it later when I give it another go.

 

This is where this game will come into its own. In the games when you can use any types of vehicle you can petty much make up your own way of playing. Its gonna be great seeing how people tackle the challenges and what kind of vehicles they build to beat them.

[Sheikah]

Well, played it for a while today and I have to say, I hate it. Compared to the first game, this one is like being beaten up and urinated on.

 

I cannot even begin to comprehend what drew Rare towards vehicles. It's such a crappy implemented system with clunky controls, and the heavy emphasis on vehicle upgrading is a kick in the teeth. I can imagine graphic design Mac owners salivating over the prospect, but it's not for me. What particularly irritates me is that vehicles do not naturally turn as sharply as a player character, so you have to reverse to backup.

 

Incorporating vehicles into what should be a platformer (I suppose it still is) is another example of Rare mixing up game genres with dodgy results (the over-reliance of the FPS sections in Banjo Tooie was catastrophic). Really, though, this game is absolutely nothing to do with Banjo Kazooie. They could have called it Ratface and Biscuit and it wouldn't have made any difference. Oh wait, actually it would, as saps who loved the previous games would be tricked into buying it (a bit like Final Fantasy CC games).

 

I'll probably cancel, but that depends how much I want the original BK game. Really, this is a huge disappointment for me. I've heard that people who never liked the previous two games are being drawn to this, but then that speaks for itself. It's managed to be so different that it's an entirely different crowd-puller. No doubt some die-hard BK fans will enjoy this, but deep down it seems blatantly obvious that they should have made another proper platformer. It's been 8 years and 2 generations, so they can't be accused of churning out the 'same game'.

[ssj]

being a hardcore banjo fan, you'd think that I would love it.

 

But after playing the demo Im a little worried. The font is so small on an SD tv its actualy illegible and i missed out on alot of funny dialouge

 

The music is great, as is the level/ character design.

 

The vehicle system took me an hour to get used to, and thats just the defult vehicles. I havnt even made a decent vehicle myself yet

 

But I think I'd rather play on the XBLA original more than this

[Gizmo]

Well, played it for a while today and I have to say, I hate it. Compared to the first game, this one is like being beaten up and urinated on.

 

I cannot even begin to comprehend what drew Rare towards vehicles. It's such a crappy implemented system with clunky controls, and the heavy emphasis on vehicle upgrading is a kick in the teeth. I can imagine graphic design Mac owners salivating over the prospect, but it's not for me. What particularly irritates me is that vehicles do not naturally turn as sharply as a player character, so you have to reverse to backup.

 

Incorporating vehicles into what should be a platformer (I suppose it still is) is another example of Rare mixing up game genres with dodgy results (the over-reliance of the FPS sections in Banjo Tooie was catastrophic). Really, though, this game is absolutely nothing to do with Banjo Kazooie. They could have called it Ratface and Biscuit and it wouldn't have made any difference. Oh wait, actually it would, as saps who loved the previous games would be tricked into buying it (a bit like Final Fantasy CC games).

 

I'll probably cancel, but that depends how much I want the original BK game. Really, this is a huge disappointment for me. I've heard that people who never liked the previous two games are being drawn to this, but then that speaks for itself. It's managed to be so different that it's an entirely different crowd-puller. No doubt some die-hard BK fans will enjoy this, but deep down it seems blatantly obvious that they should have made another proper platformer. It's been 8 years and 2 generations, so they can't be accused of churning out the 'same game'.

 

I can agree with alot of this, but also with what Jordan said above. It's definately Banjo in spirit, in presentation, in audio/video/scipt etc, but it's definately not classic Banjo in gameplay terms. I hope this doesn't close the door to a regular Banjo Threeie, but if it's this or nothing I'll take this.

 

Another complaint I have from the demo; I don't like the editor much. The camera being right angles only makes it really awkward. Why can't it just be a free camera?

[That Guy]

Well, this has to be one of the first times that I've really fancied a game, only to be put off by the demo.

 

I know it's only showing a small part, but if all you have to do to get jiggies is to drive to a spot on the map, complete what is quite frankly, a horrible challenge which feels about 10 years old and then put them in a machine, then you can count me out.

 

I know they've tried to do something different, but what I've seen of it so far hasn't worked for me. I was suspicious as to why they are selling this at a budget price in America along with 1200 free points for the original N64 game, and if the rest of the game is like this, then I can see why

 

Think I'll wait for the reviews to come in to see what the rest of the game is like and then this may just be a rent for me, which is disappointing as I wanted my free code damnit!!

 

Maybe I'll play it again and try to see why some of you guys are raving about it

 

This is entirely how I feel having just played it. I was wandering around the map wondering what I was supposed to be doing and then I realised I just go up to a character, do something pretty dull and thats it jiggy in the bag. I was so very 'meh' after that. Really don't think this game is something I'd enjoy and want to play through, especially when I've got LBP coming next week. I'd rather just put my time into that.

[Ganepark32]

It's not classic Banjo that's for sure. It's definitely a change but I'm really still undecided on whether it's for the better or not. The editor seems robust but I too hate the camera being at right angles. If it was free roaming then it'd be better. Found it difficult to create planes and boats in the editor though because you need to put the propeller as an assigned task to a button and I had no idea how to do that and there's no explanation on it.

 

I don't know whether anyone else found this but I found the collision detection to be off. During the football mini-game, if I hit one of the fake player-things, no matter how I hit them, I'd always turn to the left and get wedged on it. Similarly, during the race in Banjo-land where you have to use the vehicle designed by LOG I kept getting stuck in last place as everytime I tried to over take the vehicle in front of me, he'd turn, we'd get stuck to each other and it'd be like that for ages, with it being nigh-on impossible to get off.

 

It's not overly bad but it's also not great. I will get it at some point, but with there being far better games that I wish to pick up, I'll probably pick it up cheap, if I can, in the january sales.

[Shorty]

*crosses BK off Christmas list*

 

[Sheikah]

*crosses BK off Christmas list*

 

Join the club.

[Guest Stefkov]

Why does it have to be over 1 frekin gig.

I want to download it to try it now after what people have said but I have a shitty limit which I don't want to waste. Bastards. Might cancel and get Mirrors edge but getting the N64 game free with it is extremely tempting.

[Cube]

I'm quite surprised with the multiplayer mode. It's a lot better than expected.

 

For starters, it's essentially the same system as Halo 3, with a few awesome differences. First of all, when you're in a party and not searching/playing a game then you can just do whatever in the Test-O-Track (build/swap vehicles, mess around, fight each other, etc). When the party leader starts a search then you have the option of opting out of that match. You'll then stay in the Test-O-Track and your party will automatically re-join you once they've finished. It even has the 4-player splitscreeen.

 

The games themselves are also a lot of frantic fun (oh, and the matchmaking is the same, too). I especially love the king of the hill mode - the hill moves around on it's own path so you not only have to fight to be the only one there, but you have to follow it (it speeds up, slows down and stops in places).

[Serebii]

Just because getting some of the jiggies in the demo is like that does not mean that thats the only thing you do in the game. Come on people, common sense

[Gizmo]

The thing is, I think most of the jiggies are gonna be like that; sort of individual challenges, with the hook of the game being the building each vehicle for each challenge. Hence, there will be alot of these "gimmicky" minigames. I don't see there being many ordinary platforming jiggies (in a "jiggy up high, climb there" way, think the Snowman in Freezezy Peak), because of how easy it would be to get to them. You could just make a plane and fly straight there.

[Sheikah]

Just because getting some of the jiggies in the demo is like that does not mean that thats the only thing you do in the game. Come on people, common sense

 

Oh come on, I'd say that demo is a very good reflection of what the game will be like. I'm not talking about collection of specific jiggys, I'm talking about the core mechanics of the game. We've got a feel of the vehicles, upgrading and platforming.

 

I don't see how the placement of jiggys in the game can change every single aspect of the game that I see as poor. In fact, it can't. Don't say that people who can see this don't have common sense.

[MBenZ]

Sheik

 

You have PM

[Letty]

I'd have to agree, the whole 'challenge' aspect is a little random. The handling is... really bad due to the base wheels you get but we have to remember these are base parts you get given, i'll probably buy this even if its just for a free copy of BK XBLA.

[S.C.G]

^^^ agreed, I have to say I am a little more forgiving about all of this, although maybe forgiving isn't the right word as Rare haven't exactly done anything wrong, they have just done something different and for that I applaud them.

 

For me it's a fresh change and also kind of a natural transition when you look at the way things have been going in the series as regards to vehicles... first you could BE a truck amongst other things in Banjo-Tooie and then there was Banjo Pilot which was focused around vehicles.

 

So it's not as if vehicles and the world of Banjo are completely astranged from each other, don't misunderstand me as I loved the original Banjo Kazooie... it was the first ever N64 game that I actually went out and bought upon it's release and I loved every minute of it, just as I will enjoy playing through it again on XBLA but Nuts & Bolts is Banjo taken in an entirely different direction and while the demo was huge it was at the same time severly limited as what was there was just a taste of whats to come.

[Choze]

The impression i got the at the expo was that they designed this game thinking platformers are dead kind of attitude and threw in vehicles. Reminds me of what Peter Moore used to say. Conversely looking at LittleBigPlanet and Mirror's Edge they had the opposite attitude. It hink Rare made a mistake but i dont think its entirely their fault. It seems pressure form the high ups at MS just looked at sales and thought this is not the sirection we should go in.

[Ganepark32]

@ SCG - Urgh..... we don't mention Banjo Pilot :wink:

[ssj]

once you get used to creating your own vehicles it actualy becomes really enjoyable

 

some folks over at the rarewitchproject have gotten passed the barriers, myself included

 

if you do that Im sure you will spot a few stop n swop things around the town

[S.C.G]

@ SCG - Urgh..... we don't mention Banjo Pilot :wink:

 

Banjo what? must have been a figment of my imagination.

[ViPeR]

Wasn't at all impressed with the gameplay to be honest. Then again I was never going to get it because it's nothing like the originals.

[That Guy]

Played it again today to see if it was just tiredness making me not like it, but I really hate it. Just found it really boring. I'd rather just pay £10 or whatever for BK1 and give that a try.

[LegoMan1031]

I'm cancelling my pre-order for this game. I will buy B&K on XBLA when i want to play it. I didn't hate it when i tried the demo but it made me realise that there is plenty of other games that i would want before this.

 

So many games...

[Guest Jordan]

I'm consider cancelling my pre order. Although the vehicle creator is totally bad ass, the implementation (in particular vehicle handling) is god awful. I'll just play Letty's or something.

[McPhee]

I'm cancelling my pre-order for this game. I will buy B&K on XBLA when i want to play it. I didn't hate it when i tried the demo but it made me realise that there is plenty of other games that i would want before this.

 

So many games...

 

Same here. I liked the demo, i'll probably enjoy the game but the competition this Christmas is too strong for me to have a pre-order on this at the moment. I'd place it 5th on my list right now, after Gears, Left 4 Dead, Mirror's Edge and Naruto but it could slip further. CoD5, Prince Of Persia and Rock Band 2 could easily overtake it.