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Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts

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Im sure the XBLA version will get a higher score, because its the banjo we know and love and in hi-def

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As I've said, I know 8 is great so it's no issue, for me I think it will be a 9 but I reserve judgement until I play it properly. :smile:

 

I know, sorry, i wasn't digging at you personally just the trend in alot of people's thinking.

 

I'm curious to see how good the original Banjo will look :)

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No worries Jav : peace: I too am curious as to how the original BK on XBLA will turn out too as a lot of us will probably be playing that before the new version what with the pre-order codes, damn November is such an awesome month to be a gamer. :)

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Just playing the demo now and im getting really sick of text in games being so small, I can barely read any of it (Im using an SD tv if thats the reason, either way it shouldnt happen)

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Eurogamer Review - 7/10

 

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.

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Haha, go Rare!

 

There's even one that says that if you need more help you should try and be less rubbish at the game.

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My favourite moment of the demo was Grunty's rhyme "I say Banjo, your nose is square, the fans will hate it you stupid bear!"

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very disapointed with banjo why couldt they make banjo (the platform game) and bring it to the year 2008 just like mario galaxy did with mario.

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Had a read of the review and it basically stated all the problems I had with the game. Will still pick it up after xmas as my attention will be divided between Guitar Hero World Tour and Mirror's Edge over the next few weeks (along with finally beating Mario Sunshine which I never finished (criminal I know))

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(along with finally beating Mario Sunshine which I never finished (criminal I know))

I've not finished that either. Along with Zelda Wind Waker.

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^ Not finished Wind Waker? :shakehead Even I'm appalled. :P Yeh, got another copy of SMS recently and started it again to see if I can finish it 100% with all shines like I did on Galaxy. Also have Geist, PN03 and Billy Hatcher on the roll as well. Perhaps I should finish these before I buy anything else. Bit of a digression but never mind.

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Yeah, its 5/5. Sorry, i thought stars would be clear.

 

As for the 8.3, that's a great score. I hate it when people think an 8 is low! It's like people think the whole rating scheme is between 8 and 10, there are other numbers involved too y'know! The top end is like...

 

6 = Average

7 = Good

8 = Great

9 = Fantastic

10 = Couldn't be better

 

So i see an 8 as great. Getting a bit defensive but, y'know, it just bugs me because i know S.C.G isn't the only one who will be thinking that.

 

 

The reason people think an 8.3 (7 on Eurogamer) is low is because many review sites use bloated scores. Loads of games are getting 9.0 or higher, which when you think about it shouldn't be possible (it's saying the game could only be faulted for 10% or less).

 

There's so many games that are crap and rated high scores, or at least not that great and rated ridiculously high (e.g. GTA IV), so if games that aren't that great are scoring so much higher, it makes you think that games scoring a chunk less must be even worse.

 

To top that off, with this game I would say that the score is disappointing given that it is much lower than scores given to BK. Series that fall short on an installment stand out.

 

"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!"

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=283006

 

Haha, go Rare!

 

Now that is stupidity. It's not our fault that they made a somewhat crap sequel, so there's no need for them to be bitchy.

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hmmmm I played the demo and wasnt that amazed by it to be honest......

 

Its one of them, "should i - shouldn't i" titles. I thought it was good, but on the other hand is missing that certain something of which i can't put my finger upon it. Still getting the title on release, as well as BK-XBLA. Also taking Friday off to play BK-XBLA as i cannot wait for that.

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Right I've decided to ignore the demo and go for it anyway. The number of demo's I've hated then one day decided to give the game a go anyway and really enjoyed it means I don't trust demo's. With the full game I think I'll actually get into it, whereas demo's I don't have the same patience.

 

I want Banjo XBLA anyway so it's more than likely worth it. Plus IGNs review did make the game look better than the demo made it look.

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Right I've decided to ignore the demo and go for it anyway. The number of demo's I've hated then one day decided to give the game a go anyway and really enjoyed it means I don't trust demo's. With the full game I think I'll actually get into it, whereas demo's I don't have the same patience.

 

I want Banjo XBLA anyway so it's more than likely worth it. Plus IGNs review did make the game look better than the demo made it look.

 

Most people may stick with the orders for N+B and get the BK-XBLA code, then sell the N+B game afterwards.

 

I for one will try the full game, and if i don't like it after that then i will sell it. Demo's can only do so much.

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Most people may stick with the orders for N+B and get the BK-XBLA code, then sell the N+B game afterwards.

 

I for one will try the full game, and if i don't like it after that then i will sell it. Demo's can only do so much.

 

Yeah exactly, and I think that after reading and watching IGNs review, this could be a game that takes a while to get into, and that makes a short demo hard to really show off the game. So I decided to stick with it and give the full game a go.

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Yeah exactly, and I think that after reading and watching IGNs review, this could be a game that takes a while to get into, and that makes a short demo hard to really show off the game. So I decided to stick with it and give the full game a go.

 

Being a big fan of the original 2 (never played the GBA game), I was curious to try out the demo so I downloaded it at the weekend (the only 360 demo I've ever actually bothered to get). And what was said about something being missing was how I felt. Banjo's there, as is Kazooie, Grunty and the rest, but it's lacking something I also cannot put my finger on.

 

One thing I did feel though, was that Banjoland for all it's size felt kind of empty. And I know the idea of the stage is that it is to feel like a mishmash of the old levels (because that's technically what it is), but it still felt a bit soul-less and void of things to do. It didn't feel like it belonged - even something as bonkers as Cloud Cuckooland felt perfectly natural in the old game. Maybe the point was that it was meant to feel out of place, as a way of saying to the player "we've shook things up and the old rules don't apply anymore". And I knew going in it would be different to the previous titles, but if the devs are trying to ensnare me, show me something that proves the new concept rather than disproving the old one.

 

I think I agree with you about it being a game you have to get into. Which in some ways is oversight of the developers because they should be trying to make it have instantaneous appeal, but I suspect that wasn't easy given the games new focus.

 

I still want to get it mind, but they'll have to get that text fix out for starters... my eyes were killing me.

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Game|Life Review Creative Banjo-Kazooie Is Pretty, But Boring

 

Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts lets you construct an endless array of wacky custom vehicles out of a thousand virtual building blocks. But what does it matter, when all you can do with them is play a lame videogame?

 

The Banjo-Kazooie series started out as a series of sub-par knockoffs of Super Mario 64. Reviving the franchise on Xbox 360, developer Rare tossed the run-and-jump mechanics for an adventure game based on driving, flying and floating in an array of vehicles. You'll be racing other contraptions, ferrying passengers around, carting things from destination to destination, and anything else you can think of to do in a vehicle. But while Banjo has beautiful graphics, a clever concept, and a hilarious story, it fails to produce any gameplay moments that are especially fun.

 

Nuts & Bolts might be a radical departure from the gameplay that birthed the series, but it's actually still set up quite a bit like a Mario game. There's a hub world from which you can access a variety of different levels. Each of these contains a number of challenges that you can tackle in any order to earn Jiggys, the gold MacGuffins that open up new worlds as you collect more of them.

 

That should seem familiar enough. The difference is that running and jumping are no longer part of the equation -- it's all about driving. Banjo loads you up with a variety of different parts, which you can buy or find scattered about Showdown Town, the sprawling central world. In the game's workshop, you can use these to build vehicles for land, air, sea or any combination of the three. You can also buy blueprints that allow you to instantly use pre-created vehicles, assuming you have all the necessary parts.

 

I found that most of the challenges the game set me to were completable with the default vehicles, but I did spend some time customizing cars. The workshop interface is quite manageable; I found it easy to modify existing designs (slapping weapons and ammo holders on them, for example) or build new ones from scratch.

 

The issue is that none of the games you play with these vehicles are that much fun. Racing laps around the levels versus other goofy contraptions is either frustrating or boring or both. Picking up passengers around the levels and bringing them to the exit, pushing soccer balls into a net, plugging up water pipes with giant nutshells... Rare has thought of a whole bunch of different things to do with the concept, but nothing ever pays off.

 

I couldn't help but think of Spore. It's an almost identical result, in fact: an elaborate tool that lets users painlessly create a wide variety of different, imaginative toys, but with a disappointing, simplistic sandbox in which to play with them.

 

 

 

Banjo's got a lot more going for it, too. It's an amazingly beautiful game. Showdown Town (pictured above) is a sprawling world, and you can see everything in it without even the barest hint of pop-up.

 

The cartoon-like presentation is matched by a very funny script, which parodies the silly tropes and cliches of videogames. The recursive story is that Banjo and Kazooie have been trapped in a videogame and must collect random doodads to fight their way out. Along the way, the story skewers other games, the Xbox hardware itself and gamer culture. Most memorably, one character joins a "manufactured all-girl gamer clan" called the "Hag Trolls." (Cough.)

 

Banjo also has a wide variety of multiplayer online modes, which we were able to play for a few hours at a pre-release review event. Rare has again come up with many different takes, from a "king of the hill" style match where you have to push other players out of a ring to a very amusing soccer game in which you build vehicles that can push balls into your own goal. In all cases, you can use your custom vehicles for the multiplayer games. I found competing against other players to be more fun.

 

But the most fun that I had was playing "Klungo Saves the Universe," a silly parody of retro arcade games that you can find in Showdown Town. It's a surprisingly challenging, if short, platform game, and I laughed harder and concentrated more while playing it than I did with the other 99 percent of Nuts & Bolts.

 

This is, I admit, backhanded praise. Because finding a little bit of solid amusement and engagement in something that is mostly mediocre reminds you of how much fun you're not having otherwise. 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.

 

WIRED Interesting and well-executed concept. Pretty, funny.

 

TIRED The heart of the game is only barely fun, sometimes.

 

$40, Microsoft

 

Rating: 5/10

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The Banjo-Kazooie series started out as a series of sub-par knockoffs of Super Mario 64.

 

The review is void.

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