Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts is an adequate continuation of the series, although its departure from its platforming roots and repetitive gameplay may leave some wanting more or at least something different. Should be good for the kiddies, though.

Game Details			Loading Reality Scoring
Format	Xbox 360 (all 360 reviews)		Score Meaning: Above average and even teetering on "good." Ambitious ideas along with redeeming qualities outweigh the handfuls of negative, making it worth a look.
Publisher	Microsoft
Developer	Rare
Category	Platformer		Presentation
ESRB	E 10+		Gameplay
Online Players	0		Graphics
Offline Players	1		Sound
Price	39.99		Value Factor
Release Date	November 11, 2008		Final Score

Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts

Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts is the third game in the Banjo-Kazooie series. The first two, Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie, were released on the Nintendo 64 and were more or less straight 3-D action platformers, in the same vein as Super Mario 64. This game, however, almost completely abandons the platforming aspects of its predecessors in favor of vehicle-based action on land, sea, and air.

Players are tasked with completing various challenges in each of the game’s six different worlds to score “Jiggies,” small golden puzzle pieces which should be familiar to players of the earlier games. Jiggies are used, in turn, to unlock more challenges in each world as well as unlocking the other worlds. In addition, players collect “Notes,” which are the currency of the world and are used to purchase vehicle parts and blueprints (as well as a few Jiggies, if you know the right guy to ask).

Graphically, the game is quite nice to look at. The game world is divided into seven areas: six game worlds and a “hub” world. Each world has its own theme and style, and all are quite unique. The “LOGBOX 720” world, for example, puts players inside a huge video game console, complete with rotating game discs featuring titles such as Banjo-Kazooie, Banjo-Tooie, and Grabbed by the Ghoulies (all Rare titles, of course).

The audio quality was also quite nice, and the music and sound effects worked together to evoke a feeling that was very reminiscent of the original Banjo-Kazooie games. While this game will not be winning any awards for best soundtrack or sound effects, I feel that everything there worked for what and where it was in the game.

The interface and controls, both for creating vehicles and for driving them, as well as the (simplistic) controls for moving Banjo around on foot, are quite simple to grasp, and for the most part work quite well. There are some camera issues in certain circumstances, but all-in-all, it works quite well. In fact, the vehicle construction portion of the game is probably among the most fun part of the experience. Building vehicles is easy, fast, and straightforward. Visual cues help you to understand exactly where each piece is going, something that is often hard to communicate in a 3-D environment.

However, that is where the positive portion of this review ends. Although building vehicles is thoroughly fun and driving or flying them can also be quite enjoyable, the challenges provided for you can be quite boring and repetitive. That’s not to say that they are all the same. On the contrary, there are several different types of challenges. Unfortunately, each type is repeated many times, and the repetition really starts to wear thin.

In addition, the developers’ decision to all but eliminate the platforming elements from this game is, in my opinion, a very poor decision indeed. Having L.O.G. take away Kazooie’s moves forces players to rely on vehicles to pass through areas that would otherwise have been handled by one of Kazooie’s abilities (steep slopes, for example, would have been handled by the Talon Trot before, but now are handled by high-traction tires). I often found myself having Banjo run around on foot (especially in Showdown Town), only using the vehicle to climb steep slopes. Perhaps the developers should have had Kazooie earn her powers back whenever you earned the vehicle part that provided the same ability. As it stands now, Kazooie comes out of this game feeling like a non-character; simply a smart-aleck mouthpiece with no real purpose in the game.

Given that this game was released at a $39.99 price point (in the U.S.), it is a very nice deal, and I would still recommend this game in spite of its shortcomings, especially if you have kids. Most of the complaints I have leveled at it are the kinds of things that probably wouldn’t bother most kids, especially those who have not played the original Banjo-Kazooie games.

3.5 / 5

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