Banjo and Kazooie have been off work for a while now. Microsoft has kept them away from the action for long enough it seems as the duo are in for another adventure. This time, things are being shaken up a bit by placing the two in vehicles for their platforming adventure. Does this shake up equate to another excellent adventure? Or is it too shaken up?
The story this time around is even more self-aware than the previous games. The Lord of Games, known as L.O.G., has brought the duo and their nemesis Grunty back to fighting form, given them vehicles and brought them to the crowded Showdown Town. He then challenges Banjo and Kazooie to defeat Grunty once more. There isn't much more to the plot, but it's wonderfully written and the fact that the game is self aware makes it amusing. Quite a few of the characters from the previous games make an appearance and they all have a role to play in the game's stages. It's entertaining and that's all that matters.
The gameplay is different than the other two Banjo games. Instead of running around open stages collecting jiggies to progress you are driving around in custom vehicles completing challenges to earn jiggies to open more challenges in the open stages. A major portion of the game is roaming around Showdown Town. In Showdown Town you find people to talk to, stage entrances and parts for your vehicles. With those parts you can make new vehicles that you can use to complete the challenges in the stages. This sounds like it'd be great fun, but it's when you begin these challenges you start to see the game's biggest issue.
The big problem is that the game isn't that much fun. The vehicle building is amusing at first, but it grows tired pretty quickly and once you figure out how to make one vehicle do everything you want it to you tend to want to stay out of the builder. The biggest problem is that building a proper vehicle can be annoying and the challenges are all repetitive. Roaming around the town is enjoyable and as you complete the Grunty challenges in the stages you gain new special parts that allow you to explore more of the town. This is really the only part of the game that I never got tired of.
The vehicles control awkwardly and the physics can get all out of whack. Getting how the physics will affect your vehicle and trying to make something that'll work the way you want it is all down to trial and error and that's not very fun. There is a lot to see in the game, but the playing boils down to go here, bring these here and racing which gets old pretty fast. Very rarely are there any truly unique challenges. The loading times can also get ridiculous and they happen quite often. It's extremely disappointing to see a Banjo game that isn't fun to play, but this Banjo game is.
The music is, plain and simple, great. It's just as good as the previous games, but that is where the only audio issue lies. Most of the tracks are just remixes and compilations of tracks from the previous games. While this is kind of disappointing, the music is still great and the sound effects are still good. The characters still talk like they do in the previous games and, while it would be cool to see how it would do with voice work, it's still pretty charming.
The visuals are by-far the best thing about the game. It's bright, colorful and bursting with life and creativity. Showdown Town is packed with detail and bursting with activity. The stages themselves have some personality, one stage takes place inside a game console. The stages are all mechanical and stylish and differently themed. Some of the character models don't look the best, but the game is simply stunning in every other aspect as far as visuals go. I personally found it to be one of the best looking games on the Xbox 360.
PROs
- Fantastic visuals
- Amusing, self-aware dialogue
- Creative and vibrant stages
- Great music
- Vehicle creation is amusing at first
- CONs
- Gameplay is incredibly repetitive
- Music is mostly reused
- Some character models are below the others
- Didn't need to change from previous game's formula
Overall, Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts is worth a try, but it wears out it's welcome pretty early. It's visually stunning, it has great music and the dialogue is very entertaining. Rare did a wrong here and it's disappointing, but it's still worth a try. The vehicle creation is pretty creative, but it's pretty annoying to get the physics and weight issues to working. The challenges are very limited and run out of juice after the first few acts. It's still a decent game, but it doesn't play all that well.
Story: 7.0/10
Gameplay: 6.5/10
Audio: 7.0/10
Presentation: 9.5/10
TOTAL: 7.5/10