! 1st and foremost: I would just like to say before you start reading this review that it is made from the point of view of a Banjo Kazooie fan. I will state here and now that this game was a letdown, however while I do bash the game a little in the review, I still focus of giving it a fair review and exploring the key elements as to why this game is bad, instead of simply saying this game isn't banjo and thinking it consist of a review. If you like this game I am sorry for bashing it a little, now let's get this review over with..!
Ever since Rareware moved to Microsoft, its games have been going downhill. Don't get me wrong; I don't mean to say that all the Rare games that came out on Xbox consoles were horrible; but if you compare the games on Xbox and Xbox 360 to the ones on N64 and SNES, it just falls flat on its face. As a kid Banjo-Kazooie was my favourite game on N64, I played it day and night - amazed by the beautiful gameplay, outstanding music, charming worlds and characters. I replayed it as a teenager, and the game was still fun, even more so than when I was a kid, the challenges didn't get that much easier, and most of the humour I couldn't get when I was young I could get as a teen. Becoming a quick fan of the series it was only natural for me to buy and finish both Banjo Tooie and even the lesser known Banjo's Grutny's revenge on the GBA. When I heard they were finally bringing back the series on a home console in high definition, I was hyped. The 1st trailer showed Banjo and Kazooie, in glorious high def graphics, trapped in a room leading to spiral mountain. Banjo then uses his trusty sidekick as a lock pick, and as a chainsaw. That was enough to get me and about all the other Banjo Kazooie fans out there impatiently waiting for this new game. And then the game finally came out.... now let's explore why this game, which could have been Rare's biggest comeback, was one of the biggest dissapointment for thousand of gamers.
The bad:
Gameplay style change: This is the obvious one, the one that outraged the most gamers. Now repetition in video games is never good... and innovation is always welcomed. That being said however innovation does not mean taking 90% of your original gameplay and tossing it into the trash... innovation means taking an already good formula and adding things to it to make it better. Granted some other series have made complete shifts in style and have succeeded at drawing new gamers in all the while keeping long time fans still interested. Games such as Mortal Kombat who went from fighting game to action adventure in Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks, another example is Jak and Daxter which started out mainly as a platformer to develop into a third person shooter with still an emphasis on platforming but never the less a shooter. However both these games kept core elements from their original concept, Mortal Kombat kept fighting, fatalities, blood, and added on top of it boss fights, puzzles, exploration and adventure. In a similar way Jak II kept some platforming but added shooting to its core gameplay. Nuts and bolts however kept nothing from the originals three Banjos, sure you can still explore on foot, but you don't have any special abilities, you have a single jump, and the worlds have become too vast to explore on foot. Collecting Jiggies in the first three games was liberated, you could pick all of them at the same time, without have to do them as separate missions. The worlds were smaller yes, but it didn't feel limited because we had the freedom to take all the Jiggies in one go - assuming we had all the required abilities. In nuts and bolts not only do you have to talk to certain characters to activates each Jiggy even as missions, but you can't even have access to all the mission choices from the get go... the different sub worlds; are separated into small sections that you have to open using Jiggies.... granted they kept the Jiggies' main function, but it all feels like useless padding in the end. The fact that every mission involves vehicles just feels like an insult. In the 1st mission where you have to use a plane, Bottles tells you that it's hard, that you will need training etc... To which Kazooie replies: hey worm breath I used to be able to fly with wings before, it won't be any problem. I, the gamer, thought it didn't make sense to give Banjo and Kazooie a plane when Kazooie could fly in the 1st place, and that was already bad enough for my enjoyment, but when Kazooie herself realises that she's pretty capable of flying on her own and that she doesn't need a plane, it jumps from being an insult to being a flat out moronic. But this isn't yet the worse in all those changes, if Rare had planned from the start to make a new game with a new style of gameplay which involved Banjo Kazooie, that was presented as a side game in the banjo universe, and not as a main entry in the series; I maybe would have accepted it. Now I hear people saying, Rare announced early before release that the game would be vehicles oriented. I do agree, but I still think that it wasn't their plan from the start. If it was, why would they have portrayed banjo using Kazooie as a lockpick and a chainsaw in the debut trailer? I don't know whether it was Rare's doing or Microsoft's doing; but either way, the whole change of gameplay to me didn't cut it, and as much as I loved Rareware as a child, this game completely destroyed what Banjo stood for, and what I thought of Rareware....
Stupid use of characters: For some reasons; the plethora of colourful characters that were in previous games, are replaced by a recurring small cast of characters that are playing roles in the different subworlds. The subworlds have literally no population(disregarding enemies) aside from the recurring cast of Mumbo Jumbo, Wumba, Bottles, Klungo, Mr. Fits, Boggy, Captain blubber, Jolly Dodger (Jolly Roger who changed his name...) or newcomer Pikelet, and Trophy Thomas without forgetting the Occasional battles with Grunty and her new partner Piddles. Once again this wouldn't be such a big deal if the characters kept their usual roles, but that is not the case. Who wanted to see Mumbo in the role of a farmer? Never mind that, Who wanted to see both Mumbo and Wumba stop using magic and starts selling either car parts or car blueprints? That's right instead of creating new character to fill in these spots and make it less painful on the fans; we have two of the most beloved characters of the franchise getting completely underused, considering what we saw them do in previous games. (heck Wumba could turn Kazooie into a dragon and Banjo into a T-Rex; Mumbo could raise a golden giant from the earth, heal sick dinosaurs etc...now they don't even use any power. They sell vehicle related things.... thanks rare). But by far the most useless transformation of character is Kazooie, In the original games, Banjo would have never saved Tooty without his sidekick; if you took Kazooie away in nuts and bolts however; the results would be.... well, pretty much nothing. Take mumbo's magical staff away from Kazooie's hand, and transfer it to Banjo's, and bam! there you have it - useless sidekick. But then again one has to wonder, what is Banjo good for in this game? Oh I see he can jump once and swim for a short while... great abilities... unless all the other people in showdown town can't swim, banjo is pretty much like every else. One could argue that he is driving the vehicles you have to use. That's true, but then again a lot of other characters do just the same. I mean even Piddles, which is a cat that walks on all fours, and that isn't really anthropomorphized, can drive a car, so I don't see why Banjo driving is so special.
Not even good as a standalone title: I've heard people saying that if this game had nothing to do with Banjo, maybe it could actually be good. I'm sorry to say that it's not even the case... not only are the missions repetitive (rescue, race, point race, car sumo, or vehicle showdown) but the vehicle building part of the game is actually pretty boring. The vehicles you build yourself never seem to be as performing, as the ones the game gives you. Either that or they don't even work... Last but not least as much as I complaining that the took out most of the platforming, what they left behind is so horrible; that they would have been better off gluing banjo to a shapeshifting vehicles and never let him come out. Not only are the jump mechanics horrible, but the worlds are now so huge; that if you are not using a vehicle you have the impression of moving at a snail's pace. If Banjo was confined to vehicles there wouldn't be any half ***ed platforming, and it would actually make sense that he couldn't use Kazooie. Instead the excuse for why she can't use her powers is because... L.O.G. took them away. All right he is the Lord Of Games, so I don't really want to question his power, but is he so powerful; that he is able to stop Kazooie from sliding her legs out of Banjo's backpack? He is so powerful that he's able to stop her from using her wings to fly? So what you are telling us gamers is that his powers consists of breaking Kazooie's legs and wings so that she can't use them anymore, is that it?
Boring new characters: As I said earlier, I loved the original trilogy for their colourful worlds, awesome music and characters. Sadly the new characters introduced to us here aren't nearly as interesting as the original cast. 1st of all the big L.O.G. his looks are... average at best, and while the premise of a Lord Of Games who controls everything, in the video game world, could have been awesome, it feels a bit limited here. It might have worked if L.O.G. had been a new antagonist (not that I want to see Grunty out; but hey she's been killed twice (Banjo Kazooie and Grunty's revenge) and at the end of Tooie she is left just a head... I'd consider retiring from being a villain at this point), since he has powers over the video game universe, imagine having to fight him. But since L.O.G. is technically a good guy, his potential is greatly underused. Up next is Piddles, she feels uncolourful, compared to the rest of the cast, she is a typical real cat (albeit with antennas, but my point is compared to the rest of the cast, which are anthropomorphic animals, she feels greatly limited) ok she can talk, but any character could basically crush her under his/her feet so she doesn't really hold any weight.... Next is Trophy Thomas.... he doesn't really have a personality, he feels bland and useless, if it wasn't from the fact that every mission has now challenge where you can get A Trophy Thomas Trophy(seriously?) he would literally be useless. Last and the least is Pikelet, which is basically a pain in the butt, he is the chief of the police in showdown town (the new hubworld, because spiral mountain would have been too similar to before...) and he's following you around making sure you don't cause trouble (are we playing Banjo or GTA?) I have to ask, why is bringing a Jiggy to the bank considered trouble? Oh I get it it's supposed to be a challenge for the player.... well it ends up being an annoyance amongst others...
Enemies: Ok in the other three games, we had dragons, living vacuums, beehives, evil robot clone of Mumbo as enemies. Now might I ask what kind of enemies do we have in this game? Generic spherical robots... generic wind breathing robots and... robots.... what that's it? No seriously, Banjo had to fight a Living pile of coal before, and now he's fighting an army (make that small army) of generic robots? Why? What's the logic behind it? Even with everything else changed, was it really required to even remove the enemies? I mean at least then there would be something linking this game to the originals; but now... I've seen the trailer where you have a boss fight with Mr. Patch, but Nuts and Bolts is so baffling and such an insult to the originals that I never got to that point, and frankly never will.
Not a banjo Game: You pretty much figured it out up to this point, nothing is like what banjo used to be, the gameplay is not the same, the hubworld is not the same, the characters don't have the same look neither do they have the same role, but above all they don't even have the same personalities. Bottles who was a clever yet friendly mole in the original, is now a selfish pr***, Boggy who went from a being a fat polar bear to morbidly obese polar bear is now muscled up and the proud owner of his own gym. King Jingaling the KING of all Jinjos, is now the proud owner of... a bingo saloon; yes you heard right he was the king, he had his own castle, and now he mainly host's bingo.... words cannot express how stupid this is. Then there is the Jinjos themselves, collecting them was super fun in the originals, with the addition of randomly selected Minjos in Tooie, it became even better. But now you basically give them escort missions or vehicle sumo them because they just feel like it (and for some reason they now have the power to transform into giant metal spherical replicas of themselves... now that would have been useful against Grunty in the original....) and once you "rescue'' them they don't simply go back to King Jingaling, instead they give a Bingo token.... the only Jinjos you have to rescue are in the hubworld, and once you free them from their prison (at this point is it even worth for me to ask why such friendly creatures are in jail? Since pretty much everything banjo related has been taken out of this game, it's really like anybody cares anymore) Pikelet goes crazy on you and hunts you around. What you have to do is to find a Mino (which are now clearly different from their good counterparts, sporting prison garble purple skin, earrings, fangs and blood red eyes) beat him up and put him in the cell instead of the Jingo. Ok so that answered my question, Pikelet simply mistook the Jinjos for Minjos, but since as I stated they are now completely different it doesn't make any sense that Pikelet mistook them for one another, and the more obvious answer is that Pikelet is simply an ***. Oh and the Jinjos you save in the hubworld... that's right they also give you bingo tokens.... The only characters that don't radically change in personality are the two titular ones Banjo and Kazooie, but at this point it doesn't really make a difference anymore. I mean I'm glad that Kazooie is still a clever quick tempered bird and that Banjo is still the nice guy that does everything he can to help; but since nothing else fits anymore this isn't any good. It is not a Banjo Kazooie game, sure it has Banjo Kazooie in it; but then again so does DIddy Kong Racing and the Xbox 360 version of Sonic and Sega All-Stars racing, and those are not Banjo games.
The good:
As much as I hate this game, I have to recognize there has been worse out there and that is does SOME things well.
The visuals: It pains me to say it, because it adds even more to the pile of bad things, but the visuals are stunningly beautiful the worlds are huge and yet they are fully detailed filled colors textures, if this was still a platformer it could have been the best banjo yet... sadly we all know it's not true.
Music: Well I have heard other gamers say that the music was good, most of the time I was so pissed off at the game itself that I wouldn't even register the music, but when I did just stop and listen though I have to admit that the music was good, featuring remixes of classic and some new original score.
I would write it brought back banjo after all this time, but it did such an awful job that it would be an insult to write as such....
Bottom line: Banjo Kazooie will never be the same because of this game. Even if they make a new game where they return to platforming, fans of the series will always remember the shadow of nuts and bolts, and will remember as an awful nightmare that could have killed a series. I'd say to any fans of the original, AVOID THIS GAME AT ALL COSTS; it's not worth destroying all those childhood memories of an awesome game; simply because this game has banjo in it. Yes it does have banjo, but that's like saying that Krystal was in brawl, yes she was, but she merely did a cameo appearance of 10 seconds, it's the same principle here, yes there is the banjo feeling in this game (the beginning is in spiral mountain, but after playing 5 minutes you are warped to showdown town, and the only way you can return to spiral mountain is by completing the game, which is something that no fans should put himself through) but it only last a couple of minutes and then you realize that it's a just a vehicle game with banjo tacked on to it. To new gamers new to the Banjo series, I will say this, some gamers actually enjoy this game, and I will not judge them; after all we all have different taste so you might enjoy it just as well. Know however that this is nowhere near as close as what the series was originally offering with Banjo Kazooie, Banjo Tooie, and even Grunty's revenge.