This game lacks the old Banjo Kazooie platforming spirit.
Af first i was very exited to hear that a new Banjo game would be released. But the moment I heard it involved vehicle building and basically no platforming, I saw a dark cloud looming above this game.
So now I have played it for severall hours. And for me it just misses the old spirit of the former games. Fist the story, its kind of cheesy and for me feels a bit simple, like there's no real heroic purpose, no great evil to defeat, no one to really save from evil cluthes. We could have kicked grunty's head into dust, but then the L.O.G shows up, and he decides that there should be an contest. A contest?? I just want to kick evil's ass not compete in a stupid contest.
We get ripped of our once so great Moves set, and get turned into a pair of disabled game characters. Who get to ride around in an wheelchair (err ShoppingCart)...sigh..no more Wonder Wing, Springy shoes, claw attacks, back-flip jumps etc...well we can still swim though.
O.K so we get dropped in Showdown town, it looks really nice, escpecialy when its night with the stars glittering in the sky, but somehow it misses something, those Rhino's, Pigs and Pinguins running around saying the same old (not to so meaningfull) things over and over again dont improve that for me.
Then we enter the first world, and then every world gets treated like some kind of childs T.V series.including the cast list for that world. Every world is an different episode. This even breaks up the adventuring spirit further down. They might as well have organised a Banjo BBQ.
Then there's this idea of creating custom vehicles, well its an good idea, but I dont find it refined and getting boring fast. Making clunky looking vehicles from parts that look like their taken from a scrapheap. So we build a car for a race, or use an standard blueprint in the beginning, but further in the game we constantly have to adjust the vehicles to get the best out of the challenges. And then still it all feels clunky. Like i'm not in control, and driving in a brick.
It just doesn't fit with Banjo-Kazooie.
Well from there its basically all the same, so the worlds look different, and have their own theme. But its the same old boring characters over and over again. With their cheesy problems in their cheesy soap-episode worlds. and it all comes down to the same old things. Bring Object(s) from A to B, compete in a race, Bash a Jinjo out of a ring.
No real enemies, exept for those irritating bots that grunty set on us, No funny characters like the ones from the first games. No funny mini-games or exploring, or a bit of puzzling to get the Jiggies.
I just feel like iv'e stranded in some B-movie every time every time I enter an world and seek out the Jiggy challenges. Just following the Jiggy icon on the map, the worlds look good but don't even interest me, cos their just serve as an stage for those boring vehicle challenges, there really nothing else to explore or to discover, only some notes littered here and there. Its just the setup of this game that makes it lack the magic of the former Banjo games.
Now i realise that i should not look at this game as an traditional platformer. But I whish they had made it like one. There was nothing wrong with Banjo-Kazooie as an traditional platformer.
I'm glad they released BK on XBLA, and looking forward playing Banjo-Tooie too. I will surely enjoy that more.
I Can only hope that one day they will make a game, worthy of the first 2 games, as for me Nuts & Boltst isn't.