Never before have I seen such an obscure take on vehicle-based game-play in such a creative and pleasant manner.
This game is a cross between platforming and racing in a physics based world which greatly promotes exploration. All of these concepts have been strewn throughout the game in challenges centered around problem-solving and skill. You can never die in this game but trying to stay alive while trying to accomplish your goals isn't what you are supposed to focus on. Everything in this game is centered around performing tasks as speedily as possible with the exception of a few tasks that can require you simply to apply some creativity to how your vehicle is designed. Your friend Kazooie rides your backpack around and uses his magic wrench to pick up objects and move them. This power does however have a glitch that lets you levitate yourself into areas you aren't supposed to be able to access until later in the game so enjoy that easter egg glitch if you can figure it out for yourself. Another objective you must do in order to win the game is collect Jiggys. To gain jiggys, you must buy, find, or win them. To buy vehicle parts/jiggys you must collect notes (this games version of coins) scattered throughout each land you visit. The main attraction of the game is definitely the vehicle editor. You'll be creating different vehicles throughout the entire game to suit your needs for each challenge and the vehicle editor is simple and does let you have a high amount of customization put into how you vehicle is comprised and what it looks like. Once you finish, you can then test your vehicle in a vehicle testing area or save the vehicle as a new blueprint.
Ridiculous Plot
This game may appear childish on the outside but on the inside... it's roughly the same thing give or take a few cheesy one-liners. The plot of this game is to beat the witch Gruntilda with vehicles you design for different battle scenarios in Mumbo's workshop in a world created by the Lord of Games so he can use your battle in this world to create another sequel in the Banjo Kazooie series. So the 4th wall has been shattered at this point anyways so the plot and characters within this game only become more ludicrous and unbelievable seeing as they're put in each level as an actor for another character. The game itself even makes fun of its own character's designs since almost all of them are worthy of ridicule in many forms. At the start of this game, the witch is nothing but a misshaped talking skull and Banjo and Kazooie have become a couple of lard balls so the Lord of Games even had to edit the character designs themselves to make them actually decent game characters and I use the word decent very loosely. All the worlds within the game aren't even real. They're made to look artificial and hand-made and in a sense they are anyways but you get the point.
Art and Music
This game has stunning visuals which are varied greatly between each world. All the worlds are designed to look like they were built and put together by hand but are still visually remarkable. I am impressed by how high quality the graphics are on this game considering the fact that this game is exclusive for the Xbox 360 which tends to have a lower resolution graphical output. What did however annoy me was the fact that the musical tune in every land and area you visit tends to blend together. It's not a huge problem since the music does sound okay but it isn't greatly varied across the all the locations you explore within this game. Nothing hugely negative with the music, just nothing very interesting.
Review Summary
This game is visually enjoyable though the the arts mesmerization is detracted away from the player due to the music being repetitive and uninteresting. All of the game-play is fun and exploration smiled upon in this game plus, the vehicle editor is a genius innovation. The plot within this game is in shambles with no hope of repair and the characters only add to the slow-witted humor this game makes about itself. When the game itself makes fun of itself for being a poorly made game then you know it's really screwed up. Not to say that this game is by any means a bad game but it certainly could have created a tighter plot than the one in place.