Banjo is Back! "Nuts and Bolts" detailed!

[anosou]

That's a joke right? I hated the Gummi Ships in Kingdom Hearts because it was so utterly pointless. It didn't matter what you did with your ship because the gummi missions were boring and far too easy. (Which is good, because if they were boring and difficult, I probably never would have beat it due to burn-out.)

It ain't a joke. It was fun. You didn't need another objectiv than getting more pieces to build something ugly. That's enough for me.

[XZero]

Banjo-Kazooie was easily one of my favorite games when it first came out in June of 1998 (I just finished 6th grade at the time, so it was perfect for my demographic). I still have that VHS tape sent out to promote the game, which can be found here:

In fact I play Banjo-Kazooie the last week of May every year since 2004.

When I watched this trailer, I was somewhat upset by it. It isn't traditional Banjo-Kazooie, though since there are only two and a half games out in the series, minus the racing game, I don't know if traditionalism has any place in the conversation; nostalgia would be a better term, I believe. That game, more than Mario and even Zelda, was like the epitome of my childhood in a gaming sense, and seeing this bastardization of it makes me cringe. I'm sure Rare will do a good job, but the character models more than anything seem ... off. I would have been happier with a slightly upgraded N64 model of them placed in an epic 3D world. And the notion of a vehicle disturbs me.

The ultimate problem is that the game won't sell. I'm not condemning it from the outset as much as this statement may imply, and perhaps a Banjo game will do better on the system because of the nostalgia factor, but the reality is that kid-friendly games (Viva Pinata, basically any movie-based game, etc) tend to do very poorly on the 360. Rare should have stuck with Nintendo; they could do great things on the Wii.

[JH Sounds]

Is that Jon Lovitz doing the voiceover?

[The Mutericator]

Yeah, we'll have to wait and see how fresh this "custom creation" mechanic gets. But as LittleBigPlanet proves, the concept can get very appealing...especially if it's this deep.

Obviously, there's going to be negative reaction from fans of this "new direction"...and I hate the fact that these people call themselves fans if they're expecting the third installment to basically be a bigger and more polished version of Tooie. Because let me tell you, Tooie bored the hell out of me because it was a bigger version of Kazooie. The first game had the right balance of platforming and exploration...Tooie, on the other hand, is almost like a sandbox-style game with millions upon millions of things to collect. I only liked Tooie when they changed things up a bit with FPS elements and innovative transformations.

Kudos to Rare for doing this. Seriously, it's rare to have unique 3D platformers these days, and the genre itself is basically dying because the whole "collect-a-thon" formula doesn't hold up so well this generation. Stuff like Mario Galaxy and Ratchet and Clank are excellent because they've added new concepts or mixed other genres onto platforming.

In other words, you didn't like Tooie and therefor dislike anyone who did and wants more?

I'm honestly not impressed at all with the trailer, it looks like crap both in art design (how does Banjo look worse on the 360 than he did on the N64?) and in gameplay direction. I think Kotaku said it best...

While vehicle creation is a ton of fun, it was hard to tell, without really seeing multiplayer and not knowing how single player is going to play out, if this game will be a hit with gamers, let alone Banjo Kazooie fans. Early impressions leave a lot to be desired and more than one person who saw the game asked the developers on hand if these single player challenges and vehicle creation was all there was to the game.

The reply: "Creating vehicles to complete the challenges is the crux of the game."

http://kotaku.com/5008967/banjo-kazooie-nuts--bolts-hands+on-impressions

[cobaltstarfire]

It looks like a fun game, I felt a little skeptical at first but the article had me at "I could also build a hovering plane with a winch and simply yank the suction machine out of the ground and bring it straight over to the coconuts themselves."

But I like building things, and it's kind of neat if certain objectives can be completed in different, unorthodox ways.

Too bad I don't plan on ever owning a 360. :S

Maybe my dad will buy it on a whim and I can play it....

[XZero]

just64helpin wrote:

Is that Jon Lovitz doing the voiceover?

Yep; the Critic provided the narration for the B-K promo video.

[Overflow]

This game reminds me of Lego Racers.

It doesn't look all that great to me. it looks like a racing/flying game (ala diddy kong racing) with some banjo kazooie characters. It was the platforming in the original that I loved, although finding 100 musics in EVERY level was soooo frustrating that I gave up.

[Bleck]

Adding on a random, ridiculous sounding gameplay element worked wonders for Super Mario Galaxy - hopefully it does the same for this.

[defender!!]

i absolutely loved the first b-k and only liked the second. i've actually beaten all of banjo-kazooie in one night before, got all of the jiggies the second day.

i hate this new direction.

for most games, sure, it begins to get stale around the third game. but banjo-kazooie was a platformer that had something...different. there was a certain charm to it that was different than mario or jak or ratchet or even conker. platform games survive based on their physics and their presentation--it's probably my favorite genre and i hate to see it dying out like this.

i'm disappointed because while most games really need an innovation around this time, banjo-kazooie didn't really NEED that. the classic platforming would've been enough for its fans so long as we got to see boggy and jamjars and gobi again. this looks like a completely different game, i'd wish they'd just work on it separately rather than shove banjo and kazooie into it.

then again, with rare's descent into mediocrity, maybe this is the best thing for the series. :/

[Wipomatic]

I wanted a 3D platformer and they've given me lego racers. Great.

[X]

Exactly what happens when Rare makes another Ratchet & Cl... er... I mean Banjo game.

[Tables]

Automobiles killed the platforming star

I really wanted something like the old games, this sucks. Oh well, I guess I just gotta wait until they make Super Mario Time Traveler or whatever the hell is next for my good platforming fix.

[JH Sounds]

I guess I just gotta wait until they make Super Mario Time Traveler or whatever the hell is next for my good platforming fix.

Super Mario Sundial?

[Heximus]

After years of no banjo it seems that everything was peaceful in the land where fps games were making a hit

but now when rare decides that they can now finally realize their dream of creating a banjo with the most extensive item collection

from what I saw

an automobile? There are going to be tons of parts for that

Racing them, improving them, making them stronger

"we can build them, we have the technology"?

More music notes?

More upbeat theme music?

More Rare antics?

I can expect this game to not be annoying but to be incredibly fun!

Seriously!

[GreenFX]

excited about:

1. the first banjo team is making this one, those guys know how to make a sweet game.

2. the soundtrack.

gameplay aside, it looks pretty and i'm willing to bet it will atleast sound good as well.

[Poke'G]

Rare should have stuck with Nintendo; they could do great things on the Wii.

Rare's talent had either jumped ship (the TimeSplitter team) or been assimilated into Nintendo, it's why they let the company go. Consider their last major Nintendo project was Star Fox Adventures, which is nothing like what they were once capable of.

Rare is a different company now, and they haven't made a great game in years. They hype up the next project each time only to have it disappoint. I'm not saying the next Banjo-Kazooie will suck, just that I think low expectations are key here.

[DJMetal]

I was a big fan of Banjo Kazooie, but never played Tooie. So I'm fairly excited. They had better to stick to what they know, though. If this turns into "Perfect Dark Zero", I'm gonna shoot somebody.

[JH Sounds]

Stop 'N' Swop LIVES! OMG!

*fangasms*