Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts review

 

 Banjo Kazooie in their "Warthog" and also a conventional Nintendoish platformer on 360!

I've never played a Banjo & Kazooie game in my entire life. I know nothing of the series. But I saw a demo on an Xbox at a popular Video Game store, and decided to check it out. I downloaded a demo from Xbox Live, and bought the game less than 24 hours later!

Let me tell you something - ANY game that encourages this level of creativity and thought process, and rewards the player for doing so as this game does, is one FANTASTIC video game.

In a world of Grand Theft Auto's and Saints Row's, a game like Banjo & Kazooie Nuts & Bolts is such a welcome breath of fresh air.

If you're reading this now, you're probably not a huge BK fan because if you WERE, you'd have already tried and possibly purchased the game. So I'm writing this to people who are just now getting around to researching this game, since it has been out now for over 6 months.

B&K-N&B is all about building vehicles to accomplish all sorts of missions. All of the missions are timed, which I'll agree can be a little stressful. But failing to accomplish a set time in a mission only encourages one to build a better vehicle, or to find a new method to accomplish the task - to effectively "think outside the box." Vehicle designs - quite simply - are limitless. Cars/Trucks? Piece of cake. Boats? Can do. Planes? Yeup. Helicopters, too! Submarines are possible but a little difficult as your vehicles can either sink or float, but cannot maintain a particular "depth" underwater. Build a sub with a few concealed wheels underneath though and you'll be fine. The most fun (in my opinion) is building multi-purpose vehicles - like amphibious space-jumping race trucks... And of course what vehicle wouldn't be complete without some egg launchers, maybe rockets, or a boot that'll pop out of box and kick unsuspecting foes!

All in all the game aims to be cute - and believe me it delivers. At 30 years of age, even I have to laugh when the instruction says "Engine: makes vehicles move. Even stupid Bear can figure it out..." I'd normally aim this game at kids or maybe women who don't care for the usual gamut of racing/first-person-shooting/roleplaying games. My wife would probably love B&K-N&B.

I LOVE games that let me build stuff. I love games that makes people go, "Hey can I do this?... Wow yes I can!!" Not even 20 hours into the game I was trying to build Mater from the movie Cars. I built a massive cargo plane and watched it fly (complete with retracting landing gear!) and built a submersible helicopter. I don't care who you are - that's AWESOME right there...

I also see a TON of content in this game. After 20 hours I've only unlocked a small fraction of available vehicle parts and levels. Of course, most of that is due to the fact that I'm too busy doing looptie-loops in my jumbo jet or exploring the ocean sea-bed in my truck... But B&K-N&B ALLOWS you to do that stuff, so have at it!!!

Phenomenal game. Phenomenal idea, and just a constant source of entertainment. The text issues have been fixed for the most part. The graphics are beautiful, the stories are funny and entertaining, and even though I know very little of the B&K history, it's obviously not necessary to enjoy this awesome chapter of the story.