Before I get started with the review, I’m in the same situation as Ben. I’m too busy playing games to write articles about them, but more than that, my free time has dwindled lately due to lots of projects and tests. College sucks. ANYWAY…
I love Banjo-Kazooie. I even tolerate Banjo-Tooie because it’s the sequel to Banjo-Kazooie. But when I saw the initial stuff about Nuts & Bolts, its 360 sequel, I must say, I was incredibly disappointed. It sounded to me like they decided they had nothing better to do with the franchise and slapped on a crappy build a vehicle mode, and it was going to be nothing but a glorified mini-game collection.
I don’t know how much of that impression was me reading too much into things or what, but this game (at least from the demo) actually sticks pretty damn close to the framework set by the first two games. Hub world, jiggies, musical notes, all of that jazz, and there’s even persistent references to the music. What sticks out the most, though, is that upon entering the first world of the game, the world was HUGE. It just felt enormous, and that alleviated one of my biggest fears about the game, that it’d just be “drive 5 feet and run over a mission start point”, wash, rinse, repeat. The worlds actually feel like they’re worth exploring.
And the more I played it, the more I realized that the decision may have been, rather than “What gimmick can we add to B-K”, but “What can we do with the third game in the series besides just make some new levels?” The world so far… just FEELS like Banjo-Kazooie, except you spend your time using the vehicles you make. Speaking of making the vehicles, it’s actually pretty logical. Your vehicle needs a seat, an engine, fuel, and such, and you just get choices as to where and how you place those different items.
Some of the missions do force you into one particular vehicle or another, but other missions let you use whatever vehicle you think is best. One of them was “Jinjo launching”, where I essentially launched a jinjo ball down a ramp as far as I could. After three tries using the initial trolley vehicle, I used one of the “blueprints” (a good feature for someone like me who is not creative in the slightest) for a vehicle that had a much wider front to it, and successfully pushed the Jinjo far enough to… win the game. I will admit the actual main goals of the levels are pretty much structured as little minigames taking place in the levels, but just running around and finding those start points is fun.
I’m honestly not 100% sure about this game yet, and the reason I’m reserved is simply because I’m unsure if my fawning over the game is being distorted by the fact that the first level consists entirely of references to previous B-K games. I’d like to see a little farther into the game to see if the rest of the levels feel as good as these, because I’m worried that my views on this game might be heavily rose-tinted. What I’ve seen so far, though, has definitely alleviated my worries about this game. It definitely feels, so far, like they thought out their ideas well instead of plastering two games together.
Anyone else try this demo? Agree, disagree?