Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts Preview

E3 2008 Preview

With a little bit of risk and a huge amount of creativity, Rare is venturing forth to deliver a brand new Banjo-Kazooie experience in Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. 

Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts is out to change the platforming genre with implementing driving elements and a tremendous quantity of customization.  Players can tinker and change vehicles to their own liking with body parts, engines, wheels, weapons, armor, and much more.  With over 5,000 body parts already incorporated into the game, one’s imagination will run wild with creating their fantasy vehicle.

For long-time fans of the series, they should be happy to hear that standard platforming is incorporated into Nuts & Bolts but at a rather small scale.  Players can jump and climb up buildings, use Kazooie for basic attacks such as swinging her in a circle, and interact with hundreds of characters in the game.  Also, old characters of yesteryear have made their way back including Mumbo Jumbo, Gruntilda, and Humba Wumba. 

The storyline follows the Lord of Games pitting Gruntilda against Banjo and Kazooie for one more gigantic battle to determine who the ultimate victor is in their grueling grudge match.  While the Lord of Games hasn’t been seen in any of the trailers or videos, he’s guaranteed to show his pretty face later in the game.

Back on track about the vehicles, they can ultimately wear down and become broken, so gamers must be aware of getting new parts to replace the old and continue to upgrade when they have a chance.  If players are weary on the inclusion of customizing vehicles in their favorite platformer, then they should be glad to know that they can complete the game without ever creating their own vehicle. 

Delivering brilliant worlds to travel through, Nuts & Bolts has among the most beautiful environments players will ever set eyes on.  Full of colorful details and tributes to past Banjo-Kazooie titles, Nuts & Bolts delivers breathtaking graphics.  In terms of size, Showdown Town is the largest world that Rare has ever created.  The farther gamers progress in the game the more parts of Showdown Town will become accessible for gamers to adventure through. 

In addition, players downloading the upcoming Banjo-Kazooie title on the Xbox Live Arcade will benefit from interactivity between Nuts & Bolts.  Outside of that, there are multiplayer challenges provided to play through along with the ability to jump online and share your blueprints for your vehicles with friends.   

If players are new to the Banjo universe, Rare has incorporated totem poles that’ll deliver information and history of Banjo’s past adventures.  Also, Banjo Land, a world mixed of environments from past Banjo games, should provide gamers with a chance to see where Banjo has been before. 

As creativity is pushing forward Nuts & Bolts, gamers won’t miss out on Banjo’s humor and entertainment.  It’s really an ingenious game as no other platformers have done what Banjo is attempting with putting a lot of originality back into the genre.  With over 100 challenges to complete and a vehicle creation at the heart of the game, players should be able to retain a lot of replay value out of Banjo & Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts.  Gamers can look forward to Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts this holiday around a November target date.

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