Post by: Jonnyboy117 on May 27, 2008, 01:47:19 AM
The new Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts for Xbox 360 combines platforming with a new emphasis on vehicles. Instead of collecting coins and honeycombs, you collect parts that can be instantly added to vehicles to change their functions. It's all physics-based, so the potential combinations seem to be virtually infinite. You can create anything from dune buggies to boats to hovercraft to airplanes to staged rockets. This may be my most anticipated game, period, right now. And I don't even own a 360 yet!
My anticipation for it has nothing to do with Banjo or Kazooie or the original games (which I loved). I think it's incredible that you can build a car in a few seconds, drive it around, find a spring, add that to give the car a jumping ability, then jump up to a high platform and find a propeller, instantly add that to the vehicle, then jump in the air and start using the propeller to fly around like a helicopter. THAT **** IS COOL AS HELL. Also, you can apparently build a space shuttle and fly into space. Someone bring me the smelling salts.
There is and should be some concern about the objectives Rare will provide in the game. After all, it's fun to goof around with your wacky new vehicle, but the game should give you some kind of goals as well. Rare's games have a history of problems in this department, and the Banjo-Kazooie series in particular is well known for feeling like a "collectathon". I think Nuts & Bolts might avoid this problem by letting you actually use the bafmodads you are collecting... to upgrade your vehicle. This all hinges upon very clever level design with multiple solutions to each challenge.
It seems that most of the antipathy towards Nuts & Bolts is that it doesn't follow the formula of the original Banjo-Kazooie games. I can definitely understand the desire for a new 3D platformer, because other than Super Mario Galaxy, Crackdown, and Rachet & Clank Future, the genre has been largely neglected in this generation of consoles. As a Nintendo fan, I know what it feels like when a series takes an unexpected direction (Wind Waker), and I also know what it feels like when a series has stagnated and needs to be revamped (Mario Party). The best sequels usually find a good balance. Whether the new Banjo-Kazooie will strike that balance, I can't say, but at least Rare isn't playing it safe. In fact, I was glad to hear that they have stripped away many of the complicated platforming moves from the last game. And to be honest, I don't think there is a long enough or strong enough pedigree in the Banjo-Kazooie series to get upset about radical changes. It's been eight years since the last console game... give Rare a chance to do something new. If it sucks, we can chastise them for it, but this vehicle emphasis at least has the potential to create a new kind of 3D platformer. It could be just as cool as the gravity in Super Mario Galaxy, but with more creative tools put in the hands of the player.
Post by: NWR_Lindy on May 27, 2008, 01:51:29 AM
Post by: Maverick on May 27, 2008, 01:53:13 AM
THAT **** IS COOL AS HELL.
I LOLed.
Post by: Dasmos on May 27, 2008, 02:03:48 AM
As a Nintendo fan, I know what it feels like when a series takes an unexpected direction (Wind Waker)
Here is when I vomitted all over my keyboard, not that I wasn't close from reading your ANTICIPATION FOR NUTS AND BOLTS.
Post by: DAaaMan64 on May 27, 2008, 02:29:36 AM
Post by: blackfootsteps on May 27, 2008, 05:12:15 AM
In fact, I was glad to hear that they have stripped away many of the complicated platforming moves from the last game.
Not only that, they stripped away everything that makes this Banjo-Kazooie. They have relegated Kazooie to a Ghostbusters-esque gun. Couldn't this game have been done with a new IP?
Edit: And to be fair you can't really compare a change of this magnitude to that featured in Wind Waker. Gameplay > Graphics. What exactly changed in Wind Waker apart from a more cartoony style? If anything it was closer in graphical style to the series' roots than was OoT (and to a lesser extent MM).
Post by: Shift Key on May 27, 2008, 05:53:36 AM
Didn't they say this about Perfect Dark Zero?
Didn't they say this about Kameo?
Yeah, I'm still waiting for that killer Rare game. And I don't think it'll be this one either.
Post by: Plugabugz on May 27, 2008, 08:01:49 AM
QuoteTHAT **** IS COOL AS HELL.
I LOLed.
PARENTAL ADVISORY EXPLICIT CONTENT.
Post by: RABicle on May 27, 2008, 11:00:13 AM
Post by: DAaaMan64 on May 27, 2008, 11:39:48 AM
Post by: Jonnyboy117 on May 27, 2008, 12:34:41 PM
Post by: KDR_11k on May 27, 2008, 04:46:22 PM
Post by: NWR_insanolord on May 28, 2008, 04:36:27 AM
Post by: Svevan on May 28, 2008, 05:20:33 AM
(We Got Screwed?)This is my attitude about Rare 100%, except, I think this new game has awesome potential. I agree with some of GP's criticisms about the level design as seen in the videos: very flat and uninteresting. Also, looks like they've had to roof off all the levels because the vehicle design might allow you to go farther than is intended. BUT, B-K is so bread and butter to Rare, plus they've got the graphics and sound right where they ought to be (this is more important to the B-K series than others, IMO; both original B-K games were graphics giants, and the music and sound was legendary); it will be fun to play even if it isn't "that killer Rare game."
Didn't they say this about Perfect Dark Zero?
Didn't they say this about Kameo?
Yeah, I'm still waiting for that killer Rare game. And I don't think it'll be this one either.
Post by: Rize on May 28, 2008, 01:02:23 PM
