Banjo-Kazooie is a platforming game series about an odd couple of a bear and a bird. This pairing started during the Nintendo 64 days where they enjoyed 2 well received titles and has gone on to star in several Gameboy Advanced adventures. Now Rare has finally revived them for their latest episode in Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts for the Xbox 360. Unfortunately from the initial announcement, the fan base was split because of the new vehicular-based gameplay and the unique graphics. Some loved the innovative direction and others missed the traditional roots that the series came from. But in the end, has Rare hushed the vocal critics or given them more ammo?

The game begins at Spiral Mountain, which should be familiar to Banjo-Kazooie fans. Over the last several years Banjo and Kazooie have gotten lazy. Banjo has gotten severely obese from eating pizza all day and Kazooie has been taking up his spare time playing an Xbox 360. And surprise surprise, Grunty has come back, well, at least her head but nonetheless up to her old tricks. To end this feud once and for all, the Lord of Games (L.O.G.) presents a way to solve it by whisking them away to Showdown Town where Banjo and Kazooie complete challenges for jiggies whereas Grunty does whatever she can to prevent you. The winner gets Spiral Mountain all to themselves. Not particularly deep or new but they use it to much humor and hilarity throughout the game. Unfortunately the text flies by really quickly so sometimes you’ll miss dialogue if you’re not quick enough.

Banjo-Kazooie isn’t your ordinary platformer. Instead of playing an entire game on foot, you’ll play most of it in the seat of a vehicle. In Showdown Town, the hub world, you’ll be provided with a vehicle to drive around.  It’s a simple vehicle but as you progress through the game it becomes upgraded which allows you to unlock new parts of Showdown Town. The progression feels perfect. Within this city also lies the heart of most of the traditional platforming in the game. You’ll be balancing on wires and finding hidden passageways in pursuit of collecting notes, vehicle parts, and the occasional jiggy. It all controls wonderfully except for the horrible underwater controls which I have to almost relearn every time. Notes are the currency in the world and allow you to purchase vehicle parts and blueprints amongst a couple other things. Vehicle parts are littered around town in the form of boxes which you throw onto the bed of your vehicle and transport to mumbo motors. Jiggies work in much the same way where you have to transport them to the jiggy bank.  Once you get enough jiggies, L.O.G. will give you a new game world which you have to transport to a particular location. These aspects, while seemingly annoying, rarely comes off as such but does feel like a cheap way to pad the length. In addition to finding every nook and cranny in the world, you’ll also be able to play a neat 2d game and a Jingo bingo game. You rescue Jingos from both the hub world and the challenge worlds which give the ability to place that color jingo onto the game board to win items. You will also find mysteriously colored eggs and a key outline in the snow. The Banjo-Kazooie Stop ‘n’ Swop feature has finally been realized. Play the Banjo-Kazooie XBLA title and get the items then pop Nuts & Bolts back in, you’ll unlock these secrets. Too bad they are just vehicle accessories which aren’t much of a game changer other than a badge to that you got them.

There are 5 game worlds that L.O.G. has created, each with several acts and their own unique theme. As you bank more jiggies, the more doors open up. The worlds are large but for the most part are lifeless except for the challenges. These events are essentially open-ended puzzles which you conquer by tackling it with the right idea. I can’t believe I am saying this, but the game is too open. For example, once you attain flight, nearly every ground or water race can be easily conquered with an airplane.  It’s hard to even say once you attain it because you get flight really early within the game. Which causes another problem; unlike within Showdown Town where you feel a real sense of progression and drive to explore, the open worlds have no such feeling other than being able to build better vehicles with new parts. You can go pretty much anywhere and everywhere from the start.

Starting a challenge is as easy as going up and talking to the challenge giver which will give you the details on what you need to do.  The dialogue which explains the challenges is pretty comical and pumps you up for the event. As stated before, you absolutely have full control to approach the challenge however you desire. It can be a ground race and you make an airplane, it could be a protection mission and you make an assault vehicle. There is tons of variety within the challenges and they rarely get boring or have repeats. As with any decent puzzle game, you will encounter frustrating parts. But here instead of playing and getting to a difficult spot, you will be sitting creating a new vehicle. Now the editor is amazing but you’ll spend 3 minutes on an idea just to fail in 30 seconds. The challenges are really short, typically only being a couple minutes in length and you’re spending more time building than playing. And typically the vehicle will be a one trick pony, succeed with it once and you’ll have to modify it if you get a somewhat similar challenge. It may sound pretty annoying but it’s not the case at all. As per the story, Grunty will be trying to stop you, usually with her minions which actually feel almost like an afterthought. They never come off as a compelling enemy and are just annoying. The game is innovative and is fun to play. It encourages outside of the box thinking. The ability to make anything do anything is more of a pro than a con. Gaining new parts gives old challenges a fresh feeling if you want to increase your score. And there is 131 jiggies to attain so if you get stuck on a particular challenge, you only need 75 to beat the game.

Online isn’t exactly like the single player portion. Instead of spending time creating vehicles to conquer challenges, you get to sit back and relax. Some of the simpler modes have you with a specific vehicle which keeps the game balanced and fun. More advanced modes on the other hand unleash you onto your blueprints to select the best of the lot for the specific task which, depending on the players, has the possibility to severely unbalance the landscape. For those with a lot of friends you can create a league from your party and play through several challenges to see which of you are the best. While the multiplayer options are nice and get you straight into the game, they nonetheless lack the heart and soul of the game. On the other hand some of the cooler features are sharing blueprints, replays, and pictures with your friends online. If your friends suck, or you’re just curious, you can also download blueprints from the leaderboards. This is also where you realize this game is a true sandbox. Seeing what and how other people build and how incredibly different it is from yours will shock and amaze you.

The game is bright and vibrant and just by playing will bring a smile to your face like a warm summer day prancing through grass fields. Characters are well modeled and animated. Vehicles look decent but due to the simplistic nature of the designer, you will never be able to truly recreate your favorite designs. Some may take issue with Banjo being boxy but it feels right. Showdown Town looks great and is filled to the brim with stuff to see and places to go. Unfortunately it’s not translated into the game worlds, after the initial rush of joy about visiting and exploring a new world, you quickly make a bee line to the challenge givers because there just isn’t much to see or do there. It’s like playing a game in that grass field, it may look amazing but other than grass and pretty flowers, it feels oddly empty and void of things to do. Occasionally the frame rate will noticeably drop but it never affects the challenges.

Cute sound effects abound just as you’d expect. Vehicles have weight when they crash and each part has their own distinctive sound. While playing the game the music doesn’t feel very memorable but throughout the day you’ll find yourself eerily humming the tune to some of the orchestrated pieces. The largest issue is the lack of voiceovers; you have grunts and moans but no voice for the abundant amount of text in the game.

This isn’t your old Banjo-Kazooie. This is something new, something fresh, and something entirely innovative. With all the hype and hoopla about lego games recently, this is the first game that truly brings the life and joy of building with them to a videogame. Pairing the excellent building tool with physics brings all your creations to life and forces you to think in real-world terms and outside of the box. This game isn’t perfect by any means. There is almost too much freedom which allows you to “break” some of the challenges. Unlike in the main city, there isn’t much of a sense of progression and exploration in the game worlds. Even though the vehicle editor is awesome, you spend too much time in it versus playing.  Even with the enormous wit and charm there is in the dialogue; sometimes it goes by too quick and is not voiced. The graphics are amazing and vibrant but the worlds feel dull and empty. You may come into this game expecting a platformer, and you’ll get a little bit in the main town but everywhere else, the game is essentially an open-ended puzzle game and it does that amazingly well. It’ll take about 15 hours to beat the game and if you want to go for all 131 jiggies, you’re in for probably double that. Innovative design. Great puzzler. Enormous wit and charm. If you’re looking for something different and fresh on the Xbox 360 after Viva Piñata, this is the title to get.

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