I am a rabid Banjo Kazooie fan, as most of you know, and therefore I was really excited to get my hands on the Nuts and Bolts demo last night. I've been waiting so long to play a new BK game, and I'm really interested in how they've changed the gameplay.
My biggest fear was that the humor and style of the original Banjo Kazooie games would be gone, but thankfully this isn't the case. The game starts up and you hear that familiar song, and it's freakin awesome. The game still has text speech with mumbling noises coming from the characters, and Grunty still talks in rhyme. If you're a fan of the original games, that first time you enter Banjo Land and hear that music kick in... it put a huge grin on my face. Rare has really pumped up the nostalgia factor for fans of the series.
Now the gameplay... I'm still not completely sold on it. I know that you're playing the beginning of the game, and as such you have all the crappy parts, but the vehicle driving felt a little loose. It may have just been the way the car was designed, but the turning was just a little sloppy, especially if you are driving in reverse. However, I did start to get the hang of it. It was kind of weird to build an amphibious vehicle and have it turn sloppy on ground but be very perecise in water. I hope that Rare tightens up the handling on vehicles before release.
So I may not be huge on the driving, but let me tell you, the vehicle creation is freaking awesome. I spent at least an hour just building the strangest vehicles I could and then testing them out. The best part is that I only had some basic parts. I can't wait to see what kind of crazy shit I can build once I have earned all the parts in the game. The vehicle builder is really solid and allows you to just go nuts and build whatever you want. I also like that they added a laid back physics model to the vehicle. For instance, if you build a land vehicle that's top heavy, good luck making sharp turns.
Basically, I'm just as excited for this game as I was before. It may be my penchant for all things Banjo Kazooie, but I had a great time playing the demo, and I'm sure I'll sink many hours into the full game.
(# 0) on 10/30/2008 13:51
(# 1) on 10/30/2008 14:04
(# 2) on 10/30/2008 14:04
(# 3) on 10/30/2008 14:08
(# 4) on 10/30/2008 14:18
On another note, I could not figure out the vehicle construction, but that was probably because the game text is so freaking small - not everyone has a huge television to play games on, Rare! I couldn't read a lick of the dialogue on my little tv.
(# 5) on 10/30/2008 14:19
(# 6) on 10/30/2008 14:26
(# 7) on 10/30/2008 14:33
And bad driving controls? If there is one thing I have come to expect from a Rare game, it's solid and intuitive controls. I hope you guys are wrong.
(# 8) on 10/30/2008 14:58
drunkie
(# 9) on 10/30/2008 15:02
(# 10) on 10/30/2008 15:20
I just curious as to how the vehicle creation works, and if I will be way too spoiled by Littlebigplanet's creation tools by the time this comes out.
(# 11) on 10/30/2008 16:12
(# 12) on 10/30/2008 17:11
The second thing was, as some other people mentioned, the driving. The vehicles control like shit, and it's disappointing. I REALLY wish they had stuck with a platformer focus instead of all this driving crap. It really irks me that they decided to do it. But hey, at least it's only $40, I suppose, and the style and feel of the series is still in tact...
(# 13) on 10/30/2008 17:24
I'm not too impressed with this demo, to be blunt. I was hoping it would reassure me that this wasn't going to be what I thought it was. Maybe I'll play it again on someone's hdtv when I can actually read the damn text, but as of right now, I won't be buying this game.
(# 14) on 10/30/2008 17:50
(# 15) on 10/30/2008 20:27
(# 16) on 10/30/2008 20:50
In a drab 2 to 3 color current gaming world the graphics were colorful and delightful.
Even the demo worlds were large and plenty to see.
Things I didn't like...
Far too much focus on vehicles. All I wanted to do was get our of the car and run around the levels, but found they didn't really make the game for that, so it wasn't any fun to do.
The levels were large, but that was really only because they expected you to drive everywhere. Which was the last thing I wanted to do.
Which I didn't want to do, because the vehicles handled so poorly. Like people said, that will probably get better when you can build more detailed cars, but still, I felt like I was pushing around a washing machine on wheels.
At this point, the negatives outweigh the positives for me. Sadly... God I wanted this game to be good. All it did was make me want to play the originals.
(# 17) on 10/30/2008 21:50
Maybe I enjoyed it more than my g/f.. she had some of the same issue with driving (& reverse) some of you had. Also, I never played much of the original B&K's so I guess I don't know what I'm missing exactly.
I think it is cartoony & fun, and I want to see more.. I believe we will at least rent it, and consider a purchase if it was around $40.