Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts – Xbox 360 – Review

I’ve been a big rare fan since the old N64 back when they did the golden eye game and now on the 360 with kameo and viva pinata they have brought back Banjo-Kazooie I’ve been playing it for a few days time to be rares newest work to the test time to get dirty.

Basics & Game play :

This game takes up from where the old N64 game took off personally I’ve only played the original one a handful of times and never knew anything about it’s story. This time the story starts as the witch pulls her self together (Really she is) and this time she’s sending her minion’s to each of the levels so your sent to do mini quests and collect jigsaw pieces to make the ping pong guy happy (Really his face is a ping pong game from the 1970s) you gather them and it unlocks more doors with more mini quests & unlocking blueprints and parts. This is also the downfall of this game since 99% of the mini quests are done bring objects to a set marker or a time limit race. thats also an issue because on some quests they really don’t explain what the object are so you are sitting around trying to figure out what to do or where to go a total head scratcher a major let down since in other rare games they really give a hands on with helping out this time they really dropped the ball.

Graphics :

The game looks very good nice level of detail to each of the area’s of the game the water looks very good some of the best water I’ve seen in a long time especially when you drive through it it does the water dripping off the screen effect really makes the world feel vibe rent. each area has it’s own unique look and design such as the Console level really has some great and neat effects down to the mapping on cables. only major peeve was the annoying load screens every time you play a mini game or load up a new area.

Sound :

The sound in the game is pretty basic since they’re is no voice overs but the sound effects are pretty well done other. The background music was pretty nice reminded me of kameo pretty good soundtrack but after 5 hours of playing it the music starts to really get on your last nerve.

Mutiliplayer :

The game includes it and i never even touched it after pretty much beating the game in a few days it felt a very dragged out and i couldn’t handle playing it any longer. from what I’ve heard the mutliplayer is very sloppy one of the reasons i never played it also no one i knew had the game.

Final Thoughts :

The game was fun for a few hours but it was so so dragged out collecting 110 jigsaw’s to beat the full game.. is insane since a lot of the mini games are busted with bad information such as one in banjo land you are asked to do tricks on a motorcycle after you do the tricks they inform you that you now have to jump through hoops … then find a jump and do the last jump but the game fails because it doesn’t tell you where to jump after 45 minutes this game was shut off and never played again. the game was enjoyable for a whole but just so tedious and all the racing after a while tends to get annoying they didn’t add anything in the game to change up game play it’s pretty much race , jump , knock down , time limit games. the game looks great and plays pretty great but i can’t recommend this to anyone but more then a rental took me 3 days to hit 80 jigsaw pieces and pretty much finish the game. if your a fan of the old n64 game it’s a must play but if your looking for a game to play through and enjoy it your going to end up throwing the 360 remote through your tv after a few hours of frustration.

6.0 out of 10

Pro – Looks great , Lots of discovering hidden areas ,

Con – So much gathering , annoying missions that don’t explain what to do , Annoying load screens every time you load a mission