Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts

A fun game that is let down by dubious vehicle controls and a design system that soon becomes tiresome. There is plenty to see and do though and the variety of challenges, for those that stick around, will keep you happily entertained.

Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts is not a platform game. The game it has become instead demands thoughtful, exciting challenges that inspire the player to pitch in and help get the most out of each level, but it fails to provide them, and even though it's worth persevering with for the occasional hurdles race, egg-and-spoon and a game-world in aptly Rare form, ultimately it's a brilliant shell with a mostly hollow centre.

It's a shame, then, that vehicle handling feels so clunky and awkward, since it's such an integral part of the experience. It's also quite possible that the tutorial and construction will be too complicated and frustrating for younger gamers. Those are two major issues, but if you can look beyond them, there's fun to be found in Nuts & Bolts.

Rare hasn't succeed in making use of the ambitious prospect of being creative in putting together different parts to make good vehicles. The missions are too much alike and way too short, but everything outside of the main missions is fun to play.

The customization shop is one of the game's biggest features, letting you create cars and planes any way you see fit. The gameplay is quite entertaining, even though the steering controls aren't as tight as we expectedare loose.

Nuts & Bolts is a clever, colourful and witty game – one which deserves better than to be hidden behind stodgy tutorials, flabby interfaces and a host of loading screens. [Christmas 2008, p.84]

In this third iteration, Rare has morphed the platforming roots of Banjo-Kazooie into a racing game where player imagination is the main tool of the game. You build your own vehicles and in that process you decide how to tackle an obstacle. The main problem with this game is that a lot of the challenges simply aren't that much fun and there is too much emphasis on building vehicles. Nevertheless, this is a solid title.

It breaks our Rare-loving hearts to type it, but Banjo Kazooie is a game that is best rented and demoed extensively first, rather than bought on an impulse.

Regardless of how you feel about the game, give Nuts & Bolts a rent, and who knows -- you may end up purchasing the game with the desire to see it to the end, and then some.

If this whole concept sounded interesting to you and if you can already see in your mind the endless hours of fun you will spend tuning up projects to the last bit there is no shadow of a doubt that this is a quintessential game. With this said Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts is such a broad experience as you could hope for and the dark humour that seems to scrape on the surface of childish wont amuse everyone.

This is one game that everyone should be playing long after it comes out, both online and off. [Dec 2008, p.83]

Like their previous resurrected titles, Nuts & Bolts serves as nothing more than a failed attempt by Rare to blend something "fresh" into an already winning formula.

It's hard to recommend Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts. It's too complicated for kids, and too convoluted for adults, If you're the creative type, you'll enjoy fiddling around with all the parts, but if you're looking for an accessible game that you can play in short bursts and make headway, then steer clear.

There’s a great idea at the core of Nuts & Bolts and, from superb construction tools right through to lavish presentation, there are plenty of individual elements worthy of praise. When it fails though, Banjo fails badly and the lack of any fundamentally engaging framework to support the game’s creative elements renders the game pretty much obsolete for anyone looking for something to appreciate beyond the incredibly flexible building component in isolation.

Mediocre graphics, mediocre music that seem to be remixes of older themes from previous titles and, well just general mediocrity make for a title that’s hard to recommend.

All in all, if you had no love for Banjo Kazooie before, this won’t be the game to change your mind – and if you’re new to the characters and are looking for something creative to exercise your imagination on, this doesn’t quite cut the mustard.

All the charm in the world can’t hide the fact that Nuts & Bolts is a wasted opportunity. In the building there is the seed of a classic title here, but skittish handling and tedious tasks means that , disappointingly, Nuts & Bolts fails to blossom as it should have.