
	Platform Xbox 360 Genre Platformer / Racing Publisher Microsoft Games Studio Developer Rare ESRB E (Everyone) Released November 12, 2008

- Vehicle creation is versatile and fun - Looks great - Feels instantly familiar and new at the same time - Collect-a-thon can actually be avoided

- Some annoying framerate stuttering

Review: Crash: Mind Over Mutant (360) Review: Banjo Tooie (N64) Review: Voodoo Vince (XB) Review: Kameo: Elements of Power (360)
Newsletter
Be notified of site updates. Sign-up for the Newsletter sent out twice weekly. Enter E-Mail Address Below: Subscribe \| Unsubscribe

Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts

Score: 8.5 / 10

Though the bear (Banjo) and bird (Kazooie) developed a reputation of starring in collect-a-thons Nuts & Bolts meanders away from this to a large extent. On the N64, the platformer instalments of Banjo-Kazooie practically forced players to collect everything, a fact acknowledged by the developers in the game’s funny introduction sequence, which will hit a nerve with gamers familiar with the previous

Advertisement

- Xbox 360 Game Reviews
- Platformer Game Reviews
- Games Published by Microsoft

games.

Now, in Nuts & Bolts, the collect-a-thon is very much optional. For me, the collectibles are typically things to aim for when testing a vehicle.

95% of the game is spent in a vehicle; some pre-built, some of your own creation. For the less patient (or younger gamer) the pre-built vehicles are a perfect

Advertisement

way to keep the game moving at a faster pace. But for gamers like me, the garage options, particularly since they’re easy to use, the ability to swap out parts and customize almost everything about the vehicle, will suck up more time than you think. Sometimes I would turn on Nuts & Bolts and just tool around with my virtual vehicle. It’s with experimentation that the best results can be found and Nuts & Bolts really encourages this. Levels typically have goals that can be achieved using more than one or two or three approaches. (If a wheeled vehicle with springs isn’t working, try a flying vehicle to make your life easier.) Earning and unlocking new vehicle parts actually made me excited to try them out on my custom machines.

For the younger set, you’ll likely have to sit down with them as they create their own vehicles. The menus are actually pretty easy to wade through, but little kids might have some problems creating a viable machine.

Nuts & Bolts hangs the whole game around the vehicles and it does a very good job of it – many wide-open spaces with varied environmental and mechanical hazards. And even better for fans, many of the levels, while new, interesting, and nice to look at, offer callbacks to previous Banjo games and the characters that populated them.

For whatever reason, Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts sells for less than $40US. So, if you’re looking for “bang for your buck” this is it – near limitless vehicle creation, interesting levels, mini-games and multiplayer outside the main story, a light-hearted sensibility and mostly optional items to collect make this a good game and worthy of attention.

- Aaron Simmer

(January 5, 2009)