Microsoft released three first-party games towards the end of 2008. Gears of War 2, we know, is a smashing success. But what of the other two games, Fable II and Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts?
Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts on the 360 has a problem. Like Dead Rising a few years back, it has small text. This small text looks nice and clean on a HDTV, but if you’re still soldiering on with a CRT television, you won’t be able to read it. It’s just too small, too blurry. The problem was noticed as soon as the demo went live, so with the game yet to be released, there’s still time to fix the problem, yes? Uh…no. Rare’s George Kelion has said: I’m sorry that we weren’t able to address this issue as nothing would please us more than turning all your complaints into gleeful responses, but it’s simply something that’s too expensive in terms of time, resources and money to alter.
The latest entry in Rare’s epic tale of bird meets bear is now available for download via Xbox Live Marketplace. The demo for Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts weighs in at 1.07GB of precious, precious hard disk space, and allows you to take control of the dynamic duo as they build vehicles and take on Jiggy challenges, or at least I am assuming it does, judging by the demo description.
We got some awesome new images of everyone’s favourite bear and bird. The screens definitely show us that the game still doesn’t fail to impress visually. Sure, there are a lot of folks out there a little concerned about the Lego Grand Theft Auto tie in with the Banjo formula. Knowing Rare and what we’ve seen so far, I think we’ll definitely give the bear a chance. galleryPost('bk1009', 3, 'Banjo Kazooie Gallery');
While visiting the Xbox Japan offices, Rare gave a Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts walk through, talking up the game. “It’s good to be back in Japan, because Banjo was inspired by Japan,” studio boss Mark Betteridge. Apparently, the character’s backpack was inspired by backpacks that Japanese children carry around.
Even if Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts turns out to be nothing but a prelude to a bigger idea, the game sure does look good. We got a few new screenshots for you guys to drool over until the game comes out on Xbox 360 November 14th.
Every Time I see anything from Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts I am in awe by how stunning the graphics look. In this new video we get to fly through one of the new industrial environments. The game will be out November 18th for Xbox 360.
It has been ten years and two console generations since the team of Banjo and Kazooie stormed the Nintendo 64 to rave reviews and not much has changed, at least not much for platformers, or so say Rare.
“We felt the platform genre hasn’t really evolved much,” said one of the developers showing off Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts to the press yesterday. “Up until recently things really haven’t evolved much.”
The team decided they wanted to tweak the formula, adding “fun physics” to the franchise and making it more about vehicles than traditional platforming. The change seems to be turning the franchise into what appears to be a sort of platformer on wheels that is centered more around challenges than a linear storyline.
Speaking as part of a long, long interview with CVG, Rare design head Gregg Mayles talks in-depth about the freshly-announced Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. First revelation? Banjo’s let himself go – “slobbing out,” as Mayles says, while poor Grunty starts off as only a head until he hooks himself up with a mechanical body, all the better to help Banjo bounce back from this apparent midlife crisis.
Mayles also is anxious about how Banjo loyalists might receive this overhauled installment, hoping that those surprised by the new flavor will give it a chance. All in all, Mayles says the Rare team is hoping the third instalment will act as something of a franchise reboot:
During my dinner with Shane Kim and Kudo Tsunoda I started talking with Kim about Rare’s relatively checkered history with Microsoft.
In the late 90s Rare established themselves as a top-tier studio, producing such classics as GoldenEye and Donkey Kong Country for Nintendo. But in 2002, Microsoft bought up the company and prepared to have the studio start work on some of the marquee titles for their upcoming Xbox 360.
I told Kim that back before the Xbox 360 launched I had heard that Rare’s Perfect Dark Zero was meant to be the platform’s launch title, the reason gamers would take notice of the 360 and decide to buy into the new platform.
When the game finally hit, with the launch of the 360 and Rare’s other title Kameo, it was met with a mixed reception, certainly not the sort that Microsoft had bet on.
Is Rare, I asked Kim, a developer that better suited to the audience and platforms of Nintendo gaming?
