This is the fourth in a series of posts labelled “Hindsight” that discuss games you may have thought we were done writing about. Last time: Wolfenstein. This time: Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. More »
The Lord of Games isn’t done with Banjo and Kazooie yet, with twelve new challenges and 7 multiplayer games coming to Xbox Live next week as L.O.G.’s Lost Challenges.
Rare is planning on lifting the lid off an expansion for Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, potential downloadable content it hopes to announce sometime this week. That announcement may even herald a new promotional logo!
If you’re gaming on a smallish standard-def TV, or if you’re one of those people who subscribe to the large-print Reader’s Digest, good news: the patch enlarging Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts’ text is now out.
Is it guerrilla marketing when you’re doing it in your own game? Cranky Gamers UK noticed that Easter egg in Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, which declares we’ve got “new Killer Instinct, Battletoads and Jet Force Gemini games,” on the way. “Even Ghoulies 2!” Whoa. But then they say, “Oh, you’ll never believe that.” Screw it, I will. This qualifies as an announcement and I am committing Rare to this, even though there’s nothing on the Rare Web site yet, and a Killer Instinct sequel has long been involved in cat-and-mouse rumour games.
Rare Drop a Massive Bombshell Hidden in Banjo Kazooie! [Cranky Gamers UK, thanks Jordan, Maze, and many others]
Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts is the third proper console entry in the Rare-developed series, founded on the Nintendo 64, one that steers the former action-adventure platformer into new territory. Gone are the Super Mario 64-like romps traipsing through green mountain sides and caves dripping with molten magma, replaced by driving and flying challenges through green mountain sides and caves dripping with molten magma. Nuts & Bolts eschews traditional running and jumping mechanics almost completely, instead focusing on mission-based vehicle challenges that don’t veer too far from the series’ core, but veer far enough to give fans pause.
Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts players gaming on antique standard-defiinition television sets have in some cases been unable to read dialogue text, which shows up fine on HDTV sets. This is kind of an issue as there’s no voice acting in the game and the dialogue delivers clues for what you’re supposed to do next. Originall, Rare’s George Killion said SDTV was SOL and there would be no fix.
We’re done counting the tens of thousands of votes you people cast in our “What The Hell Are These Guys Watching?” poll, and the results are in! So just what was it that had the Japanese crowd enthralled/confused? Was it Microsoft’s star show-stopper, Star Ocean 4? Or perhaps the other Square Enix attention-grabber, Last Remnant? Or maybe, just maybe, it was the other other Square Enix 360 exclusive, Infinite Undiscovery?
