Game: Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts
Published by: Microsoft
Developed by: Rare
Formats: Xbox360 Played: Xbox360
Release Date: November 14, 2008
Genre: Platformer

I was late playing the first banjo on the N64 and had to borrow a family members N64 to play it then had to wait until the release of the Xbox Live download to finish it and I thought it was a fantastic game that has dated well. I have not really played much of Tooie but I believe it to be the same kind of game as the first.

Banjo Nuts and Bolts however is completely different from the previous Banjo games. All what made the first game an all time classic has been completely stripped and remodelled. First of all the whole game is all about vehicles. At first you have limited parts and designs to accomplish anything and this game really does have a slow start. I got fed up with it pretty quickly as I felt the level design was poor and unimaginative and all the challenges felt like I was doing the same thing over and over. There was either a Race on land, water or air, getting to certain points within a time limit and carrying people or items. There were odd ones thrown in here and there but that was pretty much the jist. Each level had 6 entrances which were just to the same area with different challenges. These challenges you could gain Notes, Jiggies and Trophies (4 Trophies make up another Jiggie) depending on how well you did the challenge. Musical notes are also placed around the levels for you to collect and Jingos now offer extra challenges which unlock tokens used at a casino in Showdown Town which is the main area of the game. I actually preferred Showdown Town more then I did doing any of the other tasks. There were crates to find which unlocked extra parts, there were Jingos who were prisoner which you had to free and replace with their evil equivalent.
One thing I will comment the game on is how beautiful everything looks even down to Banjo and Kazooie. All the characters from previous games make an appearance but l just feel they have stepped away from what fans of the original games were expecting and hoping for.
The challenges can me quite challenging at time but once you have found many parts and you are able to build a better vehicle then the ones they provide you can turn a challenging race into a breeze. After awhile I did start to enjoy building vehicles and taking some of the previous challenges back on but I felt this came to late in the game and most people may have given up and put the game down by then.
In conclusion it does get better if you stick with it but on a whole I feel they could have done such a better game if the challenges and level design were better and maybe more of what we loved in the first game.

This game gets 68%