Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts

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Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts
Developer(s)	Rare, Ltd.
Publisher	Microsoft Game Studios
Release date(s)	November 11, 2008 (NA) November 14, 2008 (EU)
Genre(s)	Action-adventure, vehicle construction
Rating(s)	ESRB: E10+
Console(s)	Xbox 360

Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts is a platform game in Rare's Banjo-Kazooie series released in 2008. It is the fifth game in the franchise released and takes place eight years after Banjo-Tooie. It is also the first game in the series released for a console unaffiliated with Nintendo. Director Gregg Mayles stated that roughly 80 percent of Nuts & Bolts involves the use of vehicles. Many returning characters from the series make an appearance in this game. In an ending sequence for Banjo-Tooie, character dialogue led players to believe that the game would be entitled Banjo-Threeie. Overall, the game has been greatly critized by fans, who were dissapointed (if not outright angry) that the game was based around building and driving cars, entirely unlike the previous installments in the series.

Story

Set eight years after Banjo-Tooie, the plot of the game involves Banjo and Gruntilda Winkybunion competing to determine the true owner of Spiral Mountain. Banjo wishes to preserve his home while Gruntilda plans to transform the vegetated area with towers and malls. A new character named Lord of Games (also known as LOG) attempts to settle the conflict between the two by devising a series of worlds and challenges. LOG transports the other characters to Showdown Town, his headquarters, and starts the contest. The winner would be set to own Spiral Mountain; the loser must endure eternal hardship at LOG's video game factory. While Banjo and Kazooie seek to win by completing the challenges, Grunty uses her powers and abilities to try and stop the duo. An army of mechanical Gruntbots also assist the witch in her goal.

Gameplay

The game is not a traditional third-person action and platform game like the previous entries in the series, but instead utilizes vehicles to transport Banjo and Kazooie around the levels. According to Gregg Mayles, about 20 percent of the game retains traditional platforming elements. There are however no conventional "moves" for Banjo and Kazooie to use.

Vehicles

Vehicles play a prominent role in the game. The player can build them from over 1,600 different components available, such as body panels, engines, wheels, wings, propellers, fuel and weapons. It is also specified that vehicle presets from these parts would be available. "Banjoprints" of these machines and their statistics have been revealed. They include the Banjo 4x4, Banjo Boat, Banjo Copter and Banjo Plane. Gruntilda also operates a vehicle called the Grunty Coco-Carrier. The vehicles can be built in many shapes, as demonstrated in a video where one was constructed to resemble an 8-bit Mario sprite that was later blasted apart.

Items

The original teaser trailer showed several gameplay elements from the previous games that is included in this game including music notes, honeycombs, puzzle pieces and Jiggys. The Jiggies are among several golden objects that are collected to progress in the Banjo-Kazooie games and is in Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. In an edition of Scribes, Rare said that "the player will determine the difficulty level by how they approach the Jiggy tasks", hinting at what the game would offer. It was later specified that the challenge level of these tasks depends on how the player builds the vehicles. Other items include honeycomb pieces, which are used to refill Banjo and Kazooie's health gauges in the games. Musical notes can be collected in Banjo-Kazooie to unlock note doors, and in Banjo-Tooie were used to unlock new moves for Banjo and Kazooie. For Nuts & Bolts it has been stated that the notes will be used as a currency to buy parts for the vehicles, with gold, silver, and copper notes worth different amounts. A new item, tentatively called Mumbo's magic wrench was also revealed. It plays a significant role, as it is used to both build and move objects via a yellow beam fired from the device. The wrench is also stated to be used by Kazooie as a primary weapon for on-foot gameplay, sending enemies magic and electric bolts, and other not yet revealed features.

Abilities

Various abilities from Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie are not at disposal for Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. This approach was first mentioned in the December 20 of Rare's Scribes column, which stated, "Banjo and Kazooie haven't got many of the abilities that they used in previous games". The ability introduced in Banjo-Tooie to split up Banjo and Kazooie as separate playable characters will be unavailable in Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. A previous Scribes mentioned that they "thought about using two different controllers" to account for the new moves and all the old moves as well, but that a simpler system had been used for the game. It was eventually revealed that the approach involves using vehicles instead of the previous attack moves.

The player can disembark from a vehicle and explore the environment in a manner similar to that of the previous games. They can also walk across tightropes.

Multiplayer

The idea of multiplayer options was first discussed at the Rare Witch Project, where Mayles said that there would be multiplayer capability in the game unlike that found in Banjo-Tooie. He also noted that there would not be any first-person shooter sections in the traditional action-adventure game. It was later revealed that multiplayer will be purely vehicle-based where players will be able to take their custom built vehicles to Xbox Live and compete in online races and activities. An announcement stated that the game features a co-operative mode and offline multiplayer options.

Characters

Returning Characters

• Banjo: He is a main protagonist in the Banjo-Kazooie series. Banjo is a lovable, yet somewhat confused bear, who is the hero of this tale. He appeared in Banjo-Kazooie, Banjo-Tooie, Banjo-Pilot, Diddy Kong Racing, and Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge, and returns in Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. Banjo is characterized by his trademark yellow shorts and shark tooth necklace. Banjo's appearance is notably different from previous games in the series, as he appears more blocky than his original incarnation.
• Kazooie: She is the secondary protagonist in the Banjo-Kazooie series. Kazooie is an elegant bird with a cunning wit, and a sharp tongue to boot. She is Banjo's partner in action and comic relief. Kazooie's appearance is visually different from previous games in the Banjo-Kazooie series, as she has a larger plume of feathers and has an overall more feminine look. In Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, she acts as the vehicle parts collector, wielding a series of tools tentatively called Mumbo's magic wrench, which fires a yellow beam that can lift objects and place them into certain positions. It is pointed out that she will lose her cruel behavior because of the responsibilities of the wrench.
• Gruntilda Winkybunion: She serves as the main antagonist of the Banjo-Kazooie series. Grunty is a witch that vows revenge on Banjo and Kazooie. At the end of Banjo-Tooie, she stated that she would return for the third game in the series, referred to there as "Banjo-Threeie". Rare released a Christmas picture showing her lower body in a portrait on the wall, which shows here more bony then the last games. An image of her head can also be seen in the fireplace within the same picture; from what can be seen, her hair seems to be frazzled and pointing back, and her nose appears much longer and beak-like, which led to the belief that the image was of some kind of bird. She rhymes once again. Her new design resembles a mechanical version of her original body, seeing as her original body rotted to the bone while she was trapped under a boulder between the end Banjo-Kazooie and the beginning of Banjo-Tooie. Her skull, which was all that remained of her at the end of Banjo-Tooie, is placed inside of a glass exterior where her head should be.
• Mumbo Jumbo: He is a shaman who appears in Banjo-Kazooie, Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge, and as a playable character in Banjo-Tooie and Banjo Pilot. Mumbo Jumbo returns as the main shaman, and that he will also have a new, highly significant role. It was later revealed that the player utilizes a workshop named Mumbo's Motors for building vehicles in the hub world of Showdown Town. It has been announced that he will be playing the roles of a mechanic in Showdown Town, and a farmer in Nutty Acres.
• Humba Wumba: She first appeared in Banjo-Tooie and later as a playable racer in Banjo Pilot. She appears to be dressed more as a cowgirl, yet still retains elements of a traditional Native American.
• Jolly Roger: A character who first appeared in Banjo-Tooie and makes a reappearance in this game.
• Bottles the Mole: Bottles reappears in this game and teaches Banjo and Kazooie some moves, but Jamjars does not return in Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. Bottle's family has left him due to the trauma of his death and resurrection. He also acts as a tour guide for the hub world of Showdown Town.
• Jinjos: Jinjos reappear in this game as collectibles found in worlds that Banjo has to collect.
• Klungo: Klungo resides at a beach emporium in this game.
• Loggo: A response was stated to a question in Scribes about the return of Loggo the toilet, who first appeared in Banjo-Kazooie in Mad Monster Mansion's bathroom and then appeared in a cameo in Banjo-Tooie as the faculty restroom toilet in Grunty Industries. Rare answered "Although not guaranteed almost certainly that he will appear..." He again appears his homeworld, Mad Monster Mansion in this game.
• Mr. Patch: He appears as one of the enemies in the game.
• Tooty, Brentilda Winkybunion, or Vegetables with Googly Eyes:

New Characters

• Trophy Thomas: This character is a new character in the game as an overly competitive player.
• Pikelet: He is a porcine chief of police, as mentioned on the Rareware website.
• Lord of Games: Also known as LOG, he claims to have designed every video game ever created. LOG is responsible for devising the levels in which the game's challenges are presented.
• Piddles the Cat: With Klungo going off to create "ssstupid gamesss" near the end of Banjo-Tooie, Rare announced in Scribes that they have created a new sidekick for Grunty that was not in any of the previous games nor anyone related to Klungo.