What did you think of Nuts and Bolts?

[Captain Paul]

Now that we have a bunch of rare fans all in one place I thought it'd be a fun idea to talk about the supposed black sheep of the banjo-kazooie franchise. Nuts and bolts disappointed many people but looking back what did you actually think of it?

Personally, I twas of course disappointed in the lack of banjo threeie, but I never really thought of N&B as a bad game. It was actually pretty fun and the car building and creative puzzle solving was handled pretty well. And hey at least it looked really good. It did have a fairly sloge start with the car building options lacking but as you got into it it started to open up to be a fairly complex and interesting puzzle game essentially.

[Lupo]

Personally, I don't think it is a necessarily bad game, in my opinion I saw it as an experiment to see where Rare could take a dead franchise to new levels, but it would've fit a different IP

Great game, wrong franchise

[supergardie]

Honestly, I never played it, or any of Rare's Microsoft games. Of all the consoles, Xbox has appealed to me the least (all I ever really wanted on it was Fable, so I never bought one). To my understanding, it's not really a bad game in itself, it's just not a Banjo Kazooie game and it would have been better received if it had starred a new character instead. Kind of like how Guns N' Roses' Chinese Democracy might have been better received if only the band name had been changed. But again, I never played it, so what do I know?

My housemate has an Xbox though, so maybe I'll try it out sometime. I've never really liked the Lego games though, and I know Nuts n Bolts has a lot of building in it. Are they similar?

[TrenteR]

Oh boy only 1 Week after the Forum opened and we starting to hate an old game?
I'm on it!

Nah just kidding. N&B is a great game, but the wrong franchise in my opinion. You can't change a 3D platformer experience into a car game, there will be much fans who gonna dislike it. There is a reason why Battlefield and COD and AC are selling good, the franchise with the same things.

Sure we don't want complete copys of a game only with new maps and high-res models. But a whole "new" concept on a still existing franchise?
That sounds to me like CoD will be a a puzzle game.

The idea itself is not bad, but the Franchise could get damaged.

I actually loved N&B when I played it, but I was too young when I got hands on it. I don't dislike the game, I dislike the combination of game and this Ip.

Because many of us thought it will be more like the old BK and BT, but the main gameplay was different.

Rating 7/10

[Lupo]

[Taylor]

I've bashed it quite a bit, but in truth it's not a bad game. It's just not a Banjo game; not my idea of what a platformer should be. I found the worlds mostly lacking in anything to do and the whole challenge-based gaming a bit boring.

[Pgcrooner]

Great Idea....poor choice of ip usage.
The sad thing is that a game concept like that will probably never be made again. What they SHOULD have done was release banjo threeie in a concept closer to the first two THEN release nuts&bolts as a spinoff title rather than a direct sequel. I really wish they had made this a title with a new character or a spinoff adventure with another B-K character. Like Nut&bolts: mumbo's motors starring mumbo jumbo!

Instead of feeling like a banjo kazooie game it instead felt like a different game entirely with the cast of banjo kazooie shoehorned in it. instead of visiting vast interesting worlds full of things to collect and offer unique characters and enemies and bosses we have interesting but utterly BARREN levels, with the same gruntbot enemies, mr. patches and grunty as the only REAL bosses of the game, with the same cast of b-k playing ROLES in worlds issuing challenges with chapter levels for each world.

Nuts&Bolts is in no way a BAD game, in fact I find the concept of it to be very brilliant and ahead of it's time. The difficulty of the challenges depend on your creativity with vehicle creation is ingenious. But it should never had been the sequel to an established and beloved franchise known for PLATFORMING. Had it been it's own franchise with a new character or a spinoff then i would have been much better recieved. It might have even gotten a sequel, but now that seems less likely. It really sucks for anyone who are fans of this title. The only way you would ever see a nuts&bolts 2 is if they split the b-k franchise into two. My idea above would actually be a good idea, have mumbo as supporting character in banjo threeie looking like he did in the first two games but have nuts&bolts 2 star overalls wearing mumbo wielding the magic wrench with banjo and kazooie as supporting characters. Nuts&bolts2: Mumbo's motors

I would be opposed to Playtonic creating a spiritual sequel to nuts&bolts with one of the different supporting characters of project ukulele in a later title (just y'know keep it out of project ukulele =P) especially seeing how much (despite peoples impression of nuts&bolts) the playtonic team seem to still love nuts&bolts.

[supergardie]

[Blue]

I loved Nuts and Bolts for what it was. As far as car creation/adventure games go, there's nothing else like it, and it's a damn good game for what it is. But, as a Banjo-Kazooie game, it's so out of place that it isn't even funny. It's like Spyro in Skylanders. They make a new type of game and slap a familiar name and face on it to appeal to the more sentimental and/or nostalgic fans. At the time, I was thrilled to have an all new Banjo-Kazooie game after a seven year wait, but, even then, I knew that it shouldn't have been a Banjo-Kazooie title.

[Alph]

I actually spent a good deal of time playing it yesterday and had a blast. Not just messing around with different vehicle types, but also running around on foot and trying to beat challenges in unconventional ways with just the wrench. It's a great game for dicking around and trying to "break the rules" to complete various objectives. And every part of the game is stunningly beautiful to look at (graphically speaking at least, since opinions on the art style may vary).



But there's really no reason for it to be about Banjo and Kazooie. Like others have said, the IP should have been something else. Something that wouldn't have required the characters to lose all of their established moves and then constantly joke about it in a sarcastic fashion.


Imagine if the game had been about Tiptup, with maybe a passing cameo from Banjo and Kazooie but the main adventure not involving them at all. Diehard Rare fans would have loved the game, everyone else (people who pay attention to bigger franchises like Banjo-Kazooie but wouldn't pay attention to a new IP) would have ignored it, and the game would have become a cult classic. Instead everyone just hated it because it wasn't the Banjo-Kazooie game anyone was asking for, and that's a shame.


Hopefully this revival of 3D platformers will lead to a true Banjo-Threeie, and it along with Ukulele will allow people to look back on Nuts and Bolts with a less vengeful attitude.

[Nightpaws]

I would bash Nuts n' Bolts but it's a good game so I can't. I have many issues with it, but I'll start with the good points.

As what's essentially a karting game, it checks all the boxes. It's fun, customisable, and actually has a plot which most games in the genre completely circumvent. It also follows on from the first two games which was nice so it didn't feel like a spin off. The customisation options were pretty nice too, as well as the creation modes.

The only dynamics feature I could criticise was that the kart building felt a bit like Kingdom Heart's Gummi Ship Editor which is almost universally agreed to be one of the worst gaming moments ever. Besides that, my only other criticisms come from the fact that the racing seemed very shoehorned in, and that a lot of the time progression and gameplay elements felt 'forced' as though they existed just to drag the story along rather than there being a flow to the plot like in the previous games.

All in all, it's a game I'd buy for the continuity of the story and for a few hours of playing around every once in a while, but it's not a series definer by a million miles.

[Pgcrooner]

[Jellyfunk]

It should have been a spinoff game, not a main entry.

[Nightpaws]

[EekumBokum202]

Honestly, I don't think it's that bad. The humor is top-notch, save the ones joking about how the series used to be, in which case it just felt painful... And the gameplay itself isn't bad, it's just... you know, not what we wanted out of the return of Banjo-Kazooie.

Part of me things the hate for this game is overblown, but I also understand the hate. We waited so long for a return from Banjo-Kazooie, and this didn't deliver at all...

[Pgcrooner]

[Jellyfunk]

[Nightpaws]

If they had stuck with the old formula we'd have had BK3 by now, however they did what they thought was right at the time. I just hope that if they continue with the franchise that they learn from their mistakes rather than alienate people further.

I agree that making it a spin-off entirely would possibly have been better, but again, hindsight is wonderful.

[supergardie]

[DreaminErryDay]

A glitchy mess of a game. I exploited a few of the missions through the weird physics and glitches people were finding, played through the whole game and beat it.

I felt so empty inside, no feeling of satisfaction whatsoever. I had the most fun playing it just messing around in Showdown Town and exploring Spiral Mountain.

That's honestly the nicest I can be talking about this game.