Let's talk about Nuts & Bolts

[Gorjo]

I've never played it myself. I first saw it in a store and was surprised that it existed, I later learned on the internet that it was about cars. I never cared about car games so didn't think much about it.
It wasn't until Jontron's famous video that I became aware of the massive general hate towards the game.
While it made for a very entertaining video, looking back I wonder if the hate was unwarranted.
The consensus seems to lean towards "it's a good game, just not a Banjo-Kazooie game", but I'm not sure about the later part in theory (again, I haven't played it yet).
There is the fact that Banjo Pilot exists and the bear debuted in Diddy Kong Racing. Honestly Nuts & Bolt sounds more like how Rare would make a racing game than Banjo Pilot, giving it a different approach like exploration rather than playing it straight, kind of like in Diddy Kong Racing. For what I've seen it looks like it actually follows the basic BK formula but with a car theme.

So thoughts?
What do poeple who actually played it have to say?

[Taylor]

I see your point, but for me, it just did not feel like the Banjo games I know a love. I wanted platforming with a whole bunch of moves, I wanted transformations, I wanted proper boss fights. Basically, I wanted what is now Yooka-Laylee.

[bigfanofoldrare]

honestly , this banjo was not fun for a player of banjo-kazooie or tooie in general..

bk and bt was platform and puzzle... nuts & boltz = vehicule??

microsoft are stupid lol.. i am sure its microsoft who ask to do a game like this.

[ShanPen]

I tried to play it, but the writing was so tiny that I couldn't read the story, which was frustrating so I gave up. And I mean it was absolutely tiny! So small that I couldn't read it while sitting 1.5m in front of the TV, and because we had an old CRT TV at the time I couldn't even get close to the screen to read it because then I could just see the pixels not the words.

I think a lot of the hate for that game was because an ad came out showing what looked like a proper 3rd installment of the Banjo games, but then they changed it all to the car abomination that was released, which wasn't what Banjo fans expected.

[bjaxx87]

[Gorjo]

Leaving the gameplay aside for a moment, I've seen fans feel attacked by the plot of the game, particularly the opening sequence, but I think it was cute how meta the game tried to be and it wouldn't be BK without self-deprecation... HOWEVER, I think a serious problem with the game was the character L.O.G.
He's all-powerful, everything happens on his terms, characters have to do as he says despite wanting nothing to do with it, he insults them, and gets no comeuppance at the end, he's just as powerful at the end as he was at the begining. In a way he takes the feeling of control away from the player.
He could have been the villain of the game, the one you defeat at the end. Maybe have the duo and Gruntilda call it a temporary truce and team up to kick his ass; then at the end everything goes back to normal except BK get their moves back and Gruntilda gets a new body and so the game ends with them about to fight again, this time uninterrupted.
Wouldn't that have been more satisfying?

[Ciro]

Good gameplay (I wish there were more on foot exploration though), nice graphics, nice music. It's a good as a spin-off game. The character designs are good too, but fans of the old games will miss the old designs.

The plot premise itself is good enough: Banjo and Grunty goes to other world into some kind of competition to see whoever gets Spiral Mountain. What kills it is God descending out of nowhere and deciding the fate of the two. It simply turns Banjo timeline into a joke.

[Scrubber]

The good:

*It was great to see Banjo and Kazooie back in action after skipping a generation.
*The witty humour was still there.
*The game looked fantastic, some of the most beautiful graphics I'd seen at the time.
*Gameplay was pretty fun but wasn't quite executed correctly .
*Creating vehicles was really fun, more fun than actually driving them.
*Hub World was fantastic. By far my favourite place in the game to traverse.

The bad:

*The story and cutscenes (much like Yooka Laylee) SUCKED. Unlike Kazooie and Tooie there was no atmosphere no gripping story and nothing to care about.
*They changed ALL the character designs (and their voices). Banjo and Kazooie I could live with, they were still recognisable. Others such as Boggy and Humba were completely unrecognisable.
*L.O.G.
*Level design SUCKED. Some were complete open spaces with nothing In them. Others were awfully annoying to travel around In vehicles.
*Grunty is out in the open and you can just speak to her and play games with her in each and every level making the final show down very underwhelming.

[Scrubber]

[mickeythelegend]

The game was alright, I'd at a push say it was good. If banjo wasn't on it i wouldn't have went near it. Very much a game that isn't a banjo game, infact it just annoys me how much it isn't after the wait from banjo tooie. I don't even count it as a sequel. Yooka-Laylee is what i wanted the next banjo to be but i still crave another banjo

[Scrubber]

[mickeythelegend]

[Bayo]

Nuts & Bolts is an awesome game, but it's not a platform and so it should not have been called Banjo-Kazooie, or at least it shouldn't have been the third main game of the series. If Rare would have made a classic Banjo-Threeie and then Nuts & Bolts, then the game would have got the respect it deserves. But I love it anyway and I recommend to play it.

[Spydr Webz]

Looking back, Nuts & Bolts wasn't a terrible game (despite the incredibly repetitive missions). It just isn't the kind of game Banjo fans wanted. Should have used different characters.

I know everyone wants a new Banjo game, but I honestly couldn't care less. The magic of Banjo came from the team that worked on it. If Playtonic developed the next Banjo, I'd buy it. Otherwise, it just won't be the same, and I'd think twice before getting it.

[Pgcrooner]

[NPChilla]

I've tried a few times to get into it and I just couldn't.
I have always found it overcomplicated, boring and unbearably smug in terms of "the old games were tedious collect-a-thons, DUR HUR HUR!"