After playing GTAIV, Saints Row 2, and numerous other shooting, beating, stabbing and blowing shit up games, I decided I needed a change and picked up a copy of Banjo-Kazooie Nuts & Bolts after reading some good reviews.
This game kicks arse.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s still shooting and blowing shit up, but in an entirely refreshing way that I was yet to experience in a game until now.
The vehicle creation scheme was a masterstroke, and as others have mentioned in another thread, it’s created in such a way as to be intuitive and challenging enough to keep me playing well past the main storyline completion?
I know there’s at least a couple of dopers playing out there, but anyone else?
When I first tried it, I didn’t like it–and I loved Banjo Kazooie on N64 (Banjo-Tooie sucked nuts and bolts though). However, I gave it another chance and fell in love with it–it’s sort of an acquired taste. Once you get into the groove though, it easily became my single-player game of the year. It’s so damn rewarding to build different vehicles and see what works best to complete the objective. Add to that fantastic visuals, brilliant music, and a very sharp and witty script, and you have one of the best gameplay experience I’ve had in years.
It took a few hours of gameplay for me to get into it, but once I got used to creating my own vehicles, I really dug it. Right now I have about 115 jiggies, not sure if I’ll ever get the “Jiggillionaire” achievement (some of those Trophy Thomas challenges really suck). I still need almost all of the online achievements for it. Send me a message and we’ll try to do some boostin’. Apparently you need at least four people, so hopefully we can get a little group together. My XBL tag is Maxwell Torque.
This guy on YouTube has videos for just about every challenge showing the method he used to get the TT trophies. He’s missing the new Saucer of Peril one, because that one’s a real bitch. Anyway, if you’re stuck, the videos can give you some ideas.
Here’s a picture of a vehicle I made a while back, an attempt to recreate the Batmobile. It runs fairly well, although it tends to spin out when you turn at high speed.
Red Barchetta - Yeah, it takes a short while to get used to building vehicles but it definitely is worth giving it the time of day. I think the main reason I’m still playing after beating Grunty is because of the different parts you can aqcuire which then encourages me to build better/faster/stronger vehicles to try and improve on earlier efforts.
Max Torque - Your Batmobile looks freaking sweet, do you have any other angles? Thanks for the youtube link as well. I’ll check it out tonight.
As for XBL, how would you compare the online play of Nuts and Bolts to the single player campaign? I’m not an XBL Gold member, but have considered joining up recently so am interested to hear your thoughts.
The online play basically takes two forms: races and sports. The races are pretty straightforward, although the kind of vehicle you should use will vary. One that seems to come up a lot for me is the “egg and spoon” race, where you run through the gates carrying an egg in your vehicle, so you need something that can take cargo.
The sports are more interesting, in my book. So far the one I’ve liked the most was “water polo”, which is played in the flooded Jiggoseum with boats that scoop up balls and run 'em to the goals. There’s also “sumo”, where you try to push the others out of the ring, and others that are like basketball with airplanes and such. I find the sports more fun than running around in a circle where the guy with the biggest engines wins.
Hard to say whether you’ll like the online play better than the campaign; I rather liked the diverse challenges of the campaign more, but if you like the challenge of playing against human opponents (as so many do), then the online play can be pretty darn entertaining.
I do have a few more angles on the Batmobile: here’s an overview, a side view, a rear view, a rear view with jets running, and a close-up of the pseudo-logo I put on the front. heh.
Thanks for the XBL breakdown, I may sign up in the next few weeks.
This is most likely a stupid question, but how did you get the wheels on your Batmobile on the 45 degree angle?
Not a stupid question; it confuses a lot of people. heh.
Basically, to get the wheels at that angle, the entire vehicle has to be constructed on an angle. Something like this:
//|-O
//
//
/-
|
O
So basically it’s unbalanced. When you enter the vehicle, the front “falls” into the horizontal position so that all four wheels are on the ground. If you ever roll over and have to right the vehicle with the right bumper button, it’ll assume the “upright” position again until you release the button and the front drops. The vehicle needs a lot of power to push it along, because the physics system basically thinks that the vehicle is halfway tipped over, so without lots of power, it’ll skid a lot and perform horribly. Hence the three jet engines, which you’ll notice point 45 degrees upward.
It’s an odd way to build a vehicle, but why should we be tied to a horizontal plane? heh. Unfortunately, because of the tilt, most weapons are pretty useless because of poor aiming ability.
Ah, I’m with you now and thanks for taking the time to explain.
I just hope this game sells well enough that they evolve the concept for a follow-up.
Well, if the interest in this thread is any indicator… 
Ha, good point.
I was telling a friend of mine who also has a 360 how great this game is, but after trying to show him one night I don’t think I was successful in convincing him.
It’s definitely a game you need to spend some time with to truly appreciate how great it is.
Yeah, it can be hard to find people sometimes. If both of you send me a friend request, we can try to arrange a time to get on together and do some achievement boosting. I usually can’t get on until later in the evening, around 10 PM Central. I bet I can rustle up a fourth person.