Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts

Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts is the latest game in the Banjo-Kazooie series, taking place eight years after the events of Banjo-Tooie. It was announced at Microsoft's X06 in 2006 at Barcelona, Spain and was released on November 11, 2008. Before the name was finalized, the game was commonly referred to by fans as Banjo-Threeie. It is the first game published in the series that is unaffiliated with Nintendo, as it is exclusive to the Xbox 360.

In early 2009, L.O.G.'s Lost Challenges, a DLC for the game, was released for 400 Microsoft Points.

Plot
Set 8 years after the events of Banjo-Tooie, the plot of the game involves Banjo and Gruntilda competing to determine the true owner of Spiral Mountain. Banjo wishes to preserve his home while Gruntilda hatches an urban development scheme to replace the vegetated area with towers and malls. A new character named Lord of Games (also known as L.O.G.) 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 working at L.O.G.'s game factory. While Banjo and Kazooie seek to win by completing the challenges, Grunty uses a slew of vehicles she presumably has built, as well as an army of mechanical Gruntbots to stop the duo from succeeding.

After entering different game worlds created by L.O.G., Banjo and Kazooie collect the amount of Jiggies needed to return home. There, they will face Gruntilda to terminate this crazy adventure, but the witch will not be willing to lose.

However, as usual, Grunty fails miserably and is forced to work in L.O.G.'s factory until the end of her days, as agreed at the beginning of the game. Gruntilda promises that she will launch her own game, since she has all the necessary tools.

Gameplay
The game is not a traditional third-person platform game like the previous installments in the series, but instead utilizes vehicles to transport Banjo and Kazooie around the levels and complete challenges for Jiggies. According to Gregg Mayles about 20 percent of the game retains traditional platforming elements. There are however few "moves" for Banjo and Kazooie to use. The duo are limited to climbing, swimming, jumping and attacking with the Magic Wrench while other abilities, such as firing eggs have been mapped to vehicle parts instead.

Vehicles
Vehicles play a prominent role in the game. The player can build them from over 100 components available, such as body panels, engines, wheels, wings, propellers, fuel and weapons. Vehicle presets are available as blueprints. Vehicles can be created when starting a challenge as well so as to make the perfect vehicle with which to win.

Items
The game features six worlds (excluding Spiral Mountain) where the player can pick up Notes, Jiggies and T.T. Trophies.

The notes are used quite differently from previous installments. They are the game's currency, used in Showdown Town. The notes can be used to buy vehicle parts, vehicle blueprints, hints, and even bribe the corrupt sheriff. In addition, there are three different types of notes: copper, silver and gold, which are worth one, five, and ten notes respectively. There 5,230 notes in the game. With L.O.G.'s Lost Challenges the player can get 120 more notes.

The Jiggies have the same use as in previous games. When Banjo win a Jiggy in a game world challenge, this puzzle piece is moved to that world's respective Jig-O-Vend. Kazooie, using her Magic Wrench, collects the Jiggies from the machine and Banjo takes them to the Jiggy Bank in the middle of Showdown Town. There are a total of 131 Jiggies in the game.

The T.T. Trophies are the most difficult items to get. Trophy Thomas, a super competitive cheetah, is the 'best in all the challenges of the game' and is willing to challenge Banjo for those who can do it faster. Banjo must complete the proposed test in a time limit to get all the prizes available. Four trophies will get the player a Jiggy. In total, there are 92 Trophies in the game (but the player can get all the Jiggies with 91).

Abilities
Almost all abilities learned in previous games will not be at Banjo and Kazooie's 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".[8] 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 Scribe 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.

According to Rare, the in-game explanation is that most of the older abilities were forgotten after eight years of not using them and L.O.G. did not allow the duo to remember them. The only abilities Banjo still has are the grip grab (no attack), swimming (Banjo only), climbing, and the single jump. The Magic Wrench is used as a new attack, for the platforming elements of the game.

The player can disembark from a vehicle and explore the environment in a manner similar to that of the previous games. In a screenshot, Banjo and Kazooie are seen walking on a tightrope crossing a river.

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.

List of multiplayer games (by category):

Race

 * Short Circuit
 * Nutty Airways
 * Speedway
 * Small Spiral Circuit
 * Drag Kings
 * Pool Prix
 * Egg 'n' Spoon Race
 * Super Spiral Circuit
 * Air Straights
 * G-Zero
 * Hurdles
 * Triathlon
 * Nutty Cruises

Added with L.O.G.'s Lost Challenges:


 * Terrarium Tussle
 * Iced Prix
 * Don't Lose Your Nuts

Returning Characters

 * Banjo
 * Kazooie
 * Gruntilda
 * Mumbo Jumbo
 * Humba Wumba
 * Jolly Roger
 * Bottles
 * King Jingaling
 * Captain Blubber
 * Jinjos
 * Weldar
 * Clanker
 * Loggo
 * Mr. Patch
 * The snowman from Freezeezy Peak
 * Bawl
 * Klungo
 * Jamjars (voice only)
 * Mr. Fit
 * Boggy
 * Golden Goliath
 * George Ice Cube
 * Mildred Ice Cube
 * Dingpot
 * Cheato
 * Minjo
 * Targitzan
 * Glowbo

New characters

 * Pikelet
 * Trophy Thomas
 * Lord of Games (L.O.G.)
 * Piddles
 * Gruntbots

Worlds and Levels
Many levels have been introduced in Nuts & Bolts, many new, while some old levels from previous games being redesigned in a whole new way.

There are 6 new levels (not including Showdown Town and Spiral Mountain). Each new world is split into 6 acts each with a number of Jiggies obtainable (L.O.G.'s Lost Challenges has no Jiggies to obtain, since they go to the picture). Like the other console games, the levels can be accessed from the hub world and themed music will play when neared. Each world has its own intro that plays when you enter the world for the first time. In the swamp, growing on a tree, the Coco Loco grows. Gruntilda tries to steal it, but this is prevented by Banjo. Nutty Acres also has its own volcano, where the player can get an Achievement if a bull is pull inside it.
 * Showdown Town - The new hub world, a huge city with seven different districts and people not very different in appearance but very different in their views (depending on which part of the city they live). The Lord of Games' Videogame Factory is here, located at its highest point. Mumbo has his workshop in the city square, Humba Wumba runs a shop where she sells blueprints and vehicle parts, Bottles works as a tour guide and Boggy operates his own gym.
 * Nutty Acres - An artificial grassland level located in Nutty Island. A tropical setting where coconuts have a reputation as the biggest and best in the world. In the center of the island is Mumbo's farm, to south of which the shaman has his own coconut plantation.
 * LOGBOX 720 - A level that resembles the inside of a video game console (obviously the Xbox 360). It has 6 levels, and has its own power supply system (grape flavored). Much data is processed and, occasionally, the firewall removes any trace of life. The LogBox also is full of small green creatures, which are bugs.
 * Banjoland - A museum of levels, people, and scenery from the first 2 games. The music changes
 * Jiggosseum - A level taking place in a large sports-themed colusseum.
 * Terrarium of Terror - A space-themed level, taking place in a series of domes filled with overgrown plants.
 * Spiral Mountain - The home world from the original Banjo-Kazooie
 * L.O.G.'s Lost Challenges - A DLC world that takes place in the Test-o-Track.

Easter Eggs
During the game, you will see a lot of things that are references to other Rare games, consoles, and gaming things such as:
 * Kazooie is playing Hero Klungo Sssavesss Teh World on an Xbox 360 in the opening movie.
 * In two windows in Showdown Town there are newspapers with pictures of Conker the Squirrel.
 * A Lickatoad from Viva Piñata appears in the game. It appears as a vehicle part named "Papery Pal", and L.O.G. turns Banjo into it once.
 * In the aforementioned Papery Pal's description, Mumbo says that, "Trouble in Paradise is good game. Mumbo recommend player buy it tomorrow." Trouble in Paradise is the 2nd Viva Piñata game.
 * When LOG announces himself as the grand creator of all video games, Kazooie responds with "Even ones that don't sell very well, like Ghoulies?", a reference to the fact that the Rare game, Grabbed by the Ghoulies, was a large commercial failure.
 * L.O.G. tells Banjo and Kazooie that they're failures. Kazooie says that they've been in lots of games, to which L.O.G. says the they haven't been in nearly as many games as "that Italian gentleman", an obvious reference to Mario.
 * When you're building a vehicle with a tray, it contains a Viva Piñata Lickatoad, 5 Grabbed By the Ghoulies video games, and a skeleton arm from ''Grabbed by the Ghoulies.
 * When you first arrive at Klungo's Arcade, Klungo tells you about his game, and claims he is a big star, and he is "bigger star than Massster Chief...", a reference to Master Chief from Halo.
 * One of LOG's random quotes says that he invented the first person shooter and regretted it, then he mentions "a certain Space Marine", most likely referencing Master Chief from "Halo" or the unnamed guy from "Doom".
 * There are many game disks to be found in LOGBOX 720, including Viva Piñata, It's Mr. Pants, and Grabbed by the Ghoulies.
 * At one point, Banjo mentions that he once was in a race with "a genie and a giant pig", a reference to Diddy Kong Racing (the genie is Taj and the pig is Wizpig)
 * In Banjoland, floating in the large lake, there is a Grabbed By The Ghoulies case behind the Test of Strength cactus and Cloud Cuckooland's Garbage Bin is filled to the brim with copies.
 * In the Jiggosseum, there is a scoreboard marquee sitting at the top of the colosseum, which shows fake scores from fake sports teams (the teams are named after Banjo characters, and there's even one named "Twycross Athletic", which is where Rare is based). Eventually, it will read, "Is anyone actually reading this?"
 * The achievement for unlocking the space-themed level, Terrarium of Terror, is known as "Super Banjo Universe", a play on the title of the Mario game set in space, "Super Mario Galaxy".
 * The Nintendo 64 can be seen in the beginning of the game, although it appears to be stowed away, a reference to Banjo & Kazooie's transition to Xbox 360.
 * In Spiral Mountain (Intro or Game World), if you jump in the large dumpster you can see Fudgehogs and Ghoulies in it.
 * In the background of Showdown Town, you can see a mansion in the distance. The mansion is the Ghoulhaven Hall, from Grabbed by the Ghoulies.
 * One of the parts is named "Fulgore's Fist" Fulgore, which was the name of a fighter in Killer Instinct, an arcade fighting game by Rare which was also ported to the SNES
 * On a weapon called Freezeezy (shaped like a fridge, and named after the Banjo-Kazooie world Freezeezy Peak) has KI3 planted on the front made out of magnetic words this is a obvious abbreviation of Killer Instinct 3.
 * When you find Jolly Dodger in Showdown Town he opens a case with copies of Killer Instinct 3(but appears in a Xbox 360 box (which never was released for that console).
 * A back alley in Showdown Town has a stack of green crates with Rareware's logo. The alley is in a construction site, between the center of town and the docks.
 * In Banjoland, if you fly behind Mumbo's skull, you can see the words "This is not a photo opportunity" written on the wall. This is a reference to the well-known British graffiti artist Banksy.
 * At the opening movie, when Banjo is eating pizza and Kazooie is playing the Xbox 360, the radio is playing the tune from the Windy level in Conker's Bad Fur Day.
 * In Banjoland there is a copy of Grabbed By The Ghoulies in the water, and there are crates that have Banjo-Kazooie on them.

Sequel?
Gavin Price, multiplayer designer of Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, was also interviewed and expressed interest in developing a Banjo-Fourie for the Xbox 360, after the issue of Banjo-Threeie's release during November 14-18, 2008.

To quote him: "We are still thinking of a lot of other new features and I think we were told 'you going to do a sequel' then there would be a hell of a lot just new ideas." Filecchio Savior, the programmer, who has been with the original Banjo-Tooie team echoed: "Yes, lots!" Neil Harrison, lead technical artist, added: "Yes there would be a lot of stuff we like to do."

September 9th UPDATE: Rare senior animator Ellipse Miller said in an interview that "[Nuts & Bolts] is like an introduction to what we could do. If we went and did some 'of us could push it. You can was accepted and people are so we can certainly push it in one direction much greater. This is like the opening of a new type of game I think."

Rare lead technical artist Neill Harrison added that the team has a rare few "crazy ideas" for more Banjo mechanical work, and that will "probably" expand the concept of construction for future games.

"[Lead designer] Greg has had some crazy ideas [for the next game] ... I'll probably get in trouble if I mentioned them," added Harrison. "I think if [Nuts & Bolts] was successful, we certainly had a load of ideas for what could be done with the same kind of concept but expand it out.

So, what's next for Rare? Outside of the new Xbox 360 avatars, who are working on unannounced games. Schuneman Lee, director of manufacturing a rare, says: "Usually it is probably in about four or five titles, so there is certainly some that we have not yet spoken. And some of those who perhaps never will, because Sometimes we try out ideas and do not always come out on the market, but there's a good few."

Rare later hinted, in responce to a question asked durring one of their "mini-scribes" that a Banjo-Kazooie game would be made for the Nintendo 3DS with the pending title Banjo-3dsie. Though nothing about a new game in the series, much less any games at all being released for the 3DS, has been mentioned by Rare since.

Trivia

 * It is impossible to die, as when Banjo runs out of health, Kazooie just slaps him in the face until his health bar is full.
 * Nuts and Bolts was originally planned to be a platformer, but as development went on, the levels got way too big. In response, Rare made it so you could travel by vehicles. Later they made it so you could customize your vehicle, and spiraled down until the final result was what we have.
 * There is an easter egg under Spiral Mountain, you will see a pair of evil eyes. If you fly into the eyes you will be in L.O.G.'s video game factory, which shows strange games, such as "Grabbed by the the Ghoulies ll" and another Banjo-Kazooie game, however these games are just possibly there for no reason.