Fantastic surprise - Microsoft and Rare put together a long demo of Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, and released it on the Marketplace. Here's a six minute video of it, with more to come. And no, I don't enjoy running over cute animals, I just wanted to show some of the dialogue in the game. Hopefully they've forgotten it when I play the full version...
Update 3: Images & last videos added, Banjo land and race.
All comments (38)
Looks great, I personally am pretty excited for this game, even though I know there are plenty hating the whole thing just cause its Rare.. I can't wait to get a chance to play it!
It's an unnecessary change to appeal to the masses.. But it's still a lot of fun to play and very amusing. If you're a Banjo fan, you should love it. If you're just looking for something to complain about though.. then get ready to hear the same old complaints leveled at it.
It's just too bad I don't have enough wheels to make it balance correctly, it's back heavy when it's not moving.
I must admit I'm a big fan of that too wintersnowblind, I've just spent the last 25 mins arsing around designing vehicles to see what they can do and can see myself slaving many hours away to it, add to that the original banjo & kazooie free it all just screams value.
I will probably still buy the game simply becuase it's a Rare game... will no doubt give it a chance but I am simply not too excited.
Too bad Rare felt like re-inventing the franchise.... leave that for some other IP but don't ever MESS with what BANJO has meant for so many gamers.
I heard some rumors that Get Force Gemini might be in the works... I hope these guys know what they are doing... cause the N64 was almost flawless.
My problem isn't with humour in a game. The little cutscene I was referring to just wasn't humourous at all. They should have taken a page out Insomniac's book and actually tried to make it funny on a higher level than that of an idiot 6-year old.
Now that I've had a chance to play the demo though I needn't have worried because I love it. I think Rare have done a wonderful job of retaining the platforming elements of the original games, which is what made them so great, whilst adding new elements, namely the wrench and vehicles. Both enhance the gameplay but don't distract from the classic Banjo-Kazooie feel. There's ample opportunities to explore on foot (like climbing the tower in Showdown Town for example where you can see just how big this hub area really is!) but the vehicles allow the worlds to be massive and far more varied than was possible on the N64. Banjoland feels big in a land-based vehicle but once you take to the air, you realise how massive it really is and how packed with stuff it is too. Superb stuff. I ended up playing the demo for 2 hours and would have played it longer had I not being tired. A very generous demo to be sure.
I do have a couple of gripes though. One is that character dialogue text often disappears before I've had the chance to read it. Some of it requires pressing A to proceed to the next bit, which is obviously not a problem, but some doesn't. Annoying really given that none of the dialogue is actually spoken. Another minor complaint is that the tips shown during loading screens are almost impossible to read at times because the loading times are so short!!! Another niggle is that fact that Banjo cannot die. Drown underwater and Kazooie slaps him back to life. Fall from a massive height and Banjo gets up and carries on. In the old games you had an energy bar and life meter which added tension to the game. Because you cannot die in this new game there's no risk at all in doing whatever you like because if you die you can just try again. It doesn't ruin the game but it does feel odd for a platformer. I guess Rare are just trying to make the game as accessible as possible.
Finally, while the visuals are extremely impressive in terms of textures, animation, draw distance and colour, there's some weird stuff going on with the shadows which are rough and jagged until you're near them. Makes the graphics look a little rough around the edges I think but it's not a big deal. There's also some very minor tearing at times too although it seems to be at the top of the screen and very infrequent so it isn't really an issue. The graphics are certainly gorgeous and it goes without saying that the music is too. I recognised several tunes from the older games and they still sound really great. Flying around Banjoland in my own designed plane listening to the music reminded me so much of the classic N64 games and how much I enjoyed them.
A great demo then and one that has me positively itching to play the full game. Roll on 14th November! :)
P.S. I love the new Banjo design too, he suits the game perfectly, square nose and all!
I've never played any previous Banjo games, but I'm having plenty of fun with this.
Fantastic visuals, brilliant audio and entertaining gameplay. Recipe for a superb game.
Funny thing is I got to play the game yesterday at the Eurogamer Expo, but I couldn't get into it there. But I'm glad I gave it another chance.
edit: Good write up Doctor_Hades. Agree with you on the Dialogue issues.