I loved the old Banjo-Kazooie's more than any game on the N64 that time, and they're still in my top 5 favorite games of all time.
So I was looking at all the screens at the trailer this afternoon and I was amazed. The whole Banjo-Kazooie concept was overturned and mostly gone. The interaction between bird and bear was gone, the jumping carrots with googly eyes were gone, and the only thing I saw were vehicles. What was going on?
And on top of that, the game wasn't called Banjo-Threehie, as Grunty's head promised at the end of Banjo-Tooie, but Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts. And Mumbo wasn't my shaman anymore, but he has a sort of garage. Humba Wumba looks like Kameo and a porn-erotic cowgirl at the same time (very nice how much all over again) and my lovely compact levels were huge plains.
I can only say one thing: Rare, I'm loving it.
This is what a next-gen game is. Take a game, don't take it the evolution road, but the revolution road, and release it. I mean, the idea of these vehicles and the LEGO building stuff is just genius. The collectathon that BK was is mostly gone and I'm happy with that. It did not irritate me but it wasn't really fun.
But I mean, what's everyone's problem? It looks beautiful, the art design is great, and they've put a totally different style of gameplay in. Of course you're not seeing much platforming, because Rare wants to show off the new gameplay elements and not the stuff we already know from the old games.
It's not Banjo-Kazooie anymore in terms of gameplay, but I'm sure it is a BK game is every other form; story, character design, music and all that kind of stuff.
I can't wait. Banjo is back!