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[bottles]

How is it badly structured?

As I've said before, it's not exactly a seamless experience.

Instead of just stumbling upon a platforming part or a puzzle, you have to talk to NPCs to access challenges (mini-games) that, in my opinion, feel 'detached' from the game worlds. It's as if they first designed the worlds and then started thinking about how they could fill them up with some actual gameplay - a race here, a few deliveries there. Also, going back and forth through the menus gets annoying quickly due to the game's trial and error nature, and there is no real incentive to explore the game worlds.

I thought it was GOTY material as well before I got my 65th Jiggy. After that, it got old really fast.

 

[Bodom78]

I was so certain that I was going to hate this game. Completed it last night and wow, I have not had this much fun with a game in a long time. Building is so powerful, simple and accessible. The game is also perfect for short stints of playtime.


Now I just need to TT the Saucer Of Peril

And find 10 more notes in Showdown Town , been to the general missed locations and had already gotten them.

 

[Everdred]

There is a new auto-update out for this game! Probably the small text fix, about to check it out...

EDIT: :lol Yeah, it's definitely the text update. The background of the text boxes is now BLACK for easy reading aswell.

 

[Randy Lanzarote]

I didn't have any problems with the text before, but props to Rare for working on the issue.

Is it me or has all the text in the game now changed? The loading screens tips seem to look different than before.... :/

 

[Everdred]

I didn't have any problems with the text before, but props to Rare for working on the issue.

Is it me or has all the text in the game now changed? The loading screens tips seem to look different than before.... :/

Yeah everything looks a little different to me too. They also didn't make the ingame chatting text that much larger but made the main menus HUGE.

 

[autobzooty]

I finished the game 100% today! Just 3 more multiplayer achievements and I have all of those, too.

I have to say, this has been one amazingly satisfying experience. What a fantastic game. Bravo, Rare.

That being said, I still wish this was a traditional Banjo game, and I'm really crossing my fingers that we will never see Banjo driving a car ever again. Nuts and Bolts definitely stands up on its own and is a huge accomplishment in its own right, but there's an itch that Banjo-Kazooie used to scratch that isn't getting scratched by anyone else anymore. I really wanna see what can be done with that simple, traditional formula with current-gen technology.

Rare took a huge risk with this game, and I hope it pays off for them in the end. Adventure game or not, this is an outstanding gem of our generation. Even the bitterest of fanboys would be 100% happy with this game if Banjo characters and themes were nowhere to be found. People that are ignoring this game on the grounds of "all that could have been" are just foolish. You can't go into this game being upset that it's not a traditional Banjo game for the same reason you can't go into a Mario game being upset that it's not a first person shooter.

 

[watkinzez]

Comic Sans returns! :lol

 

[Oliver.S]

As I've said before, it's not exactly a seamless experience.

Instead of just stumbling upon a platforming part or a puzzle, you have to talk to NPCs to access challenges (mini-games) that, in my opinion, feel 'detached' from the game worlds. It's as if they first designed the worlds and then started thinking about how they could fill them up with some actual gameplay - a race here, a few deliveries there. Also, going back and forth through the menus gets annoying quickly due to the game's trial and error nature, and there is no real incentive to explore the game worlds.

I thought it was GOTY material as well before I got my 65th Jiggy. After that, it got old really fast.

.
The last world is one world to much. I have enough from the same few Jinjos challenges and the same main challenges over and over again. This game clearly needed more time. You know, I am a giant Banjo fan and I was loving the new concept. But in the moment, I am crawling to the end of this game.

 

[KevinCow]

The text update is out? Huzzah!

 

[watkinzez]

Yeah, it's a rush job. Tacky font and text boxes, and my 360's frozen three times with it running. 100%'d it a few weeks ago, though, so I'm not bothered.
Apparently Grunty appears in both Showdown Town and Spiral Mountain now, for anyone who missed the achievement.

 

[Randy Lanzarote]

What's Grunty doing back? Don't give into the cry babies who missed 20G.... take her back to the Rarehouse!

After playing a bit more, there should really be an option for "CAPITALISED COMIC SANS FONT" and the original.... the bigger text looks pretty nasty and really out of place (or maybe I'm just used to the original font)

Sorry Rare, I guess you can't please all the people all of the time.

 

[Digital Limit]

What's Grunty doing back? Don't give into the cry babies who missed 20G.... take her back to the Rarehouse!

After playing a bit more, there should really be an option for "CAPITALISED COMIC SANS FONT" and the original.... the bigger text looks pretty nasty and really out of place (or maybe I'm just used to the original font)

Sorry Rare, I guess you can't please all the people all of the time.

Wait, they didn't make it an option? Lol, god damnit.

 

[Plinko]

OK--I found my missing jiggy. After a couple hours of playing, it magically reappears on the map.

The problem, however, is that it's INSIDE A DAMN BUILDING. The Fruit building directly to the left of Mumba's Motors is where it is. I get on the building and the jiggy icon turns red, signifying that it's below me. I go around the building and the icon stays green, but there's no jiggy. It's inside somewhere.

Will this eventually return to the Jigg-o-vend or am I screwed and have to restart to get the "All jiggies" achievement?

 

[DancingJesus]

I'm normally not big on VG but this mirrors my feelings exactly.

 

[CryptiK]

I don't consider this a Banjo Game.

 

[gnarkill bill]

I thought it was GOTY material as well before I got my 65th Jiggy. After that, it got old really fast.

Im a huge Banjo fan and I like this game but I feel the same way. Once I got to the Terrarium world it just felt like I was doing the same thing over and over with very little variety in the challenges. I havent touched the game in a few weeks but im forcing myself to play through it a bit more this weekend.

 

[bottles]

OK--I found my missing jiggy. After a couple hours of playing, it magically reappears on the map.

The problem, however, is that it's INSIDE A DAMN BUILDING. The Fruit building directly to the left of Mumba's Motors is where it is. I get on the building and the jiggy icon turns red, signifying that it's below me. I go around the building and the icon stays green, but there's no jiggy. It's inside somewhere.

Will this eventually return to the Jigg-o-vend or am I screwed and have to restart to get the "All jiggies" achievement?

I’m surprised it’s not back in the Jigg-O-Vend already. I lost a stack of Jiggies on my way to the bank thanks to those police weasels ramming me, but if I recall correctly, they were returned to the Jigg-O-Vend after a while, and L.O.G. even let me know about it.

Perhaps you could try getting as far away from it as you can, and just wait there for 15 minutes.

 

[Psychotext]

I havent touched the game in a few weeks but im forcing myself to play through it a bit more this weekend.

If I'd have rushed the game I would have ended up hating it. There were a couple of points I had to stop myself playing so that it didn't get old.

Far too easy to get pulled in and suddenly find everything massively repetitive.

 

[bottles]

If I'd have rushed the game I would have ended up hating it. There were a couple of points I had to stop myself playing so that it didn't get old.

Far too easy to get pulled in and suddenly find everything massively repetitive.

I don’t mean to criticize you with this comment, but if you have to take extended breaks to avoid the gameplay becoming repetitive, there’s something fundamentally wrong with the game. The design and structure in and of itself should be sufficiently diverse to never bore you until you’ve gotten (at the very least) the minimum required amount of Jiggies to beat the game. Nuts & Bolts fails in that regard, and that’s why it’s nowhere near GOTY material.

I think Dead Space did an excellent job in this regard. Had it lasted longer, it might’ve gotten repetitive as well. Intentional or not, it ended at exactly the right moment.

 

[BenjaminBirdie]

I don’t mean to criticize you with this comment, but if you have to take extended breaks to avoid the gameplay becoming repetitive, there’s something fundamentally wrong with the game. The design and structure in and of itself should be sufficiently diverse to never bore you until you’ve gotten (at the very least) the minimum required amount of Jiggies to beat the game. Nuts & Bolts fails in that regard, and that’s why it’s nowhere near GOTY material.

I "beat" the game in a pretty uninterrupted tear all the way through to the 75 Jiggy boss battle. So I stand by my designation of GOTMFY.

 

[bottles]

I "beat" the game in a pretty uninterrupted tear all the way through to the 75 Jiggy boss battle. So I stand by my designation of GOTMFY.

That’s cool, but didn’t you think ‘a delivery challenge... again?’ at times? The concept isn’t bad by any means, but it’s executed in such a way that it only makes the experience really rewarding for those who are willing to tinker with their vehicles long enough to complete the challenges in the shortest possible time, whereas I just want to collect Jiggies. If Nuts & Bolts hadn't been a Banjo-Kazooie game, I wouldn’t even have considered buying it.

Still, it could’ve been GOTY material for me if the challenges didn’t feel tacked on and they weren’t rehashed over and over.

 

[Digital Limit]

The game structure and poor challenge design is unfortunate, but I still love the game.

 

[BenjaminBirdie]

That’s cool, but didn’t you think ‘a delivery challenge... again?’ at times? The concept isn’t bad by any means, but it’s executed in such a way that it only makes the experience really rewarding for those who are willing to tinker with their vehicles long enough to complete the challenges in the shortest possible time, whereas I just want to collect Jiggies. If Nuts & Bolts hadn't been a Banjo-Kazooie game, I wouldn’t even have considered buying it.

Still, it could’ve been GOTY material for me if the challenges didn’t feel tacked on and they weren’t rehashed over and over.

How were they "tacked on"? They were the core of gameplay. And having finally played the OG Banjo, it's seriously the same thing. There's a dude sitting there waiting for you to walk up to him, boom, challenge starts.

And, yeah, there were a lot of delivery challenges, but you were delivering tons of different things in different ways. If I could have completed every challenge with the same vehicle with just minor tweaks, I would have had a problem, but that was never a possibility.

 

[Psychotext]

I don’t mean to criticize you with this comment, but if you have to take extended breaks to avoid the gameplay becoming repetitive, there’s something fundamentally wrong with the game.

I'm fairly certain you're not criticizing me with that comment... that aside, I said from early on in the thread that the game was simply too long (based on the repeated content anyway). People have difference tolerance levels obviously, so some may have noticed more than others.

 

[Iced_Eagle]

I forgot to bring my copy home, but there is apparently an option in the menus.

(Images taken from Destructoid, but rehosted)

 

[bottles]

I'm fairly certain you're not criticizing me with that comment...

Haha, I know. I should’ve edited that out. I originally wanted to get my point across in a way that I thought might’ve offended you.

How were they "tacked on"? They were the core of gameplay. And having finally played the OG Banjo, it's seriously the same thing. There's a dude sitting there waiting for you to walk up to him, boom, challenge starts.

And, yeah, there were a lot of delivery challenges, but you were delivering tons of different things in different ways. If I could have completed every challenge with the same vehicle with just minor tweaks, I would have had a problem, but that was never a possibility.

Like I said, it’s as if they first designed the empty worlds and then said ‘Right, how can we get some actual gameplay in there?’ Sure, you deliver pizzas to spectators in the Jiggosseum and lunch packages to researchers in the Terrarium of Terror, but it’s essentially the same task, unrelated to the game world except in appearance, whereas in the classic Banjo games, the various characters and objects within the game worlds were designed around the tasks you had to complete in order to earn Jiggies.

In the classic Banjos, you often didn’t have to talk to someone in order to start a ‘challenge’ – you mostly just ran into stuff. In Nuts & Bolts, you have to talk to NPCs and go through several screens before you can start one of its mini-games. What I’m trying to say is that I don’t want to stop and talk to someone to play a mini-game. I want a seamless experience.

I like Nuts & Bolts for what it is, and I can see why you love the game. However, being an old Banjo fan myself, I also fully understand why other long-time Banjo fans don’t.

 

[DeathbyVolcano]

that looks photoshopped

 

[autobzooty]

In the classic Banjos, you often didn’t have to talk to someone in order to start a ‘challenge’ – you mostly just ran into stuff. In Nuts & Bolts, you have to talk to NPCs and go through several screens before you can start one of its mini-games. What I’m trying to say is that I don’t want to stop and talk to someone to play a mini-game. I want a seamless experience.

Yes. This is NaB's biggest flaw. There is no incentive to explore. Every Jiggy appears on your radar and you just drive from point A to point B, talk to someone, and get a prize. Each challenge felt very detached from the world it existed in.

The second biggest flaw is that it's never most efficient to drive a car (or better yet, just go on foot). In almost every level (especially Logbox 720 and Terrarium of Terror) you're going to be in a helicopter moving throughout arbitrary locations in the stage. Some of the levels I never really got a feel for because I never spent any time exploring and learning the layout of the level. It was always just driving/flying to the next blip on my radar. I have 131 Jiggies and I couldn't find my way around Logbox or ToT if my life depended on it.

 

[Rlan]

Yes. This is NaB's biggest flaw. There is no incentive to explore. Every Jiggy appears on your radar and you just drive from point A to point B, talk to someone, and get a prize. Each challenge felt very detached from the world it existed in.

The second biggest flaw is that it's never most efficient to drive a car (or better yet, just go on foot). In almost every level (especially Logbox 720 and Terrarium of Terror) you're going to be in a helicopter moving throughout arbitrary locations in the stage. Some of the levels I never really got a feel for because I never spent any time exploring and learning the layout of the level. It was always just driving/flying to the next blip on my radar. I have 131 Jiggies and I couldn't find my way around Logbox or ToT if my life depended on it.

Actually I believe that for the most part, the levels are made moreso for cars than copters. LogBox and Terrarium especially. The problem is: Nobody wants to make a bloody car, they want to make a car, then chuck some wings on it and a propeller and fly everywhere.

And yes, there is no incentive to explore at all. Nutty Acres is huge, has all these gears on the outskirts of the level, the giant stuff at the top. Problem is - there is nothing there. Nothing you can do up there at all besides 10 notes.

If this was a regular Banjo title I'd be climbing up the cogs on the side to make it up the top, and grab myself a Jiggy.

 

[autobzooty]

Actually I believe that for the most part, the levels are made moreso for cars than copters. LogBox and Terrarium especially. The problem is: Nobody wants to make a bloody car, they want to make a car, then chuck some wings on it and a propeller and fly everywhere.

Yeah, I feel like the levels were designed with cars in mind, but it just makes the most sense to fly because it's so much faster. I mean, there's fun things to do in your car like go off ramps in Logbox or through the loop-de-loops in Terrarium, but it's all for its own sake. You don't really get anything for doing it, and once you realize this, you just sort of hang your head in disappointment and fly to your next challenge.

 

[Negatronic]

So I had this game sitting around for a week or so, and got around to it today.

So far so good! About 15 Jigs in, and I'm really enjoying both the humor of the game and the building aspects. I was intimidated, because building is what drove me away from Chromehounds, but this is great.

BUT. The autosave. It's killing me. I'm not sure why it feels the need to interrupt the music and make the game stutter every five seconds, but I'm desperate for some patch to fix it or an option to turn it off. Did I miss that somewhere in the options?

Anyways, because of the autosave interruptions, this is no GOTY, but I'm enjoying it anyways.

 

[autobzooty]

So I had this game sitting around for a week or so, and got around to it today.

So far so good! About 15 Jigs in, and I'm really enjoying both the humor of the game and the building aspects. I was intimidated, because building is what drove me away from Chromehounds, but this is great.

BUT. The autosave. It's killing me. I'm not sure why it feels the need to interrupt the music and make the game stutter every five seconds, but I'm desperate for some patch to fix it or an option to turn it off. Did I miss that somewhere in the options?

Anyways, because of the autosave interruptions, this is no GOTY, but I'm enjoying it anyways.

autosave didn't interrupt anything for me while I was playing.

lately it's been taking a long time to manual save vehicles, though. longer than usual, and sometimes it would cut the music out while i was saving. but again, that was all only while saving my work in the garage, not while autosaving. i dunno what could be causing that for you.

 

[SnakeXs]

Anyways, because of the autosave interruptions, this is no GOTY, but I'm enjoying it anyways.

Do you review for Famitsu? :lol

Anywho, I don't think that's uh, normal.

 

[Negatronic]

Do you review for Famitsu? :lol

Anywho, I don't think that's uh, normal.

Neither do I. I'm wondering if it's a bad install or something. The fact that nobody else is complaining makes me think I've just got bad luck.

Reading through the thread, someone suggested trying to defrag the HD by freeing some other space, I'll see if that might help...

 

[Chris R]

Neither do I. I'm wondering if it's a bad install or something. The fact that nobody else is complaining makes me think I've just got bad luck.

Reading through the thread, someone suggested trying to defrag the HD by freeing some other space, I'll see if that might help...

My hard drive had roughly 100 MB free and I've never noticed a single thing.

Nobody has a solution for easy note finding, or do I have to resort to a guide?

 

[autobzooty]

My hard drive had roughly 100 MB free and I've never noticed a single thing.

Nobody has a solution for easy note finding, or do I have to resort to a guide?

I just bit the bullet and hunted them down. None of them were in totally ridiculous spots or anything, so it's definitely possible if you're into that sort of thing.

 

[Son of Godzilla]

So far I've spent 4 hours in the hub world and the 3 stages up till the very first Grunty challenge.

I'm not a fan of how empty the worlds are, but the core gameplay of trying a challenge and heading back to the garage is great. Also I love the mini-sequence breaks possible from platforming in the hub.

 

[Zoso]

lol, it figures that the day I leave my crappy dorm SDTV and come home to my parents' nice HDTV is the day that Rare releases the text patch. Thanks Rare!

 

[soco]

Reading through the thread, someone suggested trying to defrag the HD by freeing some other space, I'll see if that might help...

yup, but that's gonna mean freeing up a whole whole lot of space first. the only way to completely avoid it is to delete everything including all of the updates, but deleting just a bunch of things may help. you'll obviously have to delete the install as well as it won't auto-correct itself.

when you delete it, try running it off the disc and see if it's still there.

 

[Randy Lanzarote]

I found the "Large Text Dialogue" option in the menus (you can only access it at the main menu at the start of the game, not whilst playing) but it does not revert the text back to the original font; it simply makes the capitalised comic sans font large (so that when you talk to people you'll have to scroll through what they say).

 

[Orodreth]

Can anyone that got it from play.com help me?

I preordered it but didnt get any code for the BK XBLA. Any idea what has happened with that codes? and whats the correct play.com phone number? tried putting the UK phone prefix but didnt work.

 

[Giard]

Can anyone that got it from play.com help me?

I preordered it but didnt get any code for the BK XBLA. Any idea what has happened with that codes? and whats the correct play.com phone number? tried putting the UK phone prefix but didnt work.

You're probably screwed...Pretty much every store didn't get enough codes for the number of pre-orders.

 

[Ermac]

Reminder to self, make sure the patch you shot on Mr. Patch is the LAST one before jumping out of your vehicle to celebrate: :lol

This game just keeps getting better. Those on the fence, buy it!

 

[autobzooty]

http://banjo-kazooie.com/banjo101/default.htm


Go there and click on videos.

There's a cute new video of a guy in a Banjo costume running around Paris. :lol

 

[bottles]

Actually I believe that for the most part, the levels are made moreso for cars than copters. LogBox and Terrarium especially. The problem is: Nobody wants to make a bloody car, they want to make a car, then chuck some wings on it and a propeller and fly everywhere.

And yes, there is no incentive to explore at all. Nutty Acres is huge, has all these gears on the outskirts of the level, the giant stuff at the top. Problem is - there is nothing there. Nothing you can do up there at all besides 10 notes.

If this was a regular Banjo title I'd be climbing up the cogs on the side to make it up the top, and grab myself a Jiggy.

Very true. autobzooty is also spot on with his comments about the vehicles and not being able to find your way around some of the worlds. There is no incentive to explore as the worlds are practically empty, so you fly from A to B and do a challenge, then rinse and repeat.

I love to think Rare has already started work on the next ‘true’ Banjo title, but Nuts & Bolts didn’t chart anywhere so I’d say chances of Banjo returning to his former glory are slim. And that makes me a very sad gamer. I’d be happy with another Conker, though. So many games to spoof...

 

[Xdrive05]

Does anyone know how the sales have been for this game? Seems like I remember a recent Giant Bombcast where they said it was apparently selling unusually well.

If so that's great news for Rare. The general consensus seems to be that this is their best effort since their N64 glory days, so good sales might get them to try hard to hit those high spots again.

 

[WordAssassin]

Just bought an Xbox 360, had gotten this game for $25 on the Amazon deal... I haven't played a videogame like I've been playing Banjo in YEARS. I had the day off, woke up around 11, put it in to try it out and now it's 5:30. :lol I fuckin love this game.

 

[FateBreaker]

Dear everyone who hasn't bought this game,


buy this game.


-FateBreaker

 

[bottles]

Does anyone know how the sales have been for this game? Seems like I remember a recent Giant Bombcast where they said it was apparently selling unusually well.

If so that's great news for Rare. The general consensus seems to be that this is their best effort since their N64 glory days, so good sales might get them to try hard to hit those high spots again.

I don’t think it charted anywhere.

Also, I think Viva Piñata is generally considered their best effort since the N64 days.

 

[bigmakstudios]

******** says it's sold 360,000 units, which wouldn't be an entirely horrible start, but I don't know if their numbers are at all accurate. Surely, that site was banned for a reason.