The idea of creating your own vehicles and having them interact with the world with believable physics is pretty novel, and it's executed very well in Nuts and Bolts. The issue is the mission design wrapping this package up is so uninspired, cookie cutter and monotonous that it winds up being a slog to go through, even moreso for masochists like myself who try and go for full completion. There really winds up being no actual creativity in trying to complete these missions, besides thinking about how to jam every engine you have on for a race challenge, or load it up with 5 guns for a combat challenge. There are glimpses of fun and interesting design where you sometimes add parts to your vehicle as the mission goes on, or ones where you're forced to use a pre-made vehicle that very nicely compliment the mission, but they're way too far and few between.
Maybe the biggest issue with this game is being a Banjo-Kazooie game. I used to be of the opinion that, as a person who grew up with the franchise, it didn't piss me off that this bore the same name. I must not have noticed the sheer contempt the dialogue and writing in this game has for the former entries. So many written lines just trash the concept of collectathons, the sales figures of Kazooie and Tooie, and the overall concept of a set of mascot characters like the protagonists. It legitimately feels like the only people in the entire studio who were excited to be working on a Banjo game were the composers, with the vast majority of songs lovingly tying in melodies from the first two games. Regardless of how much slander I hear for this game, I won't hear any criticism of the OST; Kirkhope, Beanland and Clynick knocked it out of the park.
It's a shame this game comes out looking like it does, and fills me with a sense of loathing after playing it. The real smoking gun in this unfortunate game all condenses into one of the final lines spoken by the replacement antagonist, LOG, "...you may never get another game." Rare could have attempted to be a little less blunt, and told me to go fuck myself

-Edit: The DLC, L.O.G's Lost Challenges, did nothing to sway my opinion either positively or negatively. The last content that players will ever experience of this franchise officially is Klungo's fucking arcade game

Reviewed on Sep 29, 2022


2 Comments


1 year ago

I don't think its really contempt they have, I just think its really dry self deprecating humour. I think its evident within the game that Rare loves their catalogue of games with the plethora of smalls references. Even if I feel sad that Grabbed By the Ghoulies is in trash cans cause it sold like ass, its just a silly jab at themselves.
Yeah its doodoo