Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts (Review)

So I found out something yesterday that was kinda shocking, but I can't really say it wasn't expected. Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, the recent revival of my favorite N64 series, failed miserably in stores. Only 140,000 copies had been sold by the beginning of 2009. Wow just wow. I knew that the game's new vehicle based gameplay didn't sit with fans of the old games (I know it didn't sit well with me), but I thought at least 400,000 copies would have been moved. Even though the game was only 40 bucks at when it launched and got mostly decent reviews, I decided against buying the game. A few months ago I finally decided to throw down the 7 bucks to rent the game. I was at final boss when I was running late to return it, so I don't know how it ended.

The game starts off well enough, vehicle editor is really well done, and assuming you're patient, there's a lot of crazy parts to find. The problem is all you really have to do are the missions, which are tried cliched trite that bore you or drive you crazy demanding perfection if you want a damn trophy. Every mission is timed for no reason other than trying to get the trophy and I hated that. I don't like timed missions mainly because I always feel like I'm being rushed and in this game I'm being rushed all the time.

The world's are huge empty shells with little to find or do. There's some music notes scattered around, but they're just money to buy crap. There's a few Jinjos but they just annoy you with one of six repeating challenges. And the mission givers, which are usually your only point in being there. And each world is split Acts to further drag out how much time you waste in them. I wouldn't mind, except the missions are the same old crap. Race, Escort, Kill or some variant of them. Over and over again. And the ground and air vehicles handle poorly. Everything knocks them off course and turning is always a pain in the ass.

In the end I found the game to be very underwhelming, though strangely charming. The best thing I can say about it is that the is well written. Developer Rare has always had a talent for writing funny dialogue and that remains true here. Even though $30 is a steal compared to $60 dollar games the 360 usually releases, Banjo-Kazooie Nuts & Bolts isn't really worth that much. I'd say pick up up after the game goes down in price to $20 or lower.