B-K: N&B hands-on impressions and video footage

by Paul on Aug 25th, 2008

If I have learnt one thing from this year’s Leipzig Games Convention, it is that the Germans are crap at playing videogames. Never in all my days have I seen such ineptitude. Please accept my apologies if you are German, or you know someone who is German, and you’re really rather good, but the fact remains that I have never been left so frustrated by the sheer crappiness on display. One boy spent a good fifteen minutes doing nothing but whack Mumbo with the wrench. Fifteen. In the end I had to tap him on the shoulder and politely ask him to give someone else (i.e. me) a go. He couldn’t understand of course and continued to beat the living daylights out of our beloved Shaman. The reason this annoys me so much is because here I am, waiting to play a game I have been waiting years for, and as an added extra I’ve been given the chance to play it a few months early! Do I get to spend some quality time with it? No. I get to watch some punk kid, who has no clue how much this game means to me, beat up Mumbo while his Dad looks on laughing at his ignoramus child. Anyway, let’s not turn this into a rant … let’s throw ourselves headlong into the hands-on coverage.

The conference itself was … okay. I’ll be honest, I was expecting more and left feeling rather underwhelmed by it all. Don’t get me wrong, I had a great time, but if Banjo was not playable there I wouldn’t have bothered going. Both Microsoft and Sony made a big effort to publicize some upcoming releases (Sony were really pushing LittleBigPlanet, which is looking nice) but Nintendo were strangely absent with only a few Wii and Nintendo DS demo stands dotted around; odd when you consider their European headquarters isn’t too far away, although they did have Chrono Trigger DS on display and that is looking sweet!

Finding the Banjo demo display was harder than expected. I had imagined that Microsoft would be going all out to promote the game, but it was hidden away by the side of the main stage with only a meager two demo stands available to play on. It was all very discreet. Most of their show was devoted to Rock Band and Guitar Hero (lord knows why as both have been available for a while) and the giant stage had a continuous stream of people being invited up to have a go and win Xbox-branded goodies in the process. All very nice, but it made trying to hear Banjo nigh-on impossible, what with all the out-of-tune wailing going on behind me. Sadly, a chat with Rare staff was not to be. They did attend the show, but only for the first few days, and had departed for home by the time I arrived on Saturday. Microsoft reps were in attendance, but they spent most of their time up on the stage throwing Xbox tat into the bear pit in front of the stage, and to be honest I could tell from the minute I saw them that asking them about Banjo would be a pointless exercise.

Footage of the game (remember that it isn’t me playing … it’s our German cousins so I am in no way responsible for the crap gameplay you’re about to see. Believe it or not, of the footage I did get, this is the best of the bunch!) can be found at the end of this blog. A little disclaimer for you … as I have already mentioned, the sound in the hall was crap. The main stage was right behind me where they were holding the Rock Band competitions all day so all you’ll be hearing is the screams and yelps of 500 Germans trying to blag free tat from the Xbox Live girls. I, with the magic of iMovie, have tried to drown out all of that crap. What little sound / music I did hear was undeniably Banjo. I caught the occasional tune that instantly took me back ten years, and the sound effects are spot on. I have no doubt that the soundtrack is going to be a masterpiece.

All in all I must have nabbed nearly an hour of play time with Banjo, and it is as gorgeous as I thought it’d be, if not more so. Video footage shown on various gaming sites has already revealed it to be very pretty, but when you see it running with your own eyes it really is a sight to behold. The new design of Banjo really gels for me now, and if I’m honest it does a really good job of bringing the old N64 games right up to date. I promise that after a little time spent with the game you will love it too, and you’ll wonder what you were worried about. The manufactured / engineering theme they’ve got going on looks really smart, and all the old familiar faces that crop up within the demo – Mumbo, Bottles, Mr. Fit, Captain Blubber and Klungo are all in there – look very nice. The level itself (we’re playing in Banjo land, in case you didn’t know) is beautiful, with a cheeky wink and a nod to the past almost everywhere you turn. I could
spend a lot of time talking about how Mumbo’s Mountain features, or how Mad Monster Mansion has been added, but I won’t. Rare have added some funky-looking Banjo signposts near a lot of the landmarks that will give you a quick history lesson about the landmark in question; very nice touch. I think it’s best to let you see it all for yourselves in the video below. You’ll be amazed at how much you’ll spot in there that rings a few bells. Remember how Gregg Mayles revealed that Gobi would be returning, but not how we expect? Check out the video below to see Gobi’s appearance within Banjo Land. Whether this is the only way we’ll be seeing him in the game is not known, but it sure is surprising if that’s all we’ll be seeing of our favourite camel.

Right, let me get this out of the way straight away. I know that a lot of you will still be hankering for the good old days of Banjo platforming and remain unconvinced by the shift in design that Banjo has taken. No matter what the Rare guys may say about the platforming elements still being there, this demo is not going to do a good job of proving that to be the case, as it was all about the vehicles during my time in Leipzig. Now, before you all go jumping off bridges in despair, bear this in mind; the demo is the same as the one shown at E3, so it’s just four challenges within Banjo Land that we have to play with. These four are all driving-based (I’ll go into these later), so it’s little wonder that platforming seems so thin on the ground. Cast your mind back to what Rare have said in the past, and you’ll remember that the bulk of the platforming takes place in Showdown Town, which I did not have the pleasure of playing, so just because I spent most of my time in a vehicle during this play session, it doesn’t follow that all the game will be spent in vehicles. Of course, you can move around without vehicles at any point but to be honest, when I did it was pretty darned slow work so using a vehicle to get around is more or less required if you want to get on with things.

Controls are all very good; the vehicles all perform exactly as they feel like they should. Heavy trucks feel nice and weighty, while the lighter-looking carts veer and swerve realistically. Sometimes it’s a little fiddly, but nothing that you won’t be able to get used to after an extra half hour or so of playing. The trucks had a pretty wide turning circle, which caused some problems once or twice, but it’s nothing to worry about. Time spent moving around with Banjo on his own without the machines is instantly gratifying after all this time, but let me warn you that Kazooie really does have a reduced role. As you know, she now controls the magic wrench that acts as a way of picking stuff up and attacking when you’re not in a vehicle, but for the most part you won’t be seeing her, unless it’s in one of the cutscenes that introduce each challenge. It may well be that in the final game she will be appearing a whole lot more, but in this demo she wasn’t in it very much. I have to admit that moving around and not being able to double jump with Kazooie feels very strange, and I do wish that it was in there. I can understand (and support) the fact that Rare have stripped away all the moves in order to promote vehicle usage, but if the guys are reading and feel in a charitable mood, having that one move retained would really help when not moving around in one of your vehicles.

The four challenges I had a stab at were all great fun. Sadly all the jiggies had been ‘won’ by the time I got to have a go, but that didn’t stop me from having a crack at beating the winning time. It’s very clear to me now that the challenges are going to add a whole load of replayability to B-K:N&B. I must have tried each challenge three or four times in the time I had available in the hope of getting a better result, and that was just with the preset vehicles that Rare had provided. The vehicle editor was not available in the demo, but the ability to design your own machines is going to add a whole new dimension to how you play the game. There really is going to be so much scope in terms of how you approach the challenges, with only your imagination to limit you, and I can see me playing it for quite a while after all the jiggies have been collected, just to try and shave a few more seconds off the top times. Factor in online leaderboards so we can all try and beat each other and this stretches even further!

The first challenge I tried was Mumbo’s Stunt Spectacular. He tasks you to jump through a selection of green hoops, all at various heights. You’re given a big yellow truck with springs on the bottom that will let you do this. Holding down the jump button will determine how high you jump. Once you’ve done that, he’ll ask you to perform some stunts by jumping and then holding down the red A button and moving the thumbstick left and right to spin your vehicle. Great fun.

Next up was Mr. Fit’s Football Challenge. You’re given a strange square vehicle to use and Targitzan will spurt out some footballs which you then need to transport over to the goal, with Mr. Fit challenging you to score more than four within the time limit. Big inflatable opponents are littered across the pitch to try and slow your progress, and after I scored the first goal three Grunty bots showed up and began to bash me. Charming!

Klungo’s race ‘Land, sea, but not air’ has you whizzing around Banjo Land in a lightweight cart, which you may recognize, and the course is mapped out by green rings which you have to drive through. It’s very similar to racing Boggy round Freezeezy Peak and passing through the flags.

The final challenge sees Bottles asking you to save George the ice cube by reuniting him with his wife Mildred, who’s waiting elsewhere. Using a flying machine that will let you grab George, you have to transport him over to Mildred and save him.

None of these challenges were particularly difficult (unless you’re German) but then that’s not really the point. The real challenge within each … er … challenge lies in what vehicle you decide to use, and it’s here that the vehicle creation element will really show its potential. Rare have created something that allows the player to make each challenge as easy or as tough as they like. Imagine making a craft that makes the seemingly simple prospect of scoring four goals incredibly difficult, and then sharing the blueprints of your craft to all your mates and seeing who can do the best with it? The mind boggles at the thought of what we can achieve, and you can expect a great many competitions at Spiral Mountain that will utilize and expand upon this idea.

Besides the challenges there was a lot more on offer to see and do, and a large chunk of my time was spent just wandering around and checking out all of the sights that Rare have hidden away. I really don’t want to ruin it for you as a large part of the enjoyment is in the discovery, but the video below will let you see a lot of it for yourselves if you cannot wait.

So, all in all, it’s very good and I’m very impressed with how it’s looking. The big question is about the change in direction that Rare have made to the gameplay and in my opinion it is a very good change, and also necessary I might add. Simply going for the easy option, namely Banjo-Kazooie HD, isn’t going to cut it as a premier Xbox 360 release in today’s market place (which is why we’re getting the original on XBLA as a means of keeping us old diehards happy). Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts is shaping up to be a fine game and a worthy addition for this series. I barely touched the surface in the time I had, but it was enough to convince me that it’s going to be well worth waiting for. You should be very excited. I know I am. November cannot come quick enough.

Click here to watch the video!

Categories: Previews