only M$ fanboy or a nintendo hater would prefer nuts and bolts

Or someone who likes making their own content?  Someone who's not all that fond of platformers?

I don't buy this argument.  Rare released an average of 2 games per year during the N64's lifespan.  That's pretty impressive for one developer, especially compared to today where many developers put one just one game every two years, and considering the fact that practically all of Rare's games during that time were of high quality and well-received by critics and gamers alike.

The only two games developed by Rare that had major delays from when they were first announced were Conker and Dinosaur Planet / Starfox Adventures, and that was because in both cases they ended up being completely different games from when they were originally conceived and shown to the public.  Of course sales were down for their later releases, being that they came late in the N64's lifecycle as the console itself was on the decline and the next gen was kicking off.

I think it was simply a matter of Nintendo not willing to shell out that much cash to own Rare outright. 

Problem is when you take a series known for being one of the best 3D platformers in existence, and make it a poorly excecuted vehicle-based game with repetitive timed missions rather than actual exploration, it's not going to be received well.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-02-08-who-killed-rare

Here is a great article if you want to know more.

The short answer is pretty much what Rol said though.  Look how prolific they were on the N64.  A total of 11 games, with quite a few hits.  Then only one Gamecube game (which started as a N64 project), and two Xbox games (one of which was a remake) during the next generation.

Martin Hollis (GoldenEye and Perfect Dark) had already left Rare in 1998 to work with Nintendo on the Gamecube.  Other people may have left too (that is just one example I am aware of).  Nintendo would have known this.

The relationship between Rare and Nintendo soured a bit with Conker's Bad Fur Day.  Rare had to get a different publisher for that game.  So that didn't help matters.

Maybe Nintendo decided internally to take a different direction with their developers at the time.  Maybe Nintendo saw something the rest of us didn't.  Maybe they got lucky and dodged a bullet.  Maybe Rare would still be good if they had Nintendo's guiding hand*.  We will never really know unless someone at Nintendo talks, and I don't see that happening.

*From the link:

"However, in time it became clear that everyone had underestimated how much of the studio's success was down to Nintendo's gentle steering. "It seemed like Microsoft was really a novice in the games industry and for some time they left us to try and see how things worked," Cook explains. "They wanted hit games for their console and since they weren't sure how to go about it they trusted Rare to do what was necessary. The problem here was that Rare was a very long way from the very corporate structure of Microsoft and when Rare had made games it wasn't in isolation from Nintendo but as a creative partnership."

When I first saw the thread, I figured it meant the original Banjo-Kazooie versus the XBLA port. I'm afraid I haven't played the port, but I would guess the two are almost identical.

If the question is Banjo-Kazooie + Banjo-Tooie versus Nuts & Bolts, then my answer in N64. Nuts & Bolts is a good game -- underrated, in my opinion -- but Kazooie and Tooie are two of the best games ever made.

I really do wish Microsoft and Rare would do something with Banjo-Kazooie. Maybe give us a proper platforming sequel to Banjo-Tooie. But I'd be surprised if that ever happened. I hope Nintendo or some other company buy up those IPs because they're simply going to waste. Blast Corps, Jet Force Gemini, Conker, Banjo, Perfect Dark, Killer Instinct. What a waste.

How is Banjo Kazooie a goldmine? I don't remember them selling like hotcakes back when platformers where bigger than FPS is today. Now the market for Banjo Kazooie is smaller. I'm sure long time fans would love more, but I'm not sure they would be enough to justify much more than a small XBLA title.

I can understand why fans might not like the change of genre.  If Capcom made Mega Man Legends 3, but made it a 2-D fighter, I'd be a bit upset.  But judged on its own merits, BK Nuts and Bolts is very good.  Complaining about lack of exploration is just another way of complaining that they switched the genres.  It's not a platformer anymore, so no real need for exploration.  The tools they give you allow you to create just about anything you could think of.  There are well over 100 missions, so naturally some of them are going to be similar, but there are a lot of crazy and creative objectives.  All around great game.

The XBLA re-releases are very good; being exactly the same games with smoother controls and better graphics, along with only being a cheap download if you own a 360. So unless you're going full nostalgia, the re-releases are a better play.

I played the demo of Nuts&Bolts, holy hell was it bad. You can't even compare it to the older Banjo games, there is simply no comparison.