Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts
Banjo's approaching the two month point now until its November 14 release, and it shows - because this is the first time we've been able to get our hands on what looks like near-final code of the bear and bird's 360 outing.
Picking up the pad during our recent trip to Microsoft's UK HQ, we're dropped straight into Spiral Mountain nostalgia heaven via a gorgeous recreation of the old N64 home world in Nuts & Bolts' intro.
It's exactly how we remember (apart from the individual blades of grass and bump mapping, we suppose) and it's immediately going to take at least two PR blokes to pull as away from the machine. We're still don't understand why certain Banjo fans are upping their noses at this.
As Kazooie says, 'Why bother? There's no evil witch to fight off now'. Then, naturally, immediately after she snaps her beak a pointy skeleton head emerges from the rubble, and the fight's on...
The basic set-up for Nuts is pretty similar to the last two games. Videogame overlord L.O.G. turns up at the last second to settle Banjo and Grunty's feud once and for all, which basically involve magicing them back into their former shape and sending them into his virtual videogame world for Jiggies.
Like Grunty's Lair, hub world Showdown town links to all the 'game' worlds in Nuts & Bolts. It looks terrific; Rare's colourful technical expertise is at work right in front of eyes, with tons of characters trotting around town and draw distance that seems to go on forever.
In one corner of town Mumbo and his new garage (and matching overalls) beckon us inside to put together our first vehicle. It's our first go at Banjo's motor construction which is surprisingly simple to figure out.
Using holographic blueprint parts we start to shape our first motor - which is basically a big shopping trolley on wheels.
It's all pretty easy to figure out; connect the wheels to the base, stick a seat on it, then an engine, fuel and we're done. Miss any of those and it simply won't work; a big yellow cross will indicate that you've left an essential something on the garage floor.
The presentation of the menus, as you expect from Rare, is excellent. The boot-up menu screen is the most pleasing, dotted with the typical busy collection of things-with-eyes you'd expect from the UK developer. In-jokes everywhere.
With our newly created Trolley-mobile on the ground in Showdown Town (this is the main vehicle for the hub world - you won't be using anything else) we're off in search of some of those golden jigsaw pieces.
As we mentioned in our previous hands-on running around on foot feels far more sluggish in Nuts & Bolts' gigantic environments, making vehicles almost essential for traversing between platform playgrounds.
Manoeuvring your creation isn't difficult to grasp; right trigger accelerates, left trigger breaks and reverses, and the face buttons are allocated to all the springs, rockets and other crazy gubbins you've wielded onto your hull. Controlling your creation feels completely natural - until you start sticking rockets on it at least.
But we've left the rockets on the garage floor for the moment - for now it's all about our motorised Tesco trolley. After scooting off to collect our first 'world globe' from .L.O.G., the door to the debut platforming playground, Nutty Acres opens, and the other world's are locked with familiar Jiggy numbers plastered across their frontdoors.
It should look familiar to anyone who viewed Nuts & Bolts' first media; colourful, rolling green hills, gigantic white clouds and everything for some reason covered in big metal plates. It's absolutely massive and ripe for some old fashioned platforming fun.
The world kicks off with a very Dallas-style television intro, introducing the cast of characters in the world and what their role is. Basically all of L.O.G.'s virtual worlds are just that - virtual, and all of Banjo familiar faces play Truman Show-style actor jobs inside them.
In this case we're greeted with Grunty's old underling, Klungo who's playing the part of a farmer and dishes out our first, very simple Jiggy quest.
As you expect from the introduction our mission is a simple one; get from end of the map to the other as quickly as possible, specifically so that ranch-owner Mumbo's barn doesn't burn down thanks to his dodgy barbecue.
The Banjo feel is really brought home by the comedy dialogue cooked up by Rare. The sarcastic comeback and the poo jokes are all back, and they'll definitely raise a chuckle or two.
We particularly enjoyed the abundance of 'nut' jokes in the opening world ("his nuts are going to get roasted!") and L.O.G.'s Mario digs ("you haven't been in as many games as that Italian fellow...").
Mumbo is of course no exception: "You want sausage? It a bit overcooked but at least bear not get trots".
The soundtrack is sounding fantastic as well, with plenty of classic tunes back for the third game - and this time recorded by a live orchestra.
After the concerns following Rare's radical new approach for its premier platformer, as Banjo fans we're almost convinced by Nuts & Bolts. Sitting down with the proper game - and not just some demo - let us see that the vehicle challenges (read more about those in our last hands-on) fit seamlessly with Banjo's traditional humour, exploration and yes - platforming.
It remains to be seen if Rare's still up to the task of wowing us like it did with those standout N64 moments, exploring Treasure Trove Cove in the air and stomping around Mayan temples as a giant gold statue... But we're very, very much looking forward to finding out come its launch on November 14.
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One could say that people are much too nice in previews. But who knows.
