Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts

Nuts indeed...

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"This is a platform game", my Microsoft E3 guide assures me as we sit down for some hands on time with Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. That being said, the inclusion of near-infinitely variable vehicles certainly adds a new dimension to the typical concept of the genre.

The new Banjo might also be Rare's most 'Rare'-like game on a Microsoft platform to-date; plenty of the developer's trademark humour having made it into the game; references to certain team members, and plenty of nods to the series' past (a bin full Grabbed by the Ghoulies being one wry highlight). An N64 museum is included, and we're told an Arcade re-release for the original is in-bound, complete with 'Stop 'N' Swop' functionality.

Trying to explain what Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts is all about is a challenging prospect, even having played the game. What we're offered is a huge, rich, open-world environment; set within the vision of the 'The Lord of the Games', a key player in the story.

Traveling around as Banjo and Kazooie, you'll spend more than three-quarters of the game in a vehicle; albeit a vehicle capable of traversing platform-stlye environments. Collecting bits and pieces across the game's five challenge worlds and epic central hub world, with which you can build the outlandish crafts you see in our screenshot gallery. Planes, helicopters, boats, trucks, cars and more all provide inspiration; and you'll need to make sure your transport can reach places essential to the central story - and the multitude of challenges - if you want to progress far in the game.

Unsurprisingly, the vehicle creation tool is very comprehensive, giving you access to literally hundreds of wacky components from which you can build your vehicles. There's also a test track option, where you'll be able check whether your construction actually works outside of the workshop. Naturally, my initial attempts resulted in a craft that either fell-apart in testing or was literally impossible to steer, owing to the real-world physics that play a key role in the game.

Colourful characters abound across the game's environments, from whom you can get challenges, completion of which yields in-game currency which you can blow on vehicle pieces. Speaking of characters, a number of series favourites are making a return such as Bumbo the Shamen; who'll offer you over 120 challenges all in all.

Although the colourful stage I played through was one of the large-scale challenge levels, the central 'hub' world will be where the main story progresses. My guide assures me that the script is razor sharp, delivering a plot that both young and old gamers will appreciate, especially long-time series' fans. Tongue-in-cheek is the watch word, here, Rare undertaking usability tests to ensure that the game's seemingly disparate elements work well together, and are easy to understand, even for novices.

Land, sea and air challenges will be undertaken, and there will be a combat element involving some suitably madcap lasers and rockets - enemy AI will hone in on you as you make your way through stages - and the gleeful visuals, vivid textures and downright mental scenery shows more than a little of Viva Pinata's influence. The game does in fact use the same game engine.

Team-based and online co-op over Live will add a brand new multiplayer dimension to the experience complete with custom vehicles; which could make for some highly entertaining tussles. My guide notes the ability to make a ground-based craft with an aerial 'escape vehicle', which should add fresh intrigue to online bouts.

Customsation is at the heart of this game, as is open-world play, and if Rare can blend the seemingly separate gameplay components into an experience that appeals to both veterans of the IP and new 360 gamers, then the studio may just have succeeded in lifting the enourmous weight of expectation which has surrounded them in recent years.

More from E3 as we get it.

By Luke Guttridge