Wow, I can't believe no one is talking about this game. I really don't even know where to begin, it's just pure fun.

Sure, it sucks for people who wanted a true Banjo sequel, but honestly I think this is better. When I watched the trailers for this game, I wasn't very impressed. Even after the demo I was unsure. But I got a copy for $10, and I decided it was worth opening up to give it a shot, and after 2 hours, boy am I glad I did.

It's basically like a badass Lego/K'Nex/Erector Set playground, and you can build pretty much anything you can dream up. They give you missions, and then you build the vehicle you think could best tackle that mission. In my last mission, a race against a cheating pussy, I built a dragster with guns on the front. You can build helicopters, tanks, planes, boats, submarines, motorcycles, and anything else you can think up. The satisfaction you get after completing a mission with a machine you dreamt up is unparalleled. Also, the graphics are fucking gorgeous.

This game is not getting the attention it deserves. It's MSRP is $39.99, and at that price it's a no brainer. Blows most $60 games out of the water in terms of innovation and fun.

EDIT: Banjoa is Banjo's Mexican cousin...or something.

I like the sound of constructing all your own vehicles for missions, sounds like a laugh riot.
What sort of missions do you get?

So far I've had races, battle races, attack missions, collect missions, an escort mission, a find and rescue mission, a taxi mission, a launch mission (build a vehicle to launch a character past a certain point), repair mission (fly a helicopter inside a "Logbox 720" and repair certain areas), and a quite a few more. The missions seem to be pretty varied so far.

The game's also got a cool, self-referential, self-deprecating sense of humor. When you start Banjo and Kazooie are both overweight and sporting triple chins thanks to an 8 year hiatus, and your first "mission" is to collect like a thousand items. Seriously, you start it up and there's all these glittering gold items all over the place. You walk around, quite slowly thanks to being out of shape (if you jump, the ground shakes when you land), and after you collect a couple the main guy, "The Lord of Games", says "Nah, that's so last decade, let's try something new". That's when the real game, and the real fun, begins.

Yes, it is a great underrated game. It deserves at least a 9/10. Also, I made a huge swastika car, that you would change the camera to the front and it was a giant red swastika on black blocks. It was rather awesome.

I have this one on my pickup list along with the new Viva Pinata.

Whenever I clear out this backlog. *cries*

I think 95% of people were turned off by the absolutely horrendous first trailer.

*ObZ

Gametrailers said something about the ground vehicles feeling weightless and far too sensitive to control. How do you find it, Opiate? Does this get better as you get upgrades with your progress through the game?

I saw it for cheap a little while ago, so may look into it.

i think its a great game. when i play it i cant put it down.

i get distracted from the main game story and just design vehicles. i can last hours doing this.

Only thing is it doesn't have a real 'draw' factor that wants me to play it (much like zelda), but once i throw it in im hooked all over again.

Plus its good to see the duo get out of the mario clone rut.

The opening cinematic/opening gameplay of the new story line is a riot.

I'd say this is the best quiet achiever on the 360 (not including Braid and some of those great arcade games of course)

Gametrailers said something about the ground vehicles feeling weightless and far too sensitive to control. How do you find it, Opiate? Does this get better as you get upgrades with your progress through the game?

Yeah, the very first set of wheels you get are a little unwieldy, but not too long after you get the high grip wheels and then the ground vehicles become much easier to control.

Also, how well your vehicle controls has a lot to do with how you design your vehicle, so if you don't like how it feels, just try a new wheel placement.

Honestly, that Gametrailers review is trash, these guys got it right:

http://www.giantbomb.com/banjo-kazooie-nuts-bolts/61-20586/reviews/

I'll rent it out for the 360 ($2.50 a week, instead of $4.00 a week for PS3) if the local videostore has it, and see how I like it. I think I believe you. Not my kinda thing, but after the Pure experience, and reading your post, I will definitely give this title a chance. I don't know that I will like it more than Pure though (Which I will compare to only because they share the same OFLC classification etc). If you are lying I'll come back and verbally kick your head in.

I have had the game since week 1 and I loveeee it!! Seriously too bad amazon had it for $23 FREE SHIPPING like a month ago but its totallyyy worth $40 shit its worth 60

And yea to the guy above the beginning 1st-2nd hour u will have complete shit vehicles but it gets better n better as u play !

I just built the best hovercraft ever.

It was just a square with every engine I had slapped on it, a few propellers, the inflatable thing, and fuel. I lapped the motherfuckers in their boats.

Opiate is right on the money. I was praising the demo a while back, but I was told that with Little Big Planet around this game was a waste of time. Good to see someone else has given it a chance and enjoyed it as much as I have. I'd say this game was better than LBP.

I'd say this game was better than LBP.

Yeah, from where I'm sitting, creating a level in LBP is a huge amount of effort for what I feel is very little payoff. In Banjo, it takes a very small amount of effort to create something fun as hell to play with. The editor is so simple and user friendly, and you can literally create a car in under 5 minutes. That's not to say that LBP's editor is confusing or hard to use, it's just creating an entire level is a massive undertaking, and unless you've got some kind of talent it might not even end up being very fun after all that effort. In Banjo, you can whip up cool shit really fast and if it doesn't turn out how you expected, you don't feel like you wasted all that much time on it, so you aren't too burnt out to start up on something new right away.

What's sad is that from what I've heard neither game is doing very well at retail. It's kind of hard for quirky games with cute aesthetics to compete against the neverending barrage of "gritty" shooter sequels.

I have Fallout 3 and Banjo sitting right next to each other on my shelf right now. :)

But yeah, the level creating in LBP is cool and fun, but to me there is no real payoff. After I create a level I don't really feel like playing through it because I already know everything about it, and people praising my level doesn't really get me off.

I also don't feel like playing through other peoples levels a lot of the time because to me its kind of boring to play through one level and then go play another one. I like a bunch of levels progressing towards something, like castles in Mario after a big themed world. I'm not a big fan of user created levels either, especially because 90% of the people who create levels have no idea what makes a good gameplay experience.

Different strokes I guess.

Don't get me wrong though, I do wish that LBP was selling better. Games like that and Banjo are few and far between these days, and if LBP were to smash records we would get more cool shit like that instead of Gears of War 3 and Halo: Rectum.