Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts

An interesting new idea but not extremely enjoyable overall.

Credit to the Rare team for trying something new on their third BK outing, but I have to say they didn't completely hit the mark. There are still some fun platforming elements, and having an actual point to the collectibles (more vehicle parts) rather than collecting for the sake of collecting like in the previous two games is a nice touch. The challenges have a good amount of variety, and the same attitude and humor of past BK games is as fresh as ever.

Where the game falls apart is in the driving mechanics, which are a central aspect of the game obviously. It's super ironic considering that the Banjo character originated in one of the most fun racing games on the N64, Diddy Kong Racing. Some of these things can be improved by getting better parts, so that's definitely an aspect of the poor driving mechanics, but other aspects can't be chalked up to that. For example, any kind of collision with any object, whether that's the environment or another racer can completely derail your run. It's as though every item and vehicle is covered in velcro, because the slightest contact will make you stick to that object and grind to a complete halt. The angle of impact doesn't matter, the speed of impact doesn't matter, nothing matters. You touch something, and there's a 99% chance that you're about to become entwined with that object and stop. If you have a very healthy lead, aren't trying for a top score, or you're doing a challenge where all you need to do is finish, you do at least have the option of reversing away from the object entirely, straightening out, and picking up where you left off, but this is rare. Generally speaking, if you make contact with anything, your run is over. It's a terrible, frustrating flaw in the physics of the game, and it really artificially turns the difficulty curve into something other than what it was probably intended, since perfection is basically required. I didn't hate my time playing the game and it was fun to visit the BK world one last time, but it would've been nice for the series to finish on a stronger note.
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