A disgrace. An insult. A real… boneheaded move. These were the sentiments I saw when Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts was new. Eight years after the last time the bear and bird starred in a platformer, here was Rare throwing all of it out in favor of building vehicles and racing around like jerks. I wouldn’t have the means to play the game for myself for another 13 years, so I had to take these complaints as the truth. It wasn’t until much, much later that I found out some people were huge fans of the game, even preferring it to the N64 games I was so attached to. I’ve learned to think for myself, obviously, but the context of 2022 is also different than the environment of 2008. We have titles like Yooka-Laylee and A Hat in Time now that address the exact type of game fans wanted then. Furthermore, the build-anything type of mechanic has become popular in its own right, as shown by games like Besiege and Scrap Mechanic. I was ready to meet Nuts and Bolts on its own level, especially because as far as achievements are concerned, it’s practically a victory lap.

Like the other big 360 titles in Rare Replay, only 750 Gamerscore is needed to get the stamps and finish things off. The difference is that the DLC is also included, adding even more achievements to the pool and making the experience as comfortable as you want. After nearly every step of the challenge made me grit my teeth in some way, I was thrilled to just relax and play a game for its own sake. If this stamp system was implemented differently, if I had to complete every single mission or mess with the online modes, I would have come away with a very different attitude. What a difference a year makes. When I started the journey in 2021, I was raring to embrace the completionist spirit that Rare was known for. By the end, I was actively happy that I could play like a normal person. We’ll get into that psychology and more in the last entry, but for now, let’s get into Nuts and Bolts itself.

I’ll say this for the game’s detractors: Nuts and Bolts does not help its case with the way it introduces the genre shift. The beginning with a fat, washed-up Banjo racing to collect “pointless objects” certainly rubbed people the wrong way. Then, the omnipotent Lord of Games decides that it’s too boring for today’s gamers, leading to the automobile-centric premise. Rare games have always had an adverse relationship with the fourth wall, but this is the most meta title they’ve made since Conker directly asked the programmers for help. Everyone is explicitly aware that they are in a game and that their vehicular missions are just obstacles for the duo to pass. Kazooie is surlier than ever, and even Banjo seems resigned this time. In each world, the characters are actors working through scenarios all for an arbitrary competition LOG set up between Banjo and Gruntilda. It’s hard to get invested in any kind of stakes when that’s the case, and the artifice highlighted by the constant fourth-wall breaks begins to drag. It even seems like Rare had doubts about their own direction, as evidenced by the numerous times a character will self-deprecate by saying they miss the platforming. If you were so unsure of it, don’t let everyone know!

It was, surprisingly, two references to Nintendo that led me to accepting the new direction. The first was LOG saying that Banjo hasn’t had as many games as “that Italian fellow.” Imagine if we had Mario 64, Mario Sunshine, then nothing until Mario + Rabbids. The latter is undeniably a bizarre idea that shouldn’t work on paper, but because we get Mario games all the time, everyone kind of accepted it and could appreciate the things it does well. Banjo doesn’t have that luxury. The second reference was a recollection of an adventure with a pig and an elephant, of course meaning Diddy Kong Racing. And that put it all in perspective: Banjo’s first appearance in any game was one where he drives on land, sea, and air. If you broaden the scope and include Banjo-Pilot for the GBA, Nuts and Bolts makes Banjo star in just as many driving games as platformers. It’s not as weird as it seems, is what I’m saying.

Let’s finally talk about the vehicles themselves… I like them! Considering that Rare had to build a robust system totally unlike anything they had done before, the results are remarkably intuitive. Once you get the hang of it, it’s easy to translate the idea in your head to the screen. A few achievements requiring vehicles of certain sizes to reach certain speeds asked me to play around with the physics aspect in an informative and enjoyable way. As a rule, Rare wants you to break their game. Need to carry an object up a treacherous winding path? Just make a helicopter and fly to the top. Most problems can be solved with a helicopter, actually. Yeah, it’s likely you will end up with a generalist vehicle that is amazing at everything. For my part, I utilized a very simple glitch to unlock powerful parts slightly early and dominate. But it was fun, so I don’t regret it. Just as fun, though, was squeaking by a challenge in an underpowered vehicle, especially after you’ve done some sneaky modifications. I felt ownership over the solution like I had not in any of the 29 preceding games. You will occasionally run into a mission where you’re forced into a chosen vehicle. I didn’t mind, however, because it took the guesswork out of things temporarily. With all of the moaning and groaning I’ve done across these thousands of words, you probably have an idea how nice it was to have options again. If I tried a mission that was obnoxious or stupid… I just didn’t do it. There are more than enough opportunities to get Jiggies to finish the game. Life is short.

Each of the five worlds is broken into a kind of unusual act structure where characters are scattered about in different places. It was nice seeing nighttime variants of all the locations, but there probably could have been a more optimal solution than putting a hundred doors in the hub world. The design of the worlds themselves is inconsistent. Nutty Acres and the Jiggoseum are wide open spaces with not much to catch the eye. LOGBox 720 and the Terrarium of Terror, on the other hand, are filled with clutter you’ll constantly ram into. The crown jewel of the whole game, though, is Banjoland, a mosaic of a museum celebrating the most memorable scenes from Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie. The specificity of locales reveals a reverence for the classics while maintaining cheekiness towards some of the more odious sections of the old games. All the while, a medley of Grant Kirkhope’s best compositions warms your nostalgic heart. When the best part of the game is references to older games, it maybe doesn’t reflect so well on the new content, but Banjoland is delightful regardless. The hub world, Showdown Town, is also a success, being the only place you can really explore. It’s a dense area that contains your favorite characters and provides the opportunity to search for secrets. There’s even a legitimate platforming bit hidden away that made me question which game I was playing for a moment.

Among the various activities in Showdown Town is Klungo’s arcade, which I mention because he has a minigame that’s tied up in several achievements. “Hero Klungo Ssssssavesssss teh World” is a crude approximation of 8-bit platformers that nonetheless manages to be more playable than several of Rare’s legitimate attempts at game design during that era. I was no stranger to the purposefully obnoxious parody games that were popular at the time on Flash sites. It’s hard to say what the correct level of frustration is with these, but I at least mostly got the hang of Klungo’s absurd jump arc. In my signature move, though, I would often die millimeters before the goal and have to start all over. Klungo’s confidence about the whole thing, even while it fakes a crash, is humorous enough to put me on the side of liking it.

Finally, there’s LOG’s Lost Challenges, the DLC that adds some sweet opportunity for Gamerscore. There are six varied missions, completable twice over in restricted and free choice of vehicles. Some of these were cakewalks, and some were nightmares. Mumbo’s monster truck race in particular was needlessly tight! It’s underscored by catchy yet maddening hoedown music as you restart repeatedly. Fortunately, this is the Xbox Series X. We’ve got fast load times, baby. Anyway, getting through those trials will unlock the sequel to Klungo’s game, because I guess the people were clamoring for it. I didn’t strictly want to finish it, but the Gamerscore reward was too juicy to ignore.

After a few sessions of playing Nuts and Bolts, I had my achievements and enough Jiggies to blast Grunty for the third and final time of this journey. Is the game a boneheaded move all these years later? It’s still hard to say. During the ending, LOG implies that Banjo and Kazooie may never get another game. Cue the nervous looks into the camera. In 2022, that prophecy has so far remained true. After this, Rare would do nothing but Kinect games until… well, until Rare Replay. The company that emerged on the other side is a very different one. The three Banjo titles were my three favorite in the whole collection, so I of course would love to play a new one. Could that ever happen? We’ll expand on that topic and much more in the final post. For now, we have a challenge to complete.

PART 8: What Did We Learn?