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10.Jul.08

Mark Mazzei, A. Riol

New details of Banjo-Land and a possible slip of the 360mote

The K. Lobb walks us through Nuts & Bolts

It’s mere days until E3 2008, and as the time draws closer, the more information that comes out of the most anticipated and hyped games from the upcoming show. In this case, it’s Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. In case you haven’t already, we highly recommend that you folks at least watch the two videos hosted by Ken Lobb, because he does a better job of explaining what’s in the game than we ever could (at the moment, at least). Except when it comes down to that controversial sentence, which we’ll get to at the end of this. If this feels more like a Scribes roundup as it happens, then you’re probably right. Let’s go on:

The story is explained by IGN: Banjo and Kazooie are literally so fat that they can’t enter their own house. Banjo’s outside eating pizza, while Kazooie is playing on Xbox Live telling people where to stick the Ice Key, presumably. Grunty appears and challenges Banjo to fight when LOG, sick of it, continues on what we already know: the epic future challenge between bear, bird, and witch for the riches of Spiral Mountain.

The second most interesting thing is that Nuts & Bolts was actually designed using the Viva Piñata engine. Just like Trouble in Paradise, the Banjo community site will allow you to take and upload pictures onto the site thanks to the camera mode. Although we already knew about that thanks to looking at the Banjo-Kazooie website’s code, it’s nice to know that the Piñata engine is getting some love.
According to Mr. Lobb, you’ll be able to “level up” Banjo, but only in terms of what he can already do, not learn moves as it was done in the previous Banjo games.
Humba Wumba (named “Hubba Wubba” for some reason by IGN) and the Jinjos are both confirmed to be in the game. The former can be used to buy blueprints of pre-made vehicles, while Jinjos are waiting to be rescued around Showdown Town.
On Live, you can trade blueprint designs with your friends, as well as interchange what you’ve built from the single or multiplayer mode to the other.
Banjo-Land is, in a nutshell, a fan of the series’ wet dream. From everything to an old render of Humba Wumba, a picture of Banjo and Kazooie holding the pink egg and Ice Key, to even a can of Ghoulies copies, it has everything a fan could’ve ever wished for in terms of service. In addition, each world within Banjo-Land has a little Banjo trophy with facts about the world. For example, did you know that Glitter Gulch Mine was originally supposed to be in Kazooie instead of Tooie? Now you know. And knowing is half the battle.

Amongst the challenges within the demo was a challenge called “Ice To See You,” which features our favorite Ice Cube, George. Who for some reason has survived death from his fate in Tooie.
As said in the interview with Mayles, Game Globes open up new worlds within Showdown Town.
After the request to Mr Mayles in that very same interview, we have realized that Comic Sans have been removed from the game, and a new and lovely tipography now shines in the game. Whether that had something to do with the fans request or simply was an idea that the team already considered for a later development stage, thanks a lot anyway for taking our suggestion into consideration, Gregg!

Kazooie shaking the X360 controller

Last but not least (but minus that little dash in front of it) is something you might overhear listening to the first walkthrough video. In it, Ken Lobb mentions at around four minutes that “The primary function that Kazooie has in the game is she carries this wrench and the wrench is used for many different things. One of the things that the wrench is used for is to turn these devices. So you basically grab with the wrench and then you twist the controller around and it’ll move different things in the game.”

“Twist the controller,” eh? Did Mr. Lobb slip up on revealing the not-so-secret 360mote? Apparently, according to Microsoft, “Ken’s comment is in reference to rotating the left analog stick while hitting the X-button to move different things in the game.” Not to mention that “there’s no truth to the speculation.”

Yeah… bullshit, sorry to say. Don’t companies not comment on rumours and speculation? Despite how you may feel towards the 360mote, don’t be surprised whatsoever if it shows up next week.

Speaking of next week, stay tuned to MundoRare, as we’ll have extensive coverage with our own hands-on impressions of Nuts & Bolts and the rest of Rare’s offerings at E3.