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Banjo is back in his first outing in seven years
Banjo is back in his first outing in seven yearsBanjo is back in his first outing in seven years

Has it really been 10 years? 10 years since Banjo-Kazooie challenged Mario's undisputed platforming crown on the N64? So it has, Mark Betteridge, studio manager of legendary UK developer Rare, tells us in Microsoft's behind closed door game showcase room at E3 2008.

"I've been at the company since we started in about 1985," he says, clearly tired from the week's repetitiveness. "Over those last 23 odd years Rare as a company has sold just over 100 million games. A reasonable proportion of those games are broader demographic games or games for everyone. We've also had games that are successful in three continents at the same time, North America, Europe and Asia. Banjo is one of those games. Banjo as an IP is 10 years old I believe, probably about now, today. Literally. It sold over six million copies on the two skus we did previously, Banjo-Kazooie, Banjo-Tooie."

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Wow. Six million copies. That's pretty impressive. When we talk about Microsoft's Christmas 2008 line-up, core titles Fable 2 and Gears of War 2 are more often than not mentioned. Could this bright, cheerful, inoffensive platforming vehicle user-generated sandbox outperform them all?

There's been a lot of talk about the vehicles in Nuts & Bolts. About how the game is pulling up its roots, spraying them with weed killer and sending them off to be incinerated. Mark is of course aware of the reaction, and, we get the impression, isn't too bothered.

The classic vibrant, colourful Banjo look has been given a 'next-gen' facelift.The classic vibrant, colourful Banjo look has been given a 'next-gen' facelift.

"When we thought three years ago about bringing the Banjo IP back, what we didn't want to do is just bring back the same Banjo we'd had before albeit in high def and with better audio," he explains. "We didn't just want a high def version of the old game. And also platform games inherently, you could say they suffer from a lack of replayability to a certain extent. That it's largely a single play through experience. A lot of the time you play the game once and you won't really revisit playing the game in any large extent after that. You tend to see everything the designers and the dev teams have programmed for you."

So, get over it N64 fans. Times have changed. Gaming's changed and what makes a good, indeed a successful game has changed too. Nowadays people like to do what they want, when they want, how they want and in huge open worlds. They like to make, and break, their own stuff. They like to share it, mess about with it and brag about it online. This is the type of game people want. And this is the kind of game people are going to get with Nuts & Bolts.

Vehicle construction forms the backbone of the game. It is its beating heart, its core. While exploring the game's huge overworld, Banjo, with Kazooie on his back, will come across crates which, once taken to Mumbo's Workshop, can be opened to reveal parts, perhaps an engine, a seat, a wheel or even a gadget, which can then be used to create vehicles (there are 102 part variants in the game). And by vehicle we mean anything that can go. Cars, aeroplanes, even submarines. Pretty much anything. And once constructed the game will apply physics and make it work, giving it its own sense of handling, speed and weight. Mike calls it "Electronic LEGO", a term we think fits perfectly. Now we're starting to understand the Nuts & Bolts bit of the game's title.

But simply being able to construct vehicles from collected parts does not a 'next gen' game make. It's all about applying this user creativity to the mechanics of the gameplay proper. And it's here, Mark says, that Nuts & Bolts excels.

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