Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts

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Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts

System	Xbox 360
Release Date	^NA November 11, 2008 ^EU November 14, 2008 ^AU November 20, 2008 ^JP December 11, 2008 January 5, 2010 (Downloadable)
Publisher	Microsoft Game Studios
Genre	Action-adventure, vehicle construction, sandbox, platform
Rating	^ESRB: E10+ (Everyone 10+) ^PEGI: 7+ ^OFLC: G (General) ^CERO: A (All Ages)
Players	1-8
Controller Pak
Rumble
Expansion Pak
Link Cable
Xbox Live	Supported (Achievements, Leaderboards, Online Multiplayer, Content Download)
Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection

Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts is an action-adventure, vehicle construction, sandbox and platform game for the Xbox 360. It is the third full-scale console instalment in the Banjo-Kazooie series (though it is the fifth title in the series released overall, including the handheld games). It was first revealed with a teaser trailer at Microsoft's X06 expo on September 27, 2006. It was implied by Gruntilda at the end of Banjo-Tooie that the game would be entitled Banjo-Threeie, but that title was dropped in favor of a subtitle. The game was released on November 11, 2008 in North America, November 14, 2008 in Europe, November 20, 2008 in Australia and on December 11, 2008 in Japan as バンジョーとカズーイの大冒険: ガレージ大作戦 (Banjo to Kazooie no Daibouken: Garage Daisakusen, literally Banjo and Kazooie's Great Adventure: Big Garage Plan). Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts was also released as a downloadable title through Xbox Live's "Games On Demand" service in North America and Europe on January 5, 2010.^[1]

Story

In the eight years since Banjo-Tooie, Banjo and Kazooie have spent their days mostly sitting around eating pizza and playing video games, both becoming incredibly fat and lazy. DJ Jamjars informs them through the radio that it has been ten years since their inception as video game characters, and that they have become "all fat and washed up." Gruntilda, still just a head, soon appears and picks a fight with the duo. Sick of the constant squabbling, the Lord of Games (L.O.G.), a mysterious individual claiming to have been involved in the development of every video game ever created, steps in to settle the fight. He transports the characters to Showdown Town for an official competition. Banjo and Kazooie must compete against Gruntilda in various challenges in worlds created by L.O.G. The winner gets the ownership deeds to Spiral Mountain, and the loser must spend eternity working endlessly in LOG's video game factory.^[2]

Gameplay

Pre-release screenshot of the vehicle builder in Mumbo's Motors.

The gameplay of Nuts & Bolts, in a departure from previous Banjo titles, consists of building and editing fully customizable vehicles using various vehicle parts acquired in game. These vehicles are then used for adventuring and a majority of tasks in the game, in lieu of the moves of the previous games. If the player does not wish to take the time to build vehicles, they may jump right into the action with premade vehicle blueprints. On foot, Banjo can run, jump, and grab ledges, while Kazooie can lift up things and attack enemies with Mumbo's magic wrench.

Despite the vehicles, the game keeps some of its platformer and adventure elements, however they are downplayed in favour of a new challenge system. The game features five challenge worlds and a hub world, with around 15-20 tasks in each world. Each level is split into six "acts", except for Terrarium of Terror, which is split into five, and Spiral Mountain, which only has one. Each act features a differing number of vehicle challenges (which serve as the "missions" of the game) within and the level and/or placement of the quest-givers is modified for each act.

The game's hub world, Showdown Town, is where most of the platforming and exploration of the game happens. Here, Banjo and Kazooie are restricted to only using a default vehicle, a shopping trolley, provided by L.O.G. Many of the game's vehicle parts are gotten from Mumbo Crates, which are scattered around Showdown Town. These crates are taken to Mumbo's Motors, and the parts within are added to the player's "parts store." Showdown Town also features Game Globes, which unlock new worlds. As soon as the Jiggy requirement for the first act of a world is met, L.O.G. will dispense a Game Globe, which must then be taken to its plinth in one of the areas of town. Setting the game globe on its plinth will cause the doors to each act of the world to begin opening.

A major part of Nuts & Bolts, as with previous game, is the collecting of Jiggies and Musical Notes. Jiggies are won in challenges, and Notes are both scattered around the worlds and won in challenges in each world. The Notes work slightly differently, as there are now three varieties of Notes, denoted by colour, that are worth differing amounts: Gold (worth 10), silver (worth 5), and copper (worth 1). Notes and Jiggies are won from challenges, as are T.T. Trophies, a new item in the game. T.T. Trophies are the top prizes for each challenge, and equate to 1/4th of a Jiggy. Collecting 4 T.T. Trophies and visiting Trophy Thomas in Showdown Town will earn the player a Jiggy. Showdown Town also has black-market Jiggies to be bought from Jolly Dodger, and "Jiggy Tamper Switches," which, in essence, give the player a free Jiggy. Jinjos from the previous games also return, and offer their own sets of challenges that include racing, vehicular sumo, speed challenges, and more.

Another major part of the game are the "Grunty Challenges," where the player goes head-to-head with Gruntilda herself. Each time a Grunty Challenge is completed, it unlocks a new part of the Showdown Town Trolley, allowing it to access further areas of the town.

For a full rundown of the game's controls, see the Controls sub-page.

A minor feature of the game is the Photo Mode, allowing players to take snapshots at almost any point in the game. These snapshots can then be uploaded and shared on the official Banjo-Kazooie community site. Taking a snapshot of a friend's vehicle in Multiplayer will give you the blueprints to that vehicle. Replays of challenges can also be shared and saved among friends, as can vehicle blueprints. The game also features online Leaderboards for every challenge. The top ten replays on a leaderboard can be downloaded and watched, and (if the user has allowed it) the blueprint for the vehicle can be downloaded.

Multiplayer

Nuts & Bolts features various multiplayer features and modes. The game features local multiplayer for up to two players and Online Multiplayer for up to eight players. Vehicle blueprints, screenshots, and video replays can be saved and sent to friends over Xbox Live as well. There are 27 total game modes available, 14 "Sports" and 13 "Races," as well as two "Random" buttons to have the game randomly select a game type. Players who host multiplayer games are able to choose whether players can use their own vehicles or only use the default "L.O.G.'s Choice" vehicles.

As a note, vehicles which feature disconnected parts -- marked by a yellow caution sign on the building screen -- are not allowed in online multiplayer matches. Certain vehicle parts are also disallowed during multiplayer: Tow Bars, Detachers, and Self-Destructs. In addition, Sticky Balls are allowed, but their effect is greatly diminished.

Sport

The game modes in the Sport category are as follows:

Football
Darts: Up to the Oche
Golf
Banjo-Brawl
Freewheeler
Low Gravity Banjo-Brawl
Sumo!
Boaty Banjo-Brawl
Air-Football
Basketball
Air Banjo-Brawl
Long Jumpers
Water Polo
Queen of the Knoll

The following game modes are added to the Sport category upon purchasing the L.O.G.'s Lost Challenges downloadable content:

Downward Spiral
Don't Flee the Nest
Hot Cargo!
King of the Knoll

Race

The game modes in the Race category are as follows:

Short Circuit
Nutty Airways
Speedway
Small Spiral Circuit
Drag Kings
Pool Prix
Egg 'n' Spoon Race
Super Spiral Circuit
Air Straights
G-Zero
Hurdles
Triathlon
Nutty Cruises

The following game modes are added to the Race category upon purchasing the L.O.G.'s Lost Challenges downloadable content:

Terrarium Tussle
Iced Prix
Don't Lose Your Nuts

Characters

This section only covers the major characters appearing in the game. For a full list of all characters appearing in the game, see Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts characters.

Returning

A wallpaper featuring heads of various characters in the game. Note that while this wallpaper features the faces of Groggy, Soggy and Moggy, they were dropped from the game.

New

Worlds

Spiral Mountain - Banjo and Kazooie's recurring homeland.
Showdown Town - The game's hub world, a large town where Lord of Games brings Banjo, Kazooie and Grunty.
Nutty Acres - An artificial farmland featuring a volcano and beach.
LOGBOX 720 - A vertically-inclined CPU level taking place inside a video game console created by LOG.
Banjoland - A museum built out of pieces of previous Banjo worlds.
Jiggosseum - A large colosseum with a sporting theme.
Terrarium of Terror - A space level built of interconnecting tubes and chambers.

Stop 'n' Swop

In a 2007 interview with RetroGamer magazine, Gregg Mayles hinted at the possibility of revealing the lost Stop 'n' Swop feature from the original Banjo-Kazooie game in Nuts & Bolts. He stated, " ... I'm going to say nothing yet again, although we are considering revealing the truth in the third game, as some kind of anniversary treat." It was later revealed, during E3 2008, that Banjo-Kazooie would be ported to Xbox Live Arcade. It was also soon after revealed that the port would feature Stop 'n' Swop functionality with Nuts & Bolts. The items, after being collected in Banjo-Kazooie XBLA, unlock secret vehicle parts in Nuts & Bolts.^[3] In this incarnation of Stop 'n' Swop, BKXBLA checks to see if a Nuts & Bolts save file exists on the same storage device. If it does, it opens the secret areas for all seven Stop 'n' Swop items, allowing them to be collected. Likewise, Nuts & Bolts checks to see if a BKXBLA save file with the items collected exists. If so, it unlocks a Stop 'n' Swop Crate in Showdown Town for each secret item collected.

Achievements

Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts offers 50 Xbox Live Achievements for players to complete, for 1000 total.

Pointless Collector

Take place in the L.O.G. badge collecting challenge at the start of the game in Spiral Mountain

10

Open Nuts

Place the Nutty Acres Game Globe on its plinth in Showdown Town

10

Next-Next-Gen

Place the LOGBOX 720 Game Globe on its plinth in Showdown Town

10

History Lesson

Place the Banjoland Game Globe on its plinth in Showdown Town

15

Let the Games Begin

Place the Jiggosseum Game Globe on its plinth in Showdown Town

15

Super Banjo Universe

Place the Terrarium of Terror Game Globe on its plinth in Showdown Town

20

My First Bank

Bank your first Jiggy in Showdown Town

10

Little Banker

Bank 10 Jiggies in Showdown Town

20

Big Banker

Bank 30 Jiggies in Showdown Town

30

Shower of Gold

Bank 60 Jiggies in Showdown Town

40

Jiggillionaire!

Bank 131 Jiggies in Showdown Town

50

Pimped Up

Complete the Showdown Town Trolley with Parts won from Grunty battles

20

Witch Hunt

Defeat Grunty at the end of the game

50

My First Trophy

Earn a T.T. Trophy from any challenge

10

Few Trophy Pts

Earn 10 T.T. Trophies from any challenges

20

More Trophy Pts

Earn 30 T.T. Trophies from any challenges

30

A Lot of Trophy Pts

Earn 60 T.T. Trophies from any challenges

40

Be Crateful

Find and return two crates to Mumbo's Motors

15

Blueprint Buyout

Buy a blueprint from Humba in Showdown Town

15

Roid Rage

Train Banjo once in the Showdown Town gym

15

Start to Free the Showdown Six

Free and re-house a Jinjo in Showdown Town

15

Vigilante

Lock up a Minjo in Showdown Town

15

Bingo!

Complete a line on the Bingo card at King Jingaling's Palace

20

Stop 'n' Swop

Return a Stop 'n' Swop crate to Mumbo's Motors

0

BBQ Beef

In Nutty Acres, they like their steak well done

20

Massive Damage

Aim at the 10 legs for massive damage

20

Test Your Strength

Roll up, show the whole of Banjoland how strong you are

20

Great Balls of Fire

Take a heavy ball around the Jiggosseum and get a burning sensation

20

Ultimate Combo

More like a three-hit combo in the Terrarium of Terror

20

Floater in the Pipe

Eeurgh! That's not going to help the Test-O-Track plumbing

20

Burn the Witch!

Showdown Town witch hunt

20

Head for Heights

Find the best view in Showdown Town

20

Fuzz Off!

POP goes the Weasel!

20

Paint Your Wagon

Paint any part of your vehicle in Mumbo's Motors

10

Speedy of the Colossus

Build a vehicle with 200 blocks or more and go over a set speed

25

Minimalist

Build a vehicle with five blocks or less and go over a set speed

25

Whoa Nelly!

Travel in a vehicle over a set speed

25

Loose Change

Collect ALL the Showdown Town Loose Change

20

Arcade Pwner

Finish all levels of Klungo's Arcade game

20

Sunday League

Play in and complete a multiplayer game League

20

Premier League!

Play in and complete a marathon multiplayer game League (Every Race, Every Sport or Every Race and Sport)

40

What's That Smell?

Play an Xbox LIVE multiplayer game against a Banjo team member, or somebody who has already done so

10

Bit of Blue

Share a blueprint with another player or Friend over Xbox LIVE, or save 20 blueprints

10

Paparazzi

Take a photo and upload it to Xbox LIVE, or take five photos

10

Caught on Camera

Send a video replay to a Friend over Xbox LIVE, or save five replays

10

High Fives All Round

Be on the winning team in a ranked team game

10

All My Own Work

Win a ranked solo game with a custom vehicle

20

Too Easy!

Win a ranked solo race by reversing over the finish line

10

Too Easy Too!

Win a ranked solo race by running or swimming over the finish line

20

Are You Trophy Thomas?

Win 20 Xbox LIVE ranked multiplayer games in any mode

40

L.O.G.'s Lost Challenges Achievements

The L.O.G.'s Lost Challenges Downloadable Content offers an additional 10 Xbox Live Achievements for players to complete, for an additional 250 total.

Crowd Pleaser

Knock down all of the supporting cast in Ben Hurdle

20

Wheels on Fire

Burn an opponent's vehicle until it falls apart at the seams

20

Halfway Home

Complete all of L.O.G.'s Lost Challenges once

15

Ultimate - Played The Game

Show Sssuper Klungo the real meaning of sssuper

50

Paint the Town Gold

Complete all of L.O.G.'s lost challenges to TT standard

40

Sssave The Universsse!

Complete all Lost Challenges in L.O.G.'s Choice and Player's Choice vehicles

30

Pointless Achievement

Find the door to L.O.G.'s Lost Challenges

5

Old Ssskool Ssseekrit Area

Klungo not ssstupid, ussse old fake wall trick to hide Klungo goodnesss

20

L.O.G. Ranked Apprentive

Win one of the new DLC multiplayer games in a ranked match

20

L.O.G. Master

Win all of the new DLC multiplayer games

30

Cultural references

Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts continues Rare's self-referential nature and features many references and cameos relating to other Rare games (and in some cases, games not created by Rare, and even references to other media). See Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts cultural references for more information.

Development

A shot of Showdown Town's Seaside during development.

As revealed by developer Gregg Mayles in a community chat with webmasters of various Rare fansites, Nuts & Bolts was actually the third attempt at creating a Banjo 3. The earliest idea involved a remake of the first game in the series that would purport to be a straight port of the game but would hit the player with bizarre changes unexpectedly (for example, having a giant queen termite burst out of Ticker's Tower in Mumbo's Mountain, forcing Banjo and Kazooie to get Conga to throw oranges at it to defeat it). The next idea was a traditional platformer that would feature Gruntilda following the duo around every world, trying to do outdo them at what they were doing. The vehicle-building concept started off as a separate idea entirely, but the Banjo team decided to make it into a Banjo-Kazooie game because, in their creation of a third Banjo game, they realized the worlds were getting too big to properly traverse on foot. They decided to incorporate vehicles into the equation (as well as the building concept) in order to make travel easier, eventually working the entire game around the concept. Working titles for the game included Banjo-Threeie, Banjo-Kazooie 3, and Banjo-Buildie.^[4]

The new, cubist art style that the game features is, according to George Kelion, meant to be self-referential to the polygonal graphics of the original Nintendo 64 games. Steve Mayles added that "We went down the normal route of adding more polygons, smoothing things off, but in the process lost some of the strong form of the N64 characters so we made a conscious effort to retain an angular look, even exaggerating it in places, that in turn echoes the angular, blocky construction of the vehicles."^[5]

A developer diary on the creation of Showdown Town reveals that the game was originally intended to have six game worlds, however the sixth world (known as "Weird West") was dropped due to time constraints, requiring the Seaside area of Showdown Town, where its entrances would have been, to be partially redesigned.^[6] This dropped world is referenced by the Showdown Town denizens in the Seaside area of the town, who will sometimes say "See all these boarded-up buildings? They used to have doors that led to the Weird West Game World. Legend tells of it being a wondrous place, but alas, it no longer exists." An early map of Showdown Town shows that, before Weird West was dropped, each of the six world had five acts (except for Terrarium, which only has placements for four acts). Presumably, an extra act was added to each of the existing worlds after Weird West was dropped.^[7]

Rare had also previously mentioned in Scribes that the game would feature a world with "polystyrene buildings and inflatable sheep," possibly referring to Weird West.^[8] Interestingly enough, the inflatable sheep do indeed appear in the game. They are used for two challenges in Banjoland (Canned and Panned and Baa for the Course), wherein Bottles claims that they escaped from the "Cut For Deadlines room."

Additionally, Boggy's children, Groggy, Soggy and Moggy appeared on a wallpaper featuring 2D artwork of various characters' heads from the game. A White Jinjo also appears on the wallpaper, although no such Jinjo appears in the game. The "Fan Site Kit" on the Official website also features a sound clip labeled "BoggyKid_Voice." None of Boggy's children, however, appear in the final game. According to Shaun Read in Scribes, Groggy, Soggy and Moggy were originally supposed to appear with Boggy as part of a challenge called "Don't Bring Your Kids to Work Day," however, the challenge was dropped late in development in order to implement other ideas that came about.^[9]

The game uses a modified version of the Havok physics engine. The physics in the game were originally far more realistic than they ended up being in the final version, but the team found that this tended to make the game more frustrating than fun, and thus modified the physics to be less realistic and more cartoon-like.^[10]

Glitches

See Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts glitches

Music

Cover art for the Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts Original Soundtrack album.

The music of Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts was composed by Grant Kirkhope, Robin Beanland and David Clynick. Originally it was just to be Grant, but he soon realized he'd never be able to do it by himself, and had Robin help him. Grant was to do all of the "main" level themes, and Robin the "challenge" variations, although this soon fell off in favor of Robin composing level themes as well.^[11] The soundtrack is mostly orchestrated and many of the songs feature throwbacks to music from the previous Banjo-Kazooie games. Interestingly, there is some music on the game disc that is not actually used in the game, such as a Spiral Mountain "challenge" variation, a final boss theme (the final boss in the game simply uses the same music as other Grunty Challenges), and an arrangement of Mumbo's Mountain from the game's original trailer. There is also some music that was dropped before being put into the game, such as a version of the LOGBOX 720 music with the Grunty Industries theme mixed in, rather than Gruntilda's Lair.^[12] Additionally, David Clynick contributed to the game's soundtrack with the Test-O-Track music, the music for Hero Klungo Sssavesss Teh World, and the game world "introduction" music (except for Nutty Acres', which was composed by Kirkhope). The orchestral tracks in the game were performed by the Prague Symphony Orchestra.^[13]

The Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts Original Soundtrack album, containing music from the game, was released on June 30, 2009.^[14] This album contains 28 tracks from the game, including the world themes, the introduction themes, the challenge themes, and more. Interestingly, the album features two of the tracks which were not used in the final game: the "Final Fight" Grunty Challenge theme, and the Spiral Mountain challenge theme.

Promotion

The game has been promoted in various ways. The first was the teaser trailer shown at the X06 media briefing in September 2006. The next was with the official website, which appeared in March 2008 and became a full site in July 2008. The game was also shown off at E3 2008, with a new trailer featuring both CGI and gameplay clips.

On May 11, 2008, press screenshots of the game were leaked, two days before the media embargo on the game was to be lifted. The two screenshots in question featured Banjo flying a plane away from the Mumbo's Nuts farm in Nutty Acres, and Banjo riding a boat in the waters of Nutty Acres. On May 12, more screenshots were leaked, as well as a few demonstrative "Banjoprints," showing a few vehicles that could be made with the game. Finally, on May 13, the media embargo was lifted and the game was revealed in full, with previews, videos, and character renders appearing on gaming websites.

On August 19, 2008, it was revealed that Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts would launch in North America on November 11, 2008, at a manufacturer's suggested retail price of $39.99 (rather than $59.99, the typical price for new Xbox 360 titles), and that anyone who preordered the game at participating retailers would get a free download code for the Live Arcade port of Banjo-Kazooie.

On October 29, 2008, a free demo of Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts was released onto the Xbox Live Marketplace. The demo allows players to explore a small part of Showdown Town, play the first act of Banjoland, and play multiplayer online. Custom vehicles can also be created in the demo and up to three can be saved. Act 1 of Banjoland in the demo actually sits where Nutty Acres' first act is located in the full game, and the challenges seen in the demo are actually located in different acts in the full version. The demo ends when the player enters Act 2 of Banjoland, which leads to a short teaser video of the game.

In December 2008, Microsoft began a promotional deal for Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts with Kraft Foods for Lunchables. As part of this deal, certain boxes of Lunchables meals featured Banjo and Kazooie on them and include small papercraft vehicles within them. There was also a simplistic Banjo-Kazooie minigame on the Lunchables website titled "Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts Aerial Challenge" which allows players to "build" a small vehicle and try to pilot Banjo as high as possible. This promotion ended in mid-2009.

On December 18, 2008, Rare announced a vehicle-building contest on the official Banjo-Kazooie community site. They stated that they would be choosing their top seven favorite vehicles out of those uploaded to the website before January 4, 2009, and that the winning vehicles would be "immortalized" into the game in the future.^[15] The "immortalization" ended up taking the form of the winning vehicle blueprints being prizes for a Stop 'n' Swop connection between L.O.G.'s Lost Challenges and Banjo-Tooie XBLA.^[16]

Title Updates

A comparison of the original text box (top) vs. the updated text box (bottom).

On December 20, 2008, a title update for Nuts & Bolts was uploaded to Xbox Live. This update addresses two issues; the first is that the game's dialog text (which many complained was too small on standard-definition television screens) can now be increased through an option in the game's main menu. This also makes the text boxes look more like those from Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie.

The second is that Gruntilda now remains in Showdown Town even after beating the game. Originally, Grunty would disappear from Showdown Town after the player finished the final battle, however this caused issues with the Burn the Witch achievement for some people (the goal of which is to shoot Grunty with a laser in Showdown Town). People who beat the game before obtaining the laser upgrade for the Showdown Town trolley had no way of getting the achievement before this update.

On March 31, 2009, another title update for Nuts & Bolts was uploaded to Xbox Live. This update adds the "Xbox Live Marketplace" option to the game's main menu screen, which makes all of the game's available Xbox Live Marketplace content appear when the X button is pressed on the main menu, in preparation for the "L.O.G.'s Lost Challenges" downloadable content (see below). It also adds a "L.O.G.'s Lost Challenges" option to the multiplayer menu (only selectable if the content has been purchased) and makes a "Concept Art" album, which can be unlocked through the Lost Challenges DLC. Finally, this update adds the ability to record multiplayer matches as replay videos, and allows the player to re-watch the introduction cutscenes from the game worlds on the "Photos & Replay" section of the game's main menu.

Downloadable Content

For more information, see L.O.G.'s Lost Challenges.

L.O.G.'s Lost Challenges promotional logo.

On the subject of Downloadable Content for the game, Rare initially stated that it was possible, but that there were no immediate plans.^[17] It finally was announced on March 6, 2009 that new DLC for the game, titled "L.O.G.'s Lost Challenges," would be released.^[18] On March 30, 2009, a trailer for L.O.G.'s Lost Challenges was uploaded to the Xbox Live Marketplace.

L.O.G.'s Lost Challenges was released on April 7, 2009 at a price of 400 Microsoft Points. It takes place in a modified version of the Test-O-Track and features six new challenges, which are played in both L.O.G.'s Choice and Player's Choice. For every challenge completed, a Jiggy is added to a large jigsaw puzzle of Klungo which hangs on the wall. When the player wins a Jiggy from all the new challenges in both L.O.G.'s Choice and Player's Choice play styles, the jigsaw is completed, and speaking to Klungo in the Test-O-Track will unlock a new video game by him, Hero Klungo Sssavesss Teh Universsse. Completing all 12 challenges to trophy standard will also turn the Trophy Thomas statue in Showdown Town gold.

L.O.G.'s Lost Challenges also features seven new Multiplayer modes (3 new races and 4 new sports), and 12 new Achievements, adding 250 to the game.

Reception

Nuts & Bolts has received generally favorable reviews. Many reviewers praised the high production value in terms of graphics, music and presentation, as well as the depth and versatility of the vehicle creation aspect of the game. Criticism rose over the drastic departure from the standard Banjo-Kazooie platforming, that the framerate tends to slow at particularly busy moments and that a number of the game's challenges are overly similar and repetitive; for example, many being races or fetch quests.

The game has been criticized by many long-time fans of the Banjo-Kazooie series for its focus on vehicle-based missions over exploration and platforming from previous games in the series. Kazooie's role in the game has been criticized as well, as she no longer has any of her and Banjo's previous teamwork moves available for use.

1Up: A-.^[19]
Videogamer.com: 9/10.^[20]
IGN (US): 8.3/10.^[21]
Eurogamer: 7/10.^[22]
IGN (UK): 6.5/10.^[23]

Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts has earned an 80% on review aggregate website GameRankings,^[24] and an 79/100 ("Generally favorable reviews") on aggregate website Metacritic.^[25]

Sales

Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts sold a total of 140,000 units by the end of 2008 in the US.^[26] Sales numbers for other regions is currently unknown. The game has also achieved "Platinum Hits" status,^[27] which means it sold at least 400,000 units during its first nine months of release.^[28]

Official website

The various images the spinning Jiggy reflected, prior to the site's update

In late March 2008, Rare updated Banjo-Kazooie.com to a Microsoft Silverlight-based page showing a spinning golden Jigsaw piece reflecting both a render of Banjo and the words "Coming Soon!" On March 20, Rare changed the image of Banjo to a silhouette of both Banjo and Kazooie. On May 13, 2008 the teaser site was updated slightly, with the spinning Jiggy reflecting renders of Banjo & Kazooie, Gruntilda, and Mumbo and the site offering a few wallpapers with screens from the game.

On July 14, 2008, the site got a complete overhaul and was updated with actual content: Developer diaries (written by Rare's former community manager, George Kelion), character biographies (with accompanying 3D animations), and wallpapers.

On October 2, 2008 the site received yet another major update. It features the same developer diaries and animated character biographies (now with accompanying sound) but also features a message board, streaming videos, and a fan-site kit available featuring renders, concept art, sounds and even in-game textures. It also had the "Showroom" and "Leaderboards" added, which were finally activated on November 17, 2008.

Future

Various Rare employees have commented on the possibility of a future installment in the series. A fourth Banjo-Kazooie game is likely and if one were to happen it could "expand" the concept of Nuts & Bolts even further,^[29] although Rare has not abandoned the possibility of returning to the series' platforming roots.^[30]^[9] Rare has also stated that they are keeping fans' feedback on the game in mind for a potential sequel.^[31]

Nuts & Bolts leaves the possibility of a sequel open in many ways, referencing both possible turns for the next game. For example, when the player reaches the edge of the building grid in Mumbo's Motors, Mumbo comments that he may expand the size of the grid "if game sell well." The game's ending sequence also sees Kazooie getting her moves given back to her by L.O.G. "in case this game isn't successful." Finally, while Gruntilda is slaving away in the video game factory during the ending sequence, she once again ends the game with a threat, saying "Leaving me here was a big mistake, just wait for the devious game I make!", in a similar manner to the end of Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie.

At the end of the game's credits sequence, Kazooie also jokingly states, "See you in another 8 years for Banjo-Kazooie: Spanners & Washers!"

Gallery

Logo and cover art

Logo	JP Logo	NA box art (front)	EU box art (front)
Platinum Hits box art (front)	JP box art (front)

Character art

Banjo and Kazooie	Banjo and Kazooie	Gruntilda	Gruntilda	Bottles
Bottles	Klungo	Mumbo Jumbo	Mumbo Jumbo	Captain Blubber
Boggy	Humba Wumba	Jolly Dodger	Mr. Fit	Lord of Games
Piddles	Trophy Thomas	Pikelet	Pikelet	Pikelet
Wallpaper	Banjo, Kazooie and Mumbo confused as Grunty laughs.	Banjo, Kazooie, Bottles, Trophy Thomas, Grunty and Piddles.	Plane race between Banjo & Kazooie, Klungo, and Mr. Fit.	Character collage