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Old 22nd February 2023, 04:57 AM
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The Colonel The Colonel is offline
Formerly Jinjonator_Dude
 
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: this chair
Total Awards: 2
You're Appreciated! INFECTED - B2K1 
banjo-kazooie nuts & bolts. was able to emulate it so i emulated it and replayed up to the end of a basic playthrough. i always had a weird relationship with this game but i think it's only on replaying that i understand quite why. a part of it is that the 30fps cap makes everything extra touchy and annoying, unlocking the framerate on an emulator honestly helps immensely with this, feels much better to play at 60 or 120fps

but i think i have a more specific understanding of why the game landed so badly with fans of the games. it's not because it's about vehicles. that's part of it but there's, a genuinely deeper reason. nuts & bolts has no sense of adventure. it has no sense that you are constantly doing unique and memorable things. its mechanics rarely push you to exploit its mechanics in interesting ways, rarely design challenges you truly need a wholly unique vehicle for. its worlds are huge but empty, devoid of anything to find within them, making exploration hollow.

the writing, and the opening is kind of an insane showcase of this, really just hammers it in. right from the start the game does not cease to remind you that these are characters you know, but placed in a context where they are functionally hollow, not actually reflective of the characters you know, just characters whose appearances you are familiar with hammered into generic roles where they repeat the same jokes over and over. the closest thing nuts & bolts comes to making a joke is, constant jokes about how much it itself is disappointing and not as fun as banjo-kazooie. it genuinely feels like the game, kind of hates itself. every new character's sole purpose is to look and feel less likable than the existing cast and remind you of that at every possible opportunity. even the basic concept of nuts & bolts is almost designed to be less exciting, grunty basically doesn't have an actual antagonist role anymore because the tournament arc setup means she can't do anything. it's completely stiff and unexciting.

nuts & bolts is not a bad game. but it is kind of a charmless game and i'm not sure it would be possible to, personally ensure as negative an audience response. it's a game that needs a sequel to fix its own design problems but it feels too hateful of itself to ever allow that to exist, even if it had sold well. weird game even if it's pretty mindlessly fun still

Last edited by The Colonel; 22nd February 2023 at 05:00 AM.
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