View All (26)

Finally, the last challenge once again gave us the square cage vehicle that we could use in the ice block challenge. Our task this time was to get five soccer balls into a goal on the other side of a field in a short period of time. You could drop as many soccer balls as you want on to the field at once, but you will probably find yourself having a difficult time trying to just push all of the balls into the goal since there are enemies that will get in your way and knock some of the balls away. This is when you see the beauty behind the square cage design. Rather than pushing all of the balls into the goal, you could simply pick up each ball, place it into the cage, and just deliver all five balls simultaneously without ever having to worry about them getting knocked away.

It isn’t enough to just complete a challenge though, you have to complete the tasks quickly to get the maximum reward. Each challenge comes with a gold, silver, bronze reward type system with the gold reward netting you notes, a jiggy, and another unknown valuable item. Silver gets you just the jiggy and the notes, and bronze leaves you with just the notes. If you can’t get the gold in a challenge, it might be time for you to hit the drawing board again and come up with a new vehicle that better suits the characteristics of the challenge.

As far as visuals go, the game looks absolutely beautiful. Vibrant colors fill every corner of the game world, textures look fantastic, and the new art style is an absolute joy to look at. Fans of the series will also be pleased to know that series mainstays like Bottles, Mumbo, and of course Grunty, all make a reappearance and continue to talk in their own funny little language.

Overall, Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts is turning out to be a must-have title for the 360 this holiday season. It’s a shame that we didn’t get the chance to mess around with the vehicle creator or explore the hub world, but the vehicular platforming aspect of the game felt fresh, innovative, and most importantly, a lot of fun. We can’t wait to get our hands on the game when it releases in November of this year.