The Rare crew just sent us information regarding the Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts pre-order program where you can score a free copy of the XBLA title Banjo-Kazooie. We guess there was some confusion among eager pre-orderers who weren't exactly sure which retailers were offering Banjo-Kazooie redemption codes with Nuts & Bolts pre-orders. Well, Rare came to the rescue and created a handy list of participating retailers for every country. That list is below. Happy pre-ordering.
UK: Amazon, Play.com, Game and Gamestation
USA: Amazon, EBGames, GameStop and GameCrazy
FRANCE: Micromania and Game
SPAIN: Game
ITALY: GameStop
SCANDINAVIA: Game and GameStop
CANADA, JAPAN, IRELAND, GERMANY, AUSTRIA, BENELUX, SWITZERLAND, AUSTRALIA and NEW ZEALAND are participating, but participating retailers have yet to be confirmed.
Earlier this morning, Microsoft officially confirmed that the N64 remade Banjo-Kazooie will release to the Xbox Live Arcade on Wednesday, November 26th for 1200 Microsoft points. But remember, those who pre-order Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts can download the XBLA version earlier and for free. If you're willing to plop down Nuts & Bolts pre-order cash, you'll receive a redemption code to download Banjo-Kazooie XBLA two weeks prior to its official XBLA release, which would be on or around November 12th.
Also, tucked in towards the end of today's Banjo press release, is news that Banjo-Tooie will be releasing to the Arcade sometime in early 2009. Huzzah!
Gamerscore Blog has posted a brand new video interview with Rare's Salvatore Fileccia on Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. Well, when we say brand new, we mean recorded back in May during Microsoft's Spring Showcase. Even so, we can confidently say that this is the best Banjo interview yet recorded. Why? Because Gamerscore Blog's own Chris Paladino asks our question. Our question: how do you balance the game to keep it fresh and entertaining for both hardcore and casual players (Banjo is kid friendly, after all)? Find the answer to our brilliant question the video above.
Fresh from a visit to Rare HQ for some hands-on with Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, the Xbox 360 Online Center folks came back with a supposed list of Nuts & Bolts achievements. Though, they came back without any of the pretty achievement artwork. Boo! You can view the "rumored" list of achievements after the jump and even though there aren't any achievements quite as good as Gears 2's "Beat the Meatflag", Nuts & Bolts' "BBQ Beef" achievement is pretty yummy. Or maybe we're just hungry.
Microsoft announced today that gamers can now pre-order Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. Much more exciting is the fact that the rumored price of $39.99 is true, making Nuts & Bolts a real bargain. Making the deal even sweeter, gamers that pre-order the game will receive a download code for the Xbox Live Arcade version of the original Banjo Kazooie. Even better than that, the code will work starting on November 14, the day of the Nuts & Bolts launch, a full two weeks before the XBLA game hits Xbox Live Marketplace. The XBLA release will include a feature called "Stop N' Swop" which allows players to unlock new features in XBLA game by playing Nuts & Bolts.
Finally, a new Nuts & Bolts world called Jiggoseum was revealed. You can check out the first images of Jiggoseum in the gallery below.
Talking with Eurogamer, Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts lead designer Salvatore Fileccia confirmed their plans to release a Banjo demo to the Xbox Live Marketplace prior to the game's release. "We've got various different ideas" Fileccia explained, saying that the demo will most likely include the four challenges as seen in the E3 demo as well as an editor "because that's a whole different part of the game - building things and seeing how they perform, and taking part in challenges."
So, there you have it. You can expect colorful Banjo-Kazooie demo goodness prior to the game's release this November. Huzzah!
This might be an unpopular opinion among some but, Perfect Dark Zero and Kameo: Elements of Power were boring games. Although each showcased a small portion of the Xbox 360's new power at launch, the games were (mostly) critically chokeslammed. Blame it on the short development cycle of launch games or the decline of Rare's developmental quality (until Viva Piñata that is) but both games could have been much better. So, what does Rare think of the majority opinion on those launch releases? Well, they're a business, they care about sales, and according to Rare's Nick Burton, they sold a metric ton of copies of each (you jerk):
"One of the things that I always find funny is when people always quote Kameo and Perfect Dark Zero as being flops at the launch of the 360. In the industry if you break even you're lucky, you're in the minority," Burton told VideoGamer. "If you make a decent amount of money you're really in the minority. You're in the top percentile. Those two games made a lot of money. For the install base they sold phenomenally well."
Honestly, we didn't need Burton to tell us PDZ and Kameo made money because we can already tell Rare has been infused with cash. Look at Viva Piñata and Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts -- clearly the people of Rare purchased some creativity and talent with that stack of monies. We joke because we love.
During a special reception last night -- held at the same venue as the Gears of War 2 reception -- Microsoft allowed the press to get their grubby mitts on Rare's upcoming Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. The game has already been the center of some criticism from gamers, especially fans of the Banjo Kazooie series. Most of the coverage of the game thus far has dealt with the game's unique vehicle creation system, which allows players to build vehicles from dozens of mix and match parts, LEGO style. For those hoping this article contains a revelation regarding the platforming in Nuts & Bolts, we regret to inform you that the game's hub world -- where most of the platforming takes place -- was not available for play at the event. Here's the good news though, the vehicle creation is really, really fun.
Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts marks the return of the beloved N64 platform duo, exclusively on the Xbox 360. Today during the Microsoft press conference, Rare unveiled a new trailer (embedded above) for the title and Microsoft released a stockpile of screenshots and rendered artwork. Could Banjo Kazooie answer Microsoft's platformer mascot questions? Wait, did Microsoft have platformer mascot questions? Anyway, the game looks great so far but we must repeat something we mentioned earlier that's twice as awesome -- the original Banjo Kazooie is coming to Xbox Live Arcade! Sweet.
The internet is all atwitter thanks to an IGN hosted video of Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts that features Microsoft's Ken Lobb mentioning that players will "twist the controller" to perform actions in the game. The video also featured Kazooie shaking her controller, which some took as a hint. Sorry to disappint, but motion control in Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts just isn't so. We have received word from Gamerscore Blog's Chris Paladino who told us "all of the motion controller hopes and complaints regarding the Banjo video on IGN are false."
There you have it folks. Consider this rumor busted.
Update: We've received further comment from Microsoft just to make things extra clear. Per Microsoft: "There is no truth to this speculation. Ken's comment is in reference to rotating the left analog stick while hitting the X-button to move different things in the game." Can't get much clearer than that, now can we?
After the Microsoft Gamers Day a while back, Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts was seen by many in the community as too much of a departure from the older formula. The addition of vehicles, parts, and the creation of the former using the latter wasn't exactly traditional to the series' formula. Despite the fact that what we saw and played was fun, we can definitely say that the bits we had time with weren't exactly reminiscent of the N64 days.
Rare looks to have anticipated the outcry and saved much of the more traditional stuff for later reveal. IGN recently got some media out of Rare that seems designed just for that reveal, the first video introduces you to Showdown Town, the game hub, and where most of the more traditional platforming happens. The second video showcases Banjo Land and displays some of the vehicle creation and editing, as well as some of the quirky world exploration. Get watching!
By the way, listen closely around 4:00 into the first video for what could be a possible mention of a long rumored item.
This generation of games has seen the average price for a title rise to $59.99, so when a game looks to possibly be released at a price point lower than that, we take notice. Over at Gamestop's website, Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise and Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts are both currently listed at the price of $39.99. Now while this could just be a simple error (Amazon has them both at $59.99), we'd like to hope that there's more going on ...
The rest of this is only speculation, but there are a few connections between the two games. They're both from Rare and so they're both Microsoft first party games. Now it could just be wishful thinking, but we'd like to hope that Microsoft might be willing taking a bit of a profit hit on these two to get them to be must-buys for a larger audience of gamers (read: kids).
Posted Jun 23rd 2008 2:00PM by Dustin Burg
Filed under: News
It's time for another exciting edition of the too fun and too exciting Xbox 360 video game box art reveal of awesomeness reloaded! Where today, thanks to Microsoft, we bring you the official box art for Rare's Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts in all its bear, bird, nuts, bolts and wrench glory. And we'll admit, it's a pretty nicely designed box art. Our favorite Nuts and Bolts box art design decision has to be the centering of Banjo's square nose on the cover, because we have something about adorably square cartoon noses. Too fun!
After a solid year for the Xbox 360 in 2007 many thought the system could never showcase the same amount of quality exclusives in a single year.
In the 2008 Microsoft Game Studios Yearbook, we've compiled a list of this year's graduating class with a detailed account of each title's current status and the stories surrounding them.
From heartbreaking cancellations, surprise feature announcements and expected sequels, the 2008 MGS Yearbook is filled with fun facts and information on your soon-to-be favorite titles. Also included in the yearbook are special joke awards given to each title that releases in 2008 that poke fun at the details most commonly argued about in the comments.
From Ninja Gaiden II to Alan Wake, the 2008 Microsoft Game Studios Yearbook will have something for everyone.
Alright fanboys, time to get the difficult news out of the way first. Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts is not much like its predecessors at all. The main gameplay focus is still on platforming, only it's now platforming with vehicles too. Like most platformers, the specific objectives you have to complete are slightly varied, but are mostly different takes on collecting items.
To do so, you'll have a massive tool kit at your fingertips. The vehicles seen in the gallery can all be broken down into various pieces, and a large portion of the gameplay stems from mixing and matching vehicle parts to suit the task at hand. Or y'know, to just suit messing around with infinitely customizable vehicles in a physics playground. That playground can be taken online as well, and the game's multiplayer is very physics-focused and custom-content heavy.
The Rare crew just sent us information regarding the Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts pre-order program where you can score a free copy of the XBLA title Banjo-Kazooie. We guess there was some confusion among eager pre-orderers who weren't exactly sure which retailers were offering Banjo-Kazooie redemption codes with Nuts & Bolts pre-orders. Well, Rare came to the rescue and created a handy list of participating retailers for every country. That list is below. Happy pre-ordering.
Earlier this morning, Microsoft officially confirmed that the N64 remade 
Fresh from a visit to Rare HQ for some hands-on with 
