Kris Ritter

Haz none of you xbox 360 peeps got this? I havent seen anyone talking about it.

I frickin' love it! Reviews are pretty mixed, but are at two ends of a scale: they either hate it because 'zomgz what did you do to my beloved Banjo Kazooie series?!' or they love it... for itself.

Somehow the original B&K games passed me by, so my opinion isn't really colored by any of those failings, if they are failings.

It's a pretty diverse (plays across 6 different 'worlds') 3d platformer, with a twist... user created vehicles!

This is done with a kind of 'Lego set' of parts you collect as you play. The vehicles are necessary for an array of challenges you have to win to get the 'jiggies' you need to unlock the later levels in the game.

These take the form of races, collect and return type missions, sporting events etc., each requiring slightly different tactics to complete successfully.

It takes some devious thinking to best complete some of the challenges. On one I had particular problems with initially, you're tasked with protecting a precious statue from wave after wave of kamikaze pilots. I was failing miserably using armed planes and helicopters and trying to shoot them out of the sky. In the end, though, I built a vehicle that was effectively a giant cage with a propellor on top and topmounted cannons, which I simply helicoptered over the statue and sat over it for the entire duration so it was completely protected.

It's exactly that kind of game; if you're having trouble and thinking a challenge is hard, chances are there's a MUCH simpler way of doing it if you take some time to think about it.

In general, a vehicle needs only have some propulsion method, fuel, a seat and wheels or something to drive it round on to work, but there are bunches or parts for making boats, hovercraft, planes, helicopters - you name it. And also a bunch of neat weapons.

If you play around, you can even get away with completely unconventional vehicles due to the 'cartoon physics'. For example, I just made an airplane that doesn't use the standard jets or propellor/engine combos, but instead uses as propulsion the 'Suck n Blow' accessory that is meant to be attached to vehicles to manipulate in game objects by sucking them up and dropping them. While that might just sound like being a smart ass, it's actually got an advantage... the equivalent jets are very fuel hungry. Leaving out fuel tanks means more room for ammo!

The single player story game is pretty epic, but in addition, there's various multiplayer modes where you can participate in party challenges and battles with your vehicles and swap blueprints with friends. Much fun!

I wouldn't ordinarily give a 3d platformer much of a look, but the user created content sold it for me. I'd recommend it, even if you don't think you like that kind of game!

Parker McTeague

Thanks Kris, this sounds like fun

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also you can read my blog!

Kris Ritter

'Tis fun, Parker!

I dun care if I'm pretty much talking to myself here. Imma persist anyway!

Here's a couple pics (you can take photies ingame and upload em to the website) of some vehicles I made.

A very compact powered glider that uses a Suck n Blow as its propulsion - hence no need for engines or fuel! I'm going to make it part of a split away vehicle like the second pic below - especially now I unlocked folding wings \o/




This is the 'DropRacer Tank'... a fast, armoured tank fitted with dual lasers, twin engines and it's own fuel and ammo supply, which can drop a jet powered race car fitted with egg guns and kicker. Start the race guns-a-blazin', crush opponents, then when the time is right, eject the race car and speed away!

Edav Nomad

/me sighs

I already have more then enough games to play at the moment without adding more to it.

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Kris Ritter

Some more vehicles... I spend more time making vehicles than playing the game. hehe.


A surprisingly speedy weapons platform, armed to the teeth, sporting a protective shield, and able to launch Banjo into the air on a nippy little jet car/plane with folding wings





My 2 stage rocket just after seperation. It flies surprisingly well, and the lander itself handles nicely and touches down smoothly.

Parker McTeague

A two stage rocket? Wow. Are these things built into the game, or do you need to use your own engineering of Lego parts to get it to work?

Kris Ritter

One of the parts you can find is called a 'Detatcher'. You assign it (and any other weapons or interactive parts, like ejector seats, folding wings or propellors etc) to a button and can activate it at will.

So my various two part vehicles simply attach via a detatcher, and as long as they have their own propulsion and fuel supply, they can act as an entirely seperate vehicle, with the only caveat being that one blueprint can only have one seat for Banjo, so for most two part vehicles one part is essentially throw-away.

That said, turrets have their own seats, so its possible to make a gun turret platform that detatches from your vehicle that you can sit in... but not pilot.

Having said all that, the 'repair' button that sucks up parts of your vehicle you have broken off will also reattach a detatched part or secondary vehicle... I can discard the body of my rocket, hover the lander over it and suck the body back on to the rocket!

RazorKingofBlades

I created a vehicle i call The Negotiator. (When i can.. i will post pictures of it) Basically, it is an APC, it is 9 or 10 blocks high, 12 blocks long, and 7 blocks wide. No, it is not a big rectangle. haha. It features every Engine, Fuel, and Ammo (including the super parts). the driver has 4 Egg Guns, 4 Grenade Guns, and 2 Lasers that he can control from the cockpit. On the top of the vehicle is a Grenade Turret, an Egg Gun Turret, and a Clockwork Kaz. It also has Energy Shields and is heavily armored.
(I uploaded the pictures via the attachments thing but idk if they are uploading) Next I have the Vampire. The Vampire is a Covenant Vehicle introduced in Halo Wars. My Vampire doesn't really look like the Covenant's version but it's close.. My third vehicle is an Apache. An Apache is an Anti-air/Anti-infantry Helicopter used by the military. mine features two Egg Guns, 1 Grenade Gun, and 2 Torpediles. it also has a Sticky Ball, which is essentially a Wench system used to grab objects and carry them to another area.

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