Sometimes in life, you discover something that you simply cannot fathom; you just can't wrap your head around why it exists or how it came to be. Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts is a great example of this. Banjo Kazooie (and it's follow-up, Banjo Tooie) is one of the finest platformers of all time and it probably rivals Super Mario 64 as the best game on the N64. Even to this day, the originality in its design is amazing; it's a real testament to just how good Rareware were as a development studio. It might be unfair to paint Microsoft as the villains here but their purchase of Rare marked a significant downturn in their production of quality games. They remade Conker's Bad Fur Day into Conker: Live & Reloaded for the Xbox and it wasn't very well received. They released a sequel to Perfect Dark and we've already seen how that turned out, and nowadays they're mainly pumping out Kinect-based games like the Sports series (they also remade Killer Instinct for the Xbox One). Before that though, they brought Banjo and Kazooie kicking and screaming onto the 360. Originally, Rare intended to create a co-op remake of Banjo Kazooie, though that idea was eventually dismissed as a waste of time. Instead, they set about creating a new sequel to Banjo Tooie, though the project went stale and was again dismissed. Finally, they set about creating Nuts & Bolts which bizarrely throws aside the series' platforming roots and instead requires the player to create cars. Sure, that's an unexpected move guys, but did we have to swerve away from the originals that much? It's not even a terrible game really. It looks beautiful (Rare's art style is so refreshingly unique; it's a shame they haven't been able to showcase it properly yet) and it's a well designed game with good controls and plenty of replay value. It will forever be regarded as a disappointment though, simply because people were expecting Banjo Threeie (the name comes from a comment made by series villain Gruntilda at the end of Tooie). Rare took a risk in creating Nuts & Bolts and while the game still sold well and received good reviews from critics, fans turned on it almost instantly. Perhaps in the future, we'll see Banjo Threeie in all its glory; it would be incredibly bizarre for Rare and Microsoft to abandon such a big series when there's still a huge demand for it. That in turn may lead to Nuts & Bolts being accepted for the creative spin-off that it is. Until then though, it'll be the game that killed Banjo Kazooie; not a particularly nice title to have at all. Can you think of another sequel that should have made this list? Any games which strayed too far away from the original concepts and ideas? Let us know in the comments below.
I have an addiction to achievements, a craving for new bands and a dream to become Captain America. I once finished second in a Mario Kart 7 tournament so I'm kind of a big deal.
