I am curious. I know you picked up Banjo on 360. But I haven't heard anything from you about it. The reviews thus far have heavily been skewed towards mediocre, so I was wondering your opinion since you seemed on the fence to begin with.
Of course, anyone else with the game may chime in as well.
Truth is, I haven't played it yet, I'm waiting on the patch to fix the text for the SD tv which is what I play my games on. Probably a good thing anyway, I'm still not done with Gears 2, Fallout 3 and just started the original BK.
I know Mallas has already spent some time with the game. So share your jiggys-expertise, good sir!
Also, this is the perfect opportunity to post this comic:
It Takes Two
I'm going to have to go dig up and post some GAF edits of that comic to balance out the linking of it.
I heard Rare wasn't patching the SD text issue. Did they announce they were now?
Dan, I went to GAF looking for those comic edits since that comic was so bad. What thread? The Nuts and Bolts thread? At something like 27 pages I didn't want to dig through it and most the talk looked to be game related.
That was horrible.
I should really post the most painfully unfunny VGcats comics there are just to spite you.
Normally GAF is a little more on point and funny with the edits but the ones in that thread aren't all that great.
Yeah, I've got the game for sure. I've played it for a good while and have gotten 50 jiggies so far and 24 T.T. trophies (which are for excellent play of a challenge) and it's pretty fun. I don't understand why this couldn't be a new IP and not be a Banjo game. I dig Banjo games but I wanted a platformer from him, not a building/driving game. That GAF thread made me realize that Blast Corps would've been the correct choice for this game, though.
That aside, the game itself is fun. It's fun to make stupid looking cars and use them in challenges. It can be difficult though and taking everything into account including the games physics can be daunting, children probably can't really play this game for this reason. The other reason being the text goes way too fast, I can't even get through some of the text before it switches sometimes, nevermind a 7 or 8 year old.
The racing challenges are great and the Jinjo challenges are short but sweet most of the time but any challenge where you have to protect something absolutely sucks. I usually just put a bunch of homing eggs on a tank and pray for the best because it's hard to move your car, aim and shoot at the same time. Real bummer there so whenever I can, I skip those challenges because they're just no fun. Sumo-car-ing. Races in planes, boats and cars. Even the hauling of things from one place to another challenges are all pretty fun and you get to make a lot of neat stuff.
Here's one of my favorite moments and what made me realize this game is definitely cool, even if it isn't for everyone. There's a challenge where you have to go down a ramp and get your car to go as far as possible. Originally I was trying a really fast car and it would get me the jiggy but not the T.T. I tried a bike and it got me a little further because it was light. Then I decided to make this odd contraption. 4 wheels, the front 2 higher than the back so it tilted the front of the vehicle skyward. I attached a spring and a detacher to the front then I put Banjo in a roll cage. Down the ramp I went and right before my car goes off I push the two buttons together to launch Banjo a ridiculously long way without the car. He flew all the way across the Colesseum! A proud moment for me, indeed.
The main hub world, Showdown Town, is a lot of fun when it gets opened up but it takes awhile to get from one side to another. But it provides the platforming when you have to get notes. The only platforming in the game, basically but there is definitely some tricky sections. Climbing to the top of L.O.G.'s tower wasn't as fulfilling as Crackdown's ascent but it was fun, none the less (and achievement-unlocking!)
There are other things to do, like Jinjo bingo and an Arcade game. The arcade game sucks but Jinjo bingo is kind of deep. Not the game itself but the fact that you have to find Jinjo's within each stage and than beat their challenges. After you do this you have to go to the Jinjo Bingo castle and place pieces on a board until you get a row or a column, which nets you notes or new pieces respectively. A nice side game, overall.
Then there is the acquiring of new parts. This is done in Showdown Town as well, you go all over the place looking for boxes that you have to bring back to Mumbo Motors and he rewards you with the parts in his shop. More platforming can be had during these parts. On a general level, you can access any part of Showdown Town from the beginning of the game if you're clever enough, which is nice but levels don't open up until you start collecting more jiggies.
I liked all the neat Rare references. Some I've noticed:
--The trolley has sand and half-buried Grabbed by the Ghoulies games
--The level Xbox 720, where you're inside a next-next gen machine has spinning DVDs of Viva Pinata, Grabbed by the Ghoulies, Mr. Pants, Perfect Dark and others that look just like an Xbox 360 disc looks.
--The Xbox 720 is filled with broken parts and one of your challenges is to stop the machine from over-heating.
--When you talk to the mole (can't remember his name) there is a "useless information" option and one of the things you can ask him about is Killer Intinct 3, to which he replies (paraphrasing) "Wouldn't that be neat?" or something like that.
--Grabbed by the Ghoulies comes up again when talking to the guy that made the Arcade game when Kazooie quips: "This will sell worse than Grabbed by the Ghoulies" or something like that.
--I can't remember exactly but one of the town's people talks about just seeing a drunk squirrel urinating on a Jinjo. (Conker!)
--L.O.G. rants at one point "They're all in the pipeline, ya know. New Killer Intinct, Battletoads, Jet Force Gemini. Even Grabbed by the Ghoulies 2! Oh, you'll never believe that one. I've ruined my own humorous jape.
--Grabbed by the Ghoulies games in a trash can
--L.O.G. self-references Banjo games "In true Banjo fashion, collect as many useless trinkets as possible! Let the collectathon begin!"
--The refrigerator weapon has letter magnets that from "KI3".
Definitely a different type of game and it's refreshing to play a game that is totally different than anything else out there. I like Rare games, the style, the light-heartedness the graphics (one of, if not the best looking 360 game around) and just the general feel of a Rare game. You can feel the Nintendo influence and being such a huge fan of Nintendo games, I dig this a lot. The main idea is a very solid one to build a game around but I think they picked the wrong series to do it with. I want to run and jump with Banjo, not build vehicles. Still, taken as it is it can be very fun but also very frustrating. Definitely well made game, had it come from someone other than Rare I have a feeling it would be heralded as "original, quirky, inventive" and other things but Rare is held to a higher standard and placed up against their past work. That comes with the territory, I guess.
Rare has definitely made worse games but they've made better games too. This is not the "instant classic" that I believe things like Donkey Kong Country, Diddy Kong Racing and Goldeye were but it's not as forgettable as Grabbed by the Ghoulies and some others. I'd put it somewhere around Blast Works or Jet Force Gemini and below the other Banjo games.
That was my favorite one. Definitely funnier than the original comic.
Yeah, I gotta admit, that's great. I still like VGcats, though. Scott is definitely not the coolest guy on the planet (he thinks that fucking Carmeldansen thing or whatever is awesome), but VGcats is just as hit or miss as any webcomic.
Priceless