Banjo-Kazooie 3: Nuts & Bolts – Multiplayer Details Surface, World of ‘Nutty Acres’ Revealed

Loads of new Banjo-Kazooie 3 information has surfaced this morning including the subtitle for the game which is Nuts & Bolts. While the game will not be shown to mainstream gaming press until later this afternoon, NeoGaf and the Danish gaming site Gamereactor have gotten at look at the highly anticipated Xbox 360 tile coming this November.

Here are some lovely details from NeoGaf describing the vehicle creation editor:

• Building vehicles is basically like playing with LEGO. You can always jump in and out of the vehicle editor and come right back to the game with the new design.
• Parts are easily placed and moved around. You don’t have to worry about connecting the motor with the wheels for example. Just place everything so they stick together and don’t get in the way.
• Vehicle designs can play a large role in missions. We saw one where you had to collect coconuts from a field and got a small truck that could suck them up. Unfortunately you couldn’t fit all the coconuts in the truck and had to back and deliver them in a large barrel. We were then shown how you could create a helicopter with a hook, that could pick up this large barrel, fly to the coconut field and fly low to scoop the coconuts in the barrel.
• Physics are awesome in this game and everywhere! With one design I placed the foot-in-a-box weapon behind a propella, and when I tried to use it, the foot/boot couldn’t get past the propella… well, until I used it enough times to actually kick the propella off the vehicle!
• Pixel art… imagine the possibilities (Rare already had an example of this, paying homage to a certain plumber)
• Multiplayer is great fun with the ability to either chose from pre-fabricated or own vehicle designs. It still needs some polish here and there, but showed great promise.

While attending a at recent press day at Rare, Gamereactor got the goods on a few of the multiplayer aspects of Nuts & Bolts and were given a glimpse of one of the six gaming worlds called ‘Nutty Acres’. Gamereactor, like NeoGaf, were also privy to the vehicle design and I have posted their take on it as well.

Here is a a bit from that piece translated by the wonderful folks over at Videogaming247:

“The best part of the day by a mile was when Rare had arranged some duels between the journalists. Although Salvatore Fileccia [head programmer] wasn’t willing to divulge too much about the game’s online capabilities, we got the opportunity to engage in four different duels over the local network.

The first was a kind of ‘King of the Hill’ where we had to keep inside a circle that constantly moved. Two others were races, [the last being] some sumo-wrestling, where we had to push each other out of a ring. After we first had played the games only using the pre-made vehicles, we then were given the opportunity to create our machines, our own ultimate weapons, in an attempt to win the levels.

When Fileccia jumps into to the first of six gaming worlds, namely Nutty Acres, we see the game open up. The palm island is designed after an idea to make the world look artificial. The grass is sewn together with a huge needle and a huge glass case surrounds the island.

Regarding vehicle design, Gamereactor stated:

“Fileccia wanted to show us how important [vehicle design] was for the game and its many missions. On the top of the island he had a mission whereby he had to collect 15 coconuts from a nearby orchard before the time ran out.

He was given a pre-made car to help him, that has the ability to suck up the coconuts. However, as there isn’t enough space to suck them all up he has to go backwards and forwards to unload. Until in the end, he jumped out of the car and instead leapt into a helicopter [that he had made earlier] which can grab onto a large barrel with a hook enabling him to scoop all the coconuts in and began collecting nuts like it was Christmas.”

When more is shown to the press today in San Fransisco sometime later this afternoon, we will be sure an update you.

Thanks to Videogaming247 for the translation from Gamereactor.

Links: Gamereactor, NeoGaf