Today is the day! Banjo-Tooie is now available from Xbox LIVE Marketplace - just follow this link to download it straight to your Xbox 360 console.
The time has come, Banjo fans, for a bit of show and tell. What does this entail, exactly? It means that we’re at last ready to show you the entries we selected as the best user-created contraptions for Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts and tell you a little bit about how the fabled Stop ‘N’ Swop will work in Banjo-Tooie on XBLA, for those who haven’t already had the surprise spoiled for them by those scamps over at the Rare Witch Project.
Coming up with a shortlist for the custom contraption award was no easy task – after we’d sifted through several hundred entries, we then took each one into the game to see how it fared and how easy it was to use. There were plenty of contraptions that we thought were, like, totally awesome but couldn’t get to work as originally intended.
In the end we had about 20 absolutely stellar contraptions to choose from and whittling them down to just seven was a real challenge. After much discussion, the Banjo team reached a consensus and what you’ll see below is the result of many weeks of discussion, playtesting and some name-calling.
So, without further ado, let’s reveal (in alphabetical order) the community’s top seven custom contraption creators, along with the masterpieces they designed. We asked each of them to share their thoughts as well, so you’ll also get a small glimpse into their construction.
We loved this one because it really has a natural, organic feel to it. When you get a chance to play with it for yourself, you’ll be amazed at how naturally the wings unfurl when you take it into the air. aChosenSoldier had this to say about his creation:
“I was in the mood to make something creative that has realistic qualities to it and was fun. I have a lot of ideas for the game.”
Black Shiba’s creation really has the “wow” factor and that will be immediately apparent when you take it up into the air. It reminds me of something from anime or a Saturday morning kids’ cartoon from the ’80s – it’s just *that* cool! Black Shiba had these words to share:
“I wanted to make not just an ordinary robot, so I tried to make a Transformation machine which can transform just like one in Japanese animation. This game has unlimited possibilities to make even more sophisticated vehicles and I am currently working on new version of this.”
Mechs are a very popular contraption in B-K:N&B, as even the quickest glance around the forums would show, but this one really knocked our socks off, both in terms of how it works and also how gosh-darn pretty it is! Amazingly enough, this robot’s arms move, allowing you to aim its lasers with a bit of careful manipulation of your controller. BusierDonkey told us:
“I have a history of finding ways to sneak around the programming in games (in the actual game I had found ways to reach inaccessible areas of Showdown Town long before actually even entering Nutty Acres) so for me the whole point of building a vehicle was simply to use the vehicle creator to its fullest. It's the best creation tool I've used since I was eight years old playing with my LEGOs.”
While it may not be the most practical contraption ever devised when it comes to completing challenges, this AA gun really demonstrates something we’d never seen before – a rotating, firing turret weapon. Expect to be amazed when you see it fire for the first time – this beauty packs one heck of a punch! CR3AM SODAH sent along these thoughts:
“It’s an Anti-Air Gun. It’s mostly for looks and was built purely for fun. I just wish I could bring it into multi-player!”
This hulking juggernaut is sure to strike fear into even the most hardened multiplayer opponent, for what it lacks in manoeuvrability it makes up for in both strength and speed. It reminded us a bit of a certain famous transport as used by a rag-tag team from an ’80s TV series, only much more badass. ExtraKr1spy went on to tell us this:
“I created the tank/APC as a test bed for using the tow attachments as hinges combined with a balloon to create an opening and closing hatch. After I got the hatch working I decided to keep working on the vehicle and after some failed concepts I ended up with the current vehicle. It may not be the most versatile off-road vehicle or the most agile but I believe it will be Banjo’s vehicle of choice should the zombie apocalypse make its way into BK:N&B.”
This magical carousel really impressed with its sheer originality and innovative use of the detacher. In fact, disconnecting the top part of the carousel and reattaching it is a mini-game in itself! Best of all, the whole contraption acts a bit like a helicopter, able to float in the air and make taxi runs. If you’re looking for a unique ride to ferry Jinjos around the various game worlds, look no further. HypnoticCoqui had these thoughts to share:
“The carousel was my first successful attempt to think outside the box in vehicle creation. I wanted to probe the flexibility and robustness of the physics rules. I was elated with the result. The one downside to all the gadgets in a device with tow bars is that the button assignments seem impossible to sort out ahead of time. The game insists on assigning 2 functions to a single button, requiring manual reassignment by the user when the vehicle is loaded from the database. If I had control over the assignments, I would have foldable props, balloons, and radio assigned respectively to the 3 buttons. Spotlights would be optional. Tow-bar detach is never needed.”
Well, obviously we were going to choose this one! This gigantic Gruntling replica should be familiar to all Banjo-Tooie aficionados. The images here can’t convey the scale of this beast, it really is a mammoth construction, sure to frighten the living daylights out of Grunty if it were to hover into view. There were a number of other Banjo replicas made, but this was by far the team’s favourite. Tomajko sent these words along:
“Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie are two games which I hold near and dear to my heart. I created this because I have a fondness for B-K characters; they brought me entertainment back then, and thanks to the wonderful mechanic of this game, they still do.”
And so on to Stop ‘N’ Swop... it’s not often you’ll find us explicitly talking about this, the most fabled entry in all of Banjo lore, but that time has finally arrived.
For the uninitiated, you will need to collect the various eggs of different colours as well as the Ice Key in Banjo-Kazooie XBLA and then use them in their proper places in Banjo-Tooie XBLA. What, you didn’t think we’d spell it out for you, did you?
So long as you have the L.O.G.’s Lost Challenges Add-on, then completing the SnS journey in Banjo-Tooie XBLA will award you the special blueprints in Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, one for each of the seven SnS items you need to collect. Each of these little marvels will then be found in turn in Mumbo’s Motors.
You’ve no doubt already learned that collecting all seven items in Banjo-Kazooie XBLA unlocks seven crates dotted around Showdown Town in Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, however the rewards of Banjo-Kazooie to Banjo-Tooie SnS are far more glorious than that. We shan’t tell you exactly what your rewards will be, we’d much rather you found that out for yourself. It’s what’s known in industry terms as “a surprise”.
All that remains to be said is a big *THANK YOU* to all our custom contraption award finalists, as well as everyone else for taking part. We hope you enjoy taking your place in Banjo lore and becoming part of the history of Stop ‘N’ Swop for evermore.