Two months ago, I played a preview build of the Xbox 360’s “Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts” and was left scratching my head. It was the first “Banjo” game I had played since the two Nintendo 64 versions. I had skipped the Game Boy Advance edition. The 360 game left me and several other reporters who tried it a bit perplexed. It’s a platformer designed to be traversed with player-engineered vehicles driven by Banjo the bear and Kazooie the breegull.

The problem in May was that the vehicle-creation editor was confusing. The game didn’t play much like the old Banjo games and seemed an odd use of the franchise. I left my May session of the game highly skeptical that development studio Rare was producing a sequel worthy of its original efforts.

Then I played it at E3 and was impressed — not just because it’s the first Xbox 360 game that includes a Nintendo 64 in it — but because, well…

“Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts” actually played well at E3. Hands-on sessions were available in Microsoft’s Xbox 360 meeting room, which allowed me to play around in a special demo level. The level was a tall enclosed virtual museum of the previous “Banjo” games and included wreckage of things like the big shark Clanker. It also contained a tall garbage pail full of roof-sized copies of Rare Xbox flop “Grabbed By The Ghoulies” and a small display area full of statues representing several of Banjo’s old transformations and… a small, virtual Nintendo 64. I asked the Microsoft rep watching me play the game if the N64 was just in there for the demo level. He thinks it will be in the full game. “Legal said it’s okay,” he told me.

The main difference between my May and July sessions is that I played the game this month using prefabricated vehicles. I flew a plane and drove a car that were already placed in the level. I used them to push soccer balls into goals and get to the top of tall structures. Mostly, I used them to get closer to the amazing scenery, because “Banjo” is full of incredible details to gawk at (look at the screens in the post if you don’t believe these words).

I also watched some developers play the game. They showed how a few different vehicles could be used to complete the soccer challenge, which required players to take giant soccer balls that were popping out of a chute and place them in a goal. They showed a bulldozer technique, then showed a shopping-cart technique and talked about a conveyor-belt idea they wanted to try later. The only restriction on a vehicle is that it needs to have a seat, an engine for power and a fuel supply. (And, yes, there will be prefabricated vehicles in the final game for players who don’t want to build.) For all I know the vehicle editor may still be confusing, but it’s clear to me now that what you can create from it will allow for a fun and interestingly diverse way to complete the game’s challenges.

As far as I can tell, the goals in “Nuts & Bolts” are similar to those of earlier “Banjo” games — collect stuff, reach summits, etc. The new game simply presents these challenges at a much greater scale making vehicles necessary. You could probably still try to do some of the challenges on foot, but the game is networked so that players can compete for the best times and scores in each challenge. Players are also able to swap blueprints for vehicles they’ve created while competing in multiplayer matches.

One bonus bit of info for long-time “Banjo” fans. I asked Microsoft’s Ken Lobb, a longtime liaison to the folks at Rare from back in the Nintendo days, if the upcoming Xbox Live Arcade release of the original “Banjo Kazooie” would link up to the new game to enable a new form of Stop N Swap. He said there will be a connection of some sort and left me with this comment: “You will finally be able to get your ice key.”

You better have not been joking, Ken!

“Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts” is exclusive to the Xbox 360 this fall.

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