Author Topic: Banjo > LBP (Read 2594 times)

duckman2000 · « **on:** March 05, 2009, 01:13:00 PM »

At least according to the resident 4-year old. Apparently, I should now sell LBP.

How complicated is the game? She's enjoyed the demo (especially after unlocking the second world), but there isn't much more to her playing style than running around and throwing things around. Is it easy to open up new worlds?

AdmiralViscen · « **Reply #1 on:** March 05, 2009, 01:15:09 PM »

SOme missions can be hard but there are enough to choose from, and unlock requirements low enough, that she should be fine. As long as she can get her head around the building interface

It was $20 on Amazon yesterday, you missed the boat

duckman2000 · « **Reply #2 on:** March 05, 2009, 01:16:56 PM »

Oh, I already bought it. I just need some preparation. So I'll have to sit through the building stuff for a while then? That's alright, the game is actually sort of fun.

AdmiralViscen · « **Reply #3 on:** March 05, 2009, 01:44:29 PM »

THe building stuff is the best part man, the game is incredible

duckman2000 · « **Reply #4 on:** March 05, 2009, 01:46:32 PM »

Well, the kid is more the deconstructive kind. She tore that igloo apart brick by brick, and then ran around saying "sorry" to the penguins. I'll give it a shot though, lord knows I could use some variety from the dreariness of shooter environments.

duckman2000 · « **Reply #5 on:** March 05, 2009, 01:50:58 PM »

Well, Sackboy isn't allowed on the Crapstation anyway, since for some reason, LBP sets off the hardware failure signs in a bigger way than any other game. But the kid clearly stated that she didn't need the game anymore because she liked Banjo. I wonder if she'd like Viva Piñata?

Rman · « **Reply #6 on:** March 05, 2009, 01:51:37 PM »

Oh, LBP. I had such high hopes.

duckman2000 · « **Reply #7 on:** March 05, 2009, 01:53:06 PM »

I thought it was fun, and the developer created levels were very cool, but having to use an Eyetoy in order to import pictures and objects gave the game an early death sentence. The one time that Sony's "open" architecture could have made a difference, they locked it down. Figures.

duckman2000 · « **Reply #8 on:** March 05, 2009, 01:56:28 PM »

Complicated, or boring?

WrikaWrek · « **Reply #9 on:** March 05, 2009, 02:00:14 PM »

Both.

AdmiralViscen · « **Reply #10 on:** March 05, 2009, 02:01:39 PM »

agreed

MMaRsu · « **Reply #11 on:** March 05, 2009, 03:24:03 PM »

I loved Viva Pinata, but it's really complicated actually. One of the best games of the past years.

Guybrush Threepwood · « **Reply #12 on:** March 05, 2009, 03:26:09 PM »

I've been wondering for awhile now, did Crushed end up enjoying Banjo?

duckman2000 · « **Reply #13 on:** March 05, 2009, 03:27:08 PM »

"Complicated" is the death sentence, and I really don't think I'm going to have the patience to get her into a game about piñatas. Sticking with Banjo.

MMaRsu · « **Reply #14 on:** March 05, 2009, 06:35:05 PM »

Quote from: duckman2000 on March 05, 2009, 03:27:08 PM

"Complicated" is the death sentence, and I really don't think I'm going to have the patience to get her into a game about piñatas. Sticking with Banjo.

I dont know if you like sim city type / sims games, but Viva Pinata is loads of fun despite it being hard to manage.

duckman2000 · « **Reply #15 on:** March 05, 2009, 06:37:24 PM »

It's for a 4-year old, see. I want as little as possible to do with these games myself.

Bildi · « **Reply #16 on:** March 05, 2009, 06:59:19 PM »

Maybe try the Viva Pinata demo. You may wish to turn the voices off unless you feel like going on a rage-induced massacre. I found the demo very indicative of the full game (I didn't like the demo, and I didn't like the full game either which I got in a bundle).

MMaRsu · « **Reply #17 on:** March 05, 2009, 07:27:47 PM »

Quote from: duckman2000 on March 05, 2009, 06:37:24 PM

It's for a 4-year old, see. I want as little as possible to do with these games myself.

I understand. So tell me how much you despise Killzone 2?

Van Cruncheon · « **Reply #18 on:** March 05, 2009, 07:31:36 PM »

skip all of them and get her catz. all my 4 yr old daughter plays is catz, catz 2, and petz: my kitten family.

Joe Molotov · « **Reply #19 on:** March 05, 2009, 07:32:05 PM »

LBP is

, so this isn't a surprising revelation.

duckman2000 · « **Reply #20 on:** March 05, 2009, 07:36:50 PM »

Quote from: Professor Prole on March 05, 2009, 07:31:36 PM

skip all of them and get her catz. all my 4 yr old daughter plays is catz, catz 2, and petz: my kitten family.

The brat actually went straight for Babyz when I took her to check out DS games at Gamestop. Hence this attempt to find some middle ground. $:-\$ Although, Catz sounds less damaging than Babyz.

duckman2000 · « **Reply #21 on:** March 08, 2009, 03:49:16 PM »

Game is alright so far. Like Ratchet, it's a nice change in scenery from the dreary worlds of first person shooters. The vehicle building stuff is definitely too complex for the kid, but she's enjoying running around and messing with characters in the worlds.

Copter

BobFromPikeCreek · « **Reply #22 on:** March 08, 2009, 07:02:41 PM »

She can buy prebuilt vehicles from Humba in showdown town. She's right across from Mumbo's Motors.

duckman2000 · « **Reply #23 on:** March 08, 2009, 07:06:37 PM »

Yeah, we are getting quite the garage. That 720 level is all sorts of crap, though. It's like everything wrong about Rare made it into a video game world.

CurseoftheGods · « **Reply #24 on:** March 08, 2009, 08:37:43 PM »

LBP: :'(

chronovore · « **Reply #25 on:** March 09, 2009, 01:08:55 AM »

Quote from: MMaRsu on March 05, 2009, 06:35:05 PM

Quote from: duckman2000 on March 05, 2009, 03:27:08 PM
"Complicated" is the death sentence, and I really don't think I'm going to have the patience to get her into a game about piñatas. Sticking with Banjo.

I dont know if you like sim city type / sims games, but Viva Pinata is loads of fun despite it being hard to manage.

VP is not hard to manage; it's hard to score all the Achievements, but it's not a freakfest of complicated micromanagement IF you don't care about them. It's basically "plant the seed, water the seed, hit the bad animal with the shovel" over and over again. It's fun, my kids love it, but they'd probably unlock about 30/1000 with the way they play.

BobFromPikeCreek · « **Reply #26 on:** March 09, 2009, 01:40:12 AM »

Logbox 720 is trash. It's a shame that it's the second world. I can imagine it turned a lot of people off.

duckman2000 · « **Reply #27 on:** March 09, 2009, 02:34:45 AM »

Quote from: BobFromPikeCreek on March 09, 2009, 01:40:12 AM

Logbox 720 is trash. It's a shame that it's the second world. I can imagine it turned a lot of people off.

Well, at least new worlds are opened up fast. Although the one after is the demo level, which we have played to death already. How many worlds are there? The second one was pretty neat, especially after getting the copter. It has a bit of a Mario feel to it, although that's about it for comparisons to any Mario game.

The game itself, beyond building stuff, seems very basic. Race, collect stuff, race. Does that change later on?

demi · « **Reply #28 on:** March 09, 2009, 07:29:28 AM »

No, it's a trudge to the finish line when going for completion.

duckman2000 · « **Reply #29 on:** March 13, 2009, 04:34:34 AM »

Game is sort of awesome The vehicle stuff sneaks up on you, until you all of a sudden find yourself building the weirdest vehicles with just the right properties to win a trophy. They actually managed to get some use out of their tech with a few really nice looking environments (logbox 720 looks terrible, though).

demi · « **Reply #30 on:** March 13, 2009, 05:23:15 AM »

I usually just watched a replay and copied their vehicle instead.

rubber feathers · « **Reply #31 on:** March 13, 2009, 04:33:38 PM »

Quote from: duckman2000

How many worlds are there?

Seven, if you include Spiral Mountain which is incredibly short, and Showdown Town. You've only unlocked Banjoland, right? There's two more for you to unlock, the first is really fun and the second is cool conceptually but it's as bad as Logbox.

Quote

Does that change later on?

Nope. You might stumble on the occasional challenge which is a bit different, but that's it.

Oblivion · « **Reply #32 on:** March 13, 2009, 04:38:49 PM »

Quote from: Professor Prole on March 05, 2009, 07:31:36 PM

skip all of them and get her catz. all my 4 yr old daughter plays is catz, catz 2, and petz: my kitten family.

Don't forget Nintendogs.

Van Cruncheon · « **Reply #33 on:** March 13, 2009, 10:33:11 PM »

she rejected nintendo dogs as inferior crap. catz 2 gets her vote as the best game of all time.

duckman2000 · « **Reply #34 on:** March 14, 2009, 12:20:42 AM »

Quote from: rubber feathers on March 13, 2009, 04:33:38 PM

Quote from: duckman2000
How many worlds are there?
Seven, if you include Spiral Mountain which is incredibly short, and Showdown Town. You've only unlocked Banjoland, right? There's two more for you to unlock, the first is really fun and the second is cool conceptually but it's as bad as Logbox.

I just unlocked the jiggysseum, which is just plain pretty. I'm quite enjoying the game (the kid seems to have more fun with the XBLA game), it's a fun and sometimes very pretty toybox. But it's hard to shake the feeling that Rare's obvious tech savvy is being carelessly wasted on, uh, Rare games.

duckman2000 · « **Reply #35 on:** March 21, 2009, 02:02:13 PM »

So the wife and kid decided that Banjo (XBLA), now there was a platformer worth taking to.

I now understand the term "collectathon." And what the fuck is up with the ridiculous amount of swimming? Other than that, I guess it says something about the state of the genre that this still feels relevant.

Nuts and Bolts is easily the best Rare game I've played in the last ten years, though.

duckman2000 · « **Reply #36 on:** March 30, 2009, 08:05:01 PM »

Terrarium of Terror

Actually, it's pretty annoying, since I can't really use my amazing attack helicopter, but it's damned pretty.

Smooth Groove · « **Reply #37 on:** March 30, 2009, 08:07:47 PM »

Is there a lot of platforming in Banjo or do you just ride around in your vehicles?

duckman2000 · « **Reply #38 on:** March 30, 2009, 08:10:53 PM »

There is platforming if you want it. In the actual town, you only have access to your trolley (even though it is upgraded gradually), so you will have to do some creative platforming if you want to collect all the notes, and you can get early access to some things by platforming. But the actual objectives in each game world are tackled with vehicles. If you don't get into the actual vehicle building stuff (which is really addictive and surprisingly deep in a goofy way), I don't think it will be all that much fun.

Smooth Groove · « **Reply #39 on:** March 30, 2009, 08:29:47 PM »

That's kinda disappointing. There are so few modern platformers that focus on the precise and rhythmic gameplay of classic platformers. For example, the J&D games had lots of excellent platforming but they were broken up by unnecessary GTA elements in between. The Prince of Persia trilogy also had many great platforming moments but they were dragged down by the boring combat. Nintendo seems to be the only dev that still knows how to make a pure platformer enjoyable.

duckman2000 · « **Reply #40 on:** March 30, 2009, 08:41:06 PM »

It'd appear as if Rare simply decided to not to try (and the introduction makes mention of the death of the genre, too). As you say, the Nintendo goofball geniuses seems to be the only ones capable of actually doing something great with it, and they also have the characters for it. I'll give Rare some credit for trying something new here, and being pretty successful at it too, even if it's at the expense of the tried and true. If anything, I'd say that the ballsiness of ditching the old and going for something completely new feels pretty Nintendo. It's a shame it didn't pay off in terms of popularity.

dark1x · « **Reply #41 on:** March 30, 2009, 10:43:27 PM »

Quote from: Smooth Groove on March 30, 2009, 08:29:47 PM

That's kinda disappointing. There are so few modern platformers that focus on the precise and rhythmic gameplay of classic platformers. For example, the J&D games had lots of excellent platforming but they were broken up by unnecessary GTA elements in between. The Prince of Persia trilogy also had many great platforming moments but they were dragged down by the boring combat. Nintendo seems to be the only dev that still knows how to make a pure platformer enjoyable.

That Prinny game on the PSP is a damn fine platformer (though it's more of a Castlevania style game). Really quite a surprise.

chronovore · « **Reply #42 on:** April 08, 2009, 07:11:51 AM »

Quote from: dark1x on March 30, 2009, 10:43:27 PM

Quote from: Smooth Groove on March 30, 2009, 08:29:47 PM
That's kinda disappointing. There are so few modern platformers that focus on the precise and rhythmic gameplay of classic platformers. For example, the J&D games had lots of excellent platforming but they were broken up by unnecessary GTA elements in between. The Prince of Persia trilogy also had many great platforming moments but they were dragged down by the boring combat. Nintendo seems to be the only dev that still knows how to make a pure platformer enjoyable.
That Prinny game on the PSP is a damn fine platformer (though it's more of a Castlevania style game). Really quite a surprise.

Really? I played the demo, and couldn't get into it at all. Then again, I'm more of a Klonoa fan than a Castlevania fan.

duckman2000 · « **Reply #43 on:** April 08, 2009, 07:53:55 PM »

Replaying Ratchet TOD, and there is actually a lot more platforming in this than I remember. Might be because my weapons are upgraded to the point where battles take no time to get through, so the platforming bits stand out more. Nothing amazing, but it's alright, standard platforming. Both Ratchet and Banjo makes me wish to see more high grade games of this pleasant "cartoony" sort on these systems, because they really look damned good.

Smooth Groove · « **Reply #44 on:** April 08, 2009, 08:12:34 PM »

Quote from: duckman2000 on April 08, 2009, 07:53:55 PM

Replaying Ratchet TOD, and there is actually a lot more platforming in this than I remember. Might be because my weapons are upgraded to the point where battles take no time to get through, so the platforming bits stand out more. Nothing amazing, but it's alright, standard platforming. Both Ratchet and Banjo makes me wish to see more high grade games of this pleasant "cartoony" sort on these systems, because they really look damned good.

The platforming in Ratchet TOD ain't challenging at all though. I suck at reflexive gaming yet I never had problems with any of Ratchhet's platforming. At the worst, it would take me 3 tries to get by an area.

duckman2000 · « **Reply #45 on:** April 08, 2009, 08:40:15 PM »

Yeah, it's nothing out of the very ordinary. Well, the Clank levels are a bit different, but they are short and monotonous. I think I probably appreciated them more before playing Galaxy, though.

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Author Topic: Banjo > LBP (Read 2594 times)