Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts’ second level, Logbox 720, takes place inside a fictional videogame console, where players can ride ribbon cable roads up its many levels, swim down coolant tubes, and ride spinning discs featuring other Rare games such as the original Banjo-Kazooie. Inside they are tasked with completing challenges including repairing an antenna and rescuing engineers from a deadly firewall, armed with any vehicle, from cars to planes and mechs, that they can build. Not only is this is a great showcase of how videogames are stripped down simulations of the real physical world generated by electronic architecture, Nuts & Bolts teaches engineering principles by providing a powerful workshop and rewards thinking outside its virtual box.
Continue reading “Behind the Steering Wheel For Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts’ Crash Course in Engineering”Tag: Rare
Running Perfect Dark’s Training Program
Early first person shooters created virtual proving grounds for an emerging digital warrior class to test their combat skills, but as games became more intricate, new player archetypes branched out. By the end of the Nintendo 64’s life, Rare had learned to construct complex environments built with infrastructure stalked by reactive guards, while providing players with a large toolset to deal with them. The product turned them into versatile special agents rather than warriors, culminating in 2000’s brilliant Perfect Dark.
Perfect Dark’s intricacies are apparent as early as the first level. Your mission to smuggle the defecting Dr. Carroll from dataDyne is easy on the lowest difficulty, only asking you to reach the bottom of its tower, but adds more objectives that explain the whistleblower’s actions from there. The opening helipad leads down to the executive floors and this large office with two women. If you quickly knock out the tall blonde calling for security you’ll get Cassandra De Vries necklace, smartly introducing dataDyne’s CEO.
Continue reading “Running Perfect Dark’s Training Program”Blast Corps’ Controlled Demolition
For anyone who used to make believe with a box full of Tonka Trucks and action figures, Rare’s Blast Corps is a special kind of game, one that takes you back to the timeless parts of your childhood that don’t fade just because you’re now an adult. It allows you to relive the freedom that comes from the act of playing and the simple joys that come from pretending that you’re taking control of a roughneck crew out to save the world through demolition.
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