Banjo Kazooie Demo up on Live

Downloading NOW!

1.1 gigs.

EDIT: Damn, it's downloading lightning-fast, too -- 14% in the minute or so it took me to type this thread up.:D

This game is flat gorgeous. It's gorgeous in ways rarely seen this generation, because it's artistically gorgeous. Gorgeous the way Sly Cooper or Jak and Daxter was.

The demo is multiplayer or singleplayer. The multi seems okay, pretty much a competitive Twisted Metal vehicle-based affair using Halo's matchmaking system, which, had a surprisingly high number of people playing considering it was four in the morning. The match I played was a sort of Banjo-themed version of Territories or King of the HIll where everyone had to rack up the most time by staying within a moving location. It was dumb fun, but it's not anything you haven't seen before.

The single-player is quite good, though. It's got a hub world similar to most other games of this type, but the vehicle creation aspect seems to be key to the whole thing. You open up worlds by collecting the notes around town, and then you use parts (also found in the overworld) to assemble vehicles to play in the sub-worlds. It's pretty interesting in concept, and I think it'll be pretty novel if the final game pulls it off well.

Again, the game is just sick-looking. It really is a next-generation Banjo, which in the N64's day was one of the best-looking games on the system. The music is also perfect as well. I'd say sold, but I already had this on preorder weeks ago (plus you get the XBLA version of Banjo free if you do).

Really looking forward to this.

After playing some more:

This demo is GIANT. It's probably the biggest level ever released in a demo. There is a TON of things to do, and it's totally awesome. I think Rare has delivered a winner here.

Awesome impressions. Yeah it definately looks gorgeous from what I've seen so far on it. I'm really looking forward to checking out the demo and the game is basically already sold for me. The price is certainly right especially when you factor in the free original game for XBLA with a preorder.Archangel3371

Man I cannot wait to get my hands on this game, if neogaf is anything to go by, the game sounds extremely charming.

This game is really fun, I have been on live with a friend this afternoon with it and it was pure and simple good times.

On the demo there are 2 multiplayer games which seem to be picked at random.

1. Crown capture - you use your car to drive underneath a moving crown zone and the person who has been under it the longest at the end of the 3 or 4 minutes is the winner. There is room for multiple people under it but the crown moves in all sorts of directions and with wepons bashing each others karts is really fun.

2. Boat Battle - this is just deathmatch but using boats, its another fun mode, you can get your boat stuck on land so can get off and lift it back into the sea.

The multiplayer has really hit with me, I really enjoyed the simplistic but pure fun and good laughs with my friend.

The single player side I havent spent much time with but the humour looks to be there again and the customization and controls feel spot on so far (the car is quite poor handling but its basic parts so its to be expected plus I got better as I went along so its more me than the game).

Overall, from being a "meh" game for me its turned into a game I am probably going to buy. This is because it has a charm about it, its funny and fun to play and the multiplayer allows Mario Kart sort of moments, its not the same game but I really enjoyed it.

Okay, so I went on to Marketplace to download both this and the Tomb Raider Underworld demo only to find that they are available to XBL Gold subscribers only and that Silver members have to either upgrade to Gold or "wait a few days" to download the demos. I've only had my 360 for about a month and a half and my 1-month Gold trial ended a couple weeks ago. How commonplace is this BS? Are demos always made available to Gold subscribers first, or just for certain games? And how long does it usually take before they are made available to Silver subscribers? NodsToNothing

It's their standard policy for all demos - gold subscribers get the demo the day it's released, but silver people need to wait one week.

Anyway, I downloaded it and will try it later today - just got MotorStorm so I gotta rip through some tracks first.