Microsoft has announced that Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts will be released across North America on the 14th of November.

Not only will the game be priced at a budget $39.99, but if you pre-order the game you will receive a code to download the original Banjo Kazooie for free from Xbox Live Arcade. Gamers will be able to use this code to download the Xbox Live Arcade title two weeks before its official launch, that is before the general public have a crack at it.

Microsoft’s Gamerscoreblog also revealed the “Stop ‘N’ Swop” feature - if you complete certain challenges in Nuts & Bolts, you can unlock extra content in the Arcade version which is scheduled to be released a couple of weeks after the retail game ships.

Although Banjo Kazooie has yet to be dated for XBLA, the press release seems to have revealed that it may be released on Xbox Live Arcade on the 26th of November, or thereabouts.

Nuts & Bolts will also include the Jiggoseum (previously known as the World of Sports) where players can compete in sports events using the contraptions they create.

Continuing in the classic Banjo-Kazooie series, developer Rare is bringing the characters back (such as Mumbo Jumbo, Bottles, Captain Blubber and the Jinjos) in an all new story.

‘Lord of the Games’ has decided to pit Banjo and series antagonist, ‘Grunty’, against each other in a series of challenges set in ‘video game worlds.’ The prize? Spiral Mountain!

Players are able to create their own vehicles by earning new parts to travel over land, sea and air, or use a set of pre-built vehicles on which to use over 100 contraption parts.

Banjo-Kazooie includes Xbox Live support for competitive and cooperative action, allowing players to follow the story together.

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Microsoft has announced that Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise will be released exclusively on the Xbox 360 on the 5th of September.

Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise features over 30 additional new Piñatas species as well as expanded co-operative options, various difficulty settings and numerous game play modes. The game will allow players to explore wild areas outside the garden where they can attempt to attract exotic Piñatas.

Whether it be the cold of the Pinartic to discover Pengums and Polollybears or the heat of the Dessert Desert to find Camellos and Jameleons, players will need to bait and retrieve these Piñatas as they will not come willingly into your garden. Once they are in your garden simply add snow or sand patches to make them feel at home.

For more information why not read our previous coverage.

The boxart for Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise surfaced today.

Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise is scheduled to be released exclusively for the Xbox 360 this September.

Developed by the original Rare team behind Viva Piñata, Trouble in Paradise challenges players to build and maintain piñata gardens by attracting, protecting and managing over 100 different piñata species.

The game includes cooperative and online game play modes as well as 32 new species of piñata and a new feature known as the Xbox Live Vision camera.

For more information on Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise head over to our previous coverage.

Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise is based on Rare’s original Xbox 360 game and places Nintendo DS gamers in charge of a neglected garden on Piñata Island. Gamers are charged with creating a paradise by cleaning and growing the garden while attracting Piñatas to breed and care for.

Continue reading El33tonline’s preview of Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise.

If you are a Viva Piñata fan you might also want to check out the latest trailer for Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise, due out exlcusively for the Xbox 360 this September.

Microsoft has released a new trailer for Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise, due out exclusively for the Xbox 360 this September.

More realms mean more piñatas, and more piñatas means more candy

Developed by the original Rare team behind Viva Piñata, Trouble in Paradise sees players building and maintaining piñata gardens by attracting, protecting and managing over 100 different piñata species.

The game will feature cooperative and online game play modes as well as 32 new species of Piñata and a new feature known as Piñata Vision.

For more information and screenshots head over to our previous coverage, Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise revealed.

Yesterday we took a look at Rare’s Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts which is scheduled to be released exclusively on the Xbox 360 this November.

To wet your appetite even more here is the debut trailer for Banjo and Kazooie’s next adventure.

Microsoft has taken the wraps off Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts. The game is being developed by Rare and will arrive exclusively on the Xbox 360 this November.

To bring you up to speed the Banjo-Kazooie games are a series of 3D platform games created by Rare. The games star a Honey Bear named Banjo and a Breegull named Kazooie who battle the evil witch Gruntilda. Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts is Banjo and Kazooie’s first console adventure since Banjo-Tooie was released for the N64 in 2000.

The third installment in the Banjo-Kazooie series will feature high definition graphics, user-created content and online game play. The game sees the Lord of the Games arranging a showdown between Banjo and Gruntilda to decide who owns Spiral Mountain. Banjo and Kazooie must win the battle to save their homeland from being developed into tower blocks and malls.

Players must earn and collect vehicle parts, including engines, wheels, springs and egg guns, throughout the game then combine the parts in any order to build vehicles for Banjo to pilot over land, water and air. Explore worlds and solve puzzles to uncover more advanced and diverse vehicle parts. Although the Lord of Game’s challenges have only one goal, how players get there will be determined by which vehicles and tactics they choose.

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Rare got in on the April Fools day action yesterday by publishing ‘Disinformation Central.’

Rare printed five Banjo 3 story possibilities, but the catch is that only one is true. Don’t expect to know which one is true right away either because they are planning “on waiting ages before confirming one and denying the others.” They have also advised against “trying to beat [them] into submission” because they will “’fess up when [they’re] good and ready.”

Head over to Rare’s website to check out the five story possibilities. So which one do you think it is?

Rare has confirmed that the Banjo-Kazooie 3 teaser site is not a hoax. Banjo-Kazooie 3 is scheduled to be released on the Xbox 360 this Christmas.