If you're in the market for a delightfully bouncy orchestral video game soundtrack, then we've got some good news for you. Sumthing Digital will be offering the official Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts soundtrack starting tomorrow. We've sampled a few tracks and can confirm that it is most definitely delightfully bouncy and orchestral. All kidding aside, it's actually a pretty decent soundtrack, and certainly better than a lot of the other game music out there.

The soundtrack will also be available from Amazon, and can currently be pre-ordered for $13.99, nearly two bucks off the $15.98 list price. As Rare states on its website, "Nobody has an overabundance of vehicular bear music in their library right now, so this deserves a shot."

Source - Sumthing Digital
Source - Amazon

We really hope the new Banjo-Kazooie Nuts & Bolts DLC, "L.O.G.s Lost Challenges," sells a lot of units. No, we don't have any financial stake in Rare or Microsoft, we just hope they can afford a better trailer than the one we've embedded just above.

Honestly, with that font and those production values, it looks more like an Olive Garden training video on making the perfect pasta than an advertisement for a game published by the world's largest company.

So, on April 7th, won't you please spend 400 MS points for 250 achievement points, 12 new challenges, 7 new multiplayer games and the satisfaction of knowing an up-and-coming studio won't have to post such a depressing trailer ever again? We think it's well worth it.

Gallery: Banjo-Kazooie: L.O.G.'s Lost Challenges

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At the beginning of this month, a posting on the forums of Banjo-Kazooie developer Rare lead us to believe that we'd be seeing more content for the game a lot sooner than today. Whether we were mislead or simply employing the jumping to conclusions mat too liberally remains to be seen, but today the list of achievements for Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts on Xbox.com has been amended with 250 extra points, hinting pretty heavily at directly confirming the upcoming DLC and laying out details for some of it.

One such achievement, titled "L.O.G. Master" tasks the player with winning "all of the new multiplayer games" (emphasis on "new") while another, titled "Halfway Home," confirms the inclusion of "L.O.G.'s Lost Challenges" in the as-yet-unannounced content. While this achievement list certainly solidifies the future release of more Banjo-Kazooie content, we would certainly appreciate some more detail. So we reached out to Microsoft for comment and got this in return:

"Yes, these Achievements are connected to my upcoming add-on pack for Nuts & Bolts, but don't go thinking that this is all I have in store for you. Oh no, I have a few other tricks up my sleeve ... but looks like you eager gamers will just have to wait until the Day of Fools to learn more."

Looks like we're waiting 'til April 1st for all the hard facts. While this is a better response than "No Comment," is a straight answer too much to ask?

[Via CVG]

In its own coy way, Rare is teasing that Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts DLC is in the works and that we'll actually receive details next week.

According to a post by the Lord of Games (L.O.G.) on Rare's official website, we're told that Nuts & Bolts "news on potential lifespan-lengthening activities will be incoming very soon" and are given a "LOG's Lost Challenges" image. We ain't no smarty-pants geniuses, but if we had to take a guess at what L.O.G. is talking about, we'd go with DLC that boasts new vehicle building and task-based challenges.

Now that we think about it, the Banjo-Kazooie Contraption Contest Rare held back in December may have something to do with this content. We wouldn't be too surprised to see the winner's creation as a part of next week's announcement.

Today's Amazon.com video game Deal of the Day is none other than Rare's Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts, which has been reduced to $19.98.

While some may see the reduction in price as a sign that Amazon.com wants to unload its unwanted Nuts and Bolts inventory, we're optimists in this situation. We predict the game has been such a success that most every 360 owner already has the title, so (to secure a few more game purchases) Rare partnered with Amazon to sell Banjo's latest adventure at a 50% discount.

Hey, we never said we were logical optimists.

[Via Aeropause]

The economy's cold shadow has begun to loom over Rare, with the Banjo Kazooie developer telling GI.biz that it is undergoing restructuring that could leave a "small number" of employees cleaning out their desks. The effort is part of a broader move by studio-owner Microsoft to tighten its financial belt, an effort that has already left a number of key employees on the unemployment line so far.

According to studio manager Mark Betteridge, this retooling is needed in order to "speed development and better manage the scale required to create high quality games." Betteridge further notes that Rare has four separate unspecified titles "recently underway," though we wonder how many of these projects will be able to make it through the studio's newly-constricted pipeline.

According to the NPD, a good exclusive does not necessarily equal good sales. The group has collected data for 2008's exclusives on each platform and, well, there have been some under-performers. On the Xbox 360 side, Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts was a disappointment, selling only 140,000 units. The other exclusive on Microsoft's console, Fable 2 (Joystiq's GOTY), was more of your traditional success story with a respectable 1.2 million copies sold.

And what about the industry-leading PS3? We already know MGS4 sold extremely well, but the same cannot be said (yet) for LittleBigPlanet and Resistance 2, both of which seemed to perform lower than expectations; LBP sold 611,000 copies in North America while R2 unloaded 600,000 units.

As for Nintendo, well ... it won. It always does. Last we heard, Nintendo stopped making games and was in the process of building a Kirby-shaped Death Star to orbit the planet.

[Thanks, James C.]

A recent patch

lets you make the

text bigger in

Banjo-Kazooie:

Nuts & Bolts.

The Nuts & Bolts Contraption Contest is relatively simple. From now through January 4th, create the most impressive Nuts & Bolts vehicle possible. Then, once complete, upload a picture of the vehicle to the Showroom. When all entries are in, Rare will look through all submissions and pick the top seven. These seven l33t contraptors will be awarded a mystery prize that'll be something along the lines of "in-game immortalization" that "could earn you a genuine place in Banjo history." Sounds bragalicious.

Considering Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts debuted at $39.99, it was already quite a bargain as far as Xbox 360 games go. Gamers are frugal people, though. They have to be, as gaming is an expensive hobby, after all. With this in mind, we present you with one heckuva deal on Banjo's latest adventure. Amazon currently has the game on sale for a paltry $25.99. Even better, it qualifies for free shipping. If you've been waiting to get your hands on the generally well received build-em-up / platformer, now's your chance.

[Via Evil Avatar]

After the break, we bring you your random video of the day. The setup: Banjo the bear (from Banjo-Kazooie, of course) has back rent piling up, so he decides to go visit Jinjo in Paris, France. While in Paris, Banjo decides to take in the sights, visit the Eiffel Towel and wander about. Then, suddenly, he spots a Jiggy and must find a way grab the golden puzzle piece while breaking free of traditional platformer restraints. Did we mention the video is live action and features a dude in a bear costume?

Microsoft has come bearing (GEDDIT? BECAUSE BANJO IS A BEAR) bad news, notifying 1UP that the general Xbox Live Arcade release of Rare's classic N64 platformer, Banjo-Kazooie, has been delayed until Dec 3rd. It would appear the high-res re-release has been pushed back in order to extend the period of exclusivity, granted to those who preordered vehicular adventure Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts and failed to receive their bonus XBLA download codes.

Microsoft is currently "investigating" the holdup, urging customers who did not receive a redeem code to contact their retailers' customer service departments. That's always a grizzly task. GEDDIT? BECAUSE GRIZZLY IS A TYPE OF BEAR AND BANJO IS A BEAR.

Gallery: Banjo-Kazooie (XBLA)

You're going to be seeing this picture circulated a lot in the coming days, so we just wanted to get out in front of it for you. Yes, the above image, which hints at new Battletoads and Jet Force Gemini games, can be found in Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts. But no, you should absolutely not take that to mean that any of those games are actually coming. It says as much in the image itself, but that won't stop the internet from crushing itself under the weight of its own excitement.

As recently as today, Rare talked about how its next project is going to surprise people. We're not sure that points to a lot of its franchises being revived.

... We can still hope though, right?

[Thanks, Justin; via GameTrailers]