Gaming’s most famous bear-with-a-bird-in-his-backpack has been languishing in retirement for some years now. Once one of Rare’s most iconic platform game duos, Banjo and his Breegull sidekick Kazooie have been consigned to the has-been bin, a fact that the game tackles head on during its humorous start. Nuts and Bolts pulls back the curtain on the overweight, out-of-shape pair as they sit around eating high-fat snack food and playing games. Having defeated their nemesis, the evil witch Gruntilda in the previous game, they’ve had nothing to occupy their time. Into this situation bursts a tall, mysterious character with a television for a head: the Lord of Games, or Log for short. Log has created a slew of videogame worlds in which he wants the duo to battle the newly freed Gruntilda and with the challenge set, you’re off.

Banjo’s waistline isn’t the only thing to have changed in the past few years. For this new update Rare has decided to tear up the platform game schematics of the previous titles and instead create something altogether different. The framework of the game is pure Mario. You have a hub town called Showdown Town and you must enter worlds to find 131 jigsaw pieces (jiggies). However the way in which you collect these pieces has little to do with jumping across chasms and running up and down hills. In fact, while you can run around on foot, the levels are so expansive it will take far too long to get anywhere. Rather you’ll need to use vehicles, the nuts and bolts referred to in the game’s title.

Much of the game involves collecting mechanical parts – seats, engines, fuel, wheels and so on - and fitting them together in a workshop to create vehicles of varying speed, weight and competence. These vehicles are then used to tackle the game’s levels in the quest for jiggies. Choosing the right vehicle for the task is important. Some tasks will have you fetching items from distant parts of the level, requiring a powerful engine and good storage space; others will require you to knock another vehicle over in a race or to push them out a sumo rung and for these you’ll need a heavy, solid machine. Making vehicles is fun if a little fiddly, and there are always blueprints that can be purchased from the game’s shops if you can’t be bothered to get really stuck in at Mumbo Jumbo’s garage.

The game’s extended introduction may put players off (it’ll be a good hour before you’ve ploughed through the tutorials, intro movies and got to grips with what’s going on) but thereafter the game settles into its pace. Arguably it can’t sustain the idea for all 131 levels. You soon tire of the fetch quests and races, even as the roster of vehicles grows to include planes and helicopters. But Rare are to be applauded for taking a brave and ingenious new direction with the series and, as one of the game’s tips advises, if you don’t like the departure from traditional platforming, there’s always the original Banjo-Kazooie on Xbox Live Arcade to satisfy…

3 out of 5