Microsoft has put a price and a date to the release of the original Banjo-Kazooie on Xbox Live. To those not sticking their name down for a pre-order of Nuts & Bolts, the next boxed instalment in the series, the first Banjo will be available on November 26th. It will set you back 1,200 of your Microsoft Points.

For those who are pre-ordering Nuts & Bolts, the game will be available for free nearly two weeks before the general release on November 14th. Participants will get a code that can be used to get their mitts on the game. In the UK, Amazon, Play.com, Game and Gamestation will carry the offer. If you're reading from elsewhere, you can find the full list over on Rare's website.

The Xbox Live version of Banjo - as well as getting a lick of next-gen paint - will see the 'Stop N' Swop' feature finally emerge into the light of day. It was originally conceived for the N64 version a whole decade ago, but never made it into the game. On XBLA, it will reward achievements in the downloadable game by unlocking content in Nuts & Bolts.

Footage of the XBLA version of Banjo-Kazooie recently leaked out into the world. If you can't wait until November for a taste, you can see it here.

In other Rare news Gregg Mayles, the creative director on Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, has kinda-sorta responded to comments by Peter Moore suggesting the studio is over-the-hill. When asked about that by MTV Multiplayer^†, Mayles didn't name Moore but said, “I don’t take much notice about what people say about our games I work on, whether positive or negative.”

SPOnG recently sat down for an early poke around Nuts & Bolts. You can read about it here.

^{†Source: MTV Multiplayer}