One of the undisputed gems of the Nintendo 64 was the action platformer Banjo-Kazooie. The title followed a pair of buddies as they battled the evil witch Gruntilda and her minions, all the while collecting musical notes and jigsaw pieces (referred to in-game as “jiggies”) in order to unlock new areas. Now, after a long absence and a botched sequel (the utterly skippable Banjo-Twooie), the pair is back for another adventure, and this time they’re packing some horsepower.

The driving element behind Nuts and Bolts is building and using vehicles in order to accomplish objectives. In the demo we got to try out on the E3 show floor, you found yourself in Banjo Land, an homage to past titles in the series. Scattered around the world were pre-made vehicles which you could use to climb up tall hills, reach remote areas, and generally explore areas no bear can traverse alone. Our personal favorite was the buggy with a spring and gyroscope, which would allow you to launch the vehicle high into the air and then do tricks like flips and spins before you came down. The Microsoft rep on-hand explained that this particular car would be good for stunt challenges, where you have to perform tricks in order to score enough points to advance.

We also got a very small taste of the vehicle editor, where you can take in any existing contraption or create your own from the ground up in order to make a custom transportation machine. For our purposes, we took an existing design and slapped some wings and jet engines on it and made ourselves a buggy ready for both land and air. The construction room was jam-packed with items to use for building (there will be well over 100 parts in the final version), but we were assured that you had to unlock pieces as you go, so someone can’t simply head in at the beginning of the game and create a machine that can best any challenge. Also, the gradual introduction of pieces will allow players to slowly learn the intricacies of how to construct vehicles, rather than throwing them to the wolves straight away.