Banjo Kazooie was my favorite platformer of the day even over Mario 64, and it is actually one of my favorite games. After thinking for a while about which games on the Nintendo 64 were the most enjoyable in terms of the amount of time I played them, I decided upon Starfox 64, Banjo Kazooie, and Goldeneye. While Banjo Kazooie and its sequel Banjo Tooie were thought of as Mario 64 clones, I considered them to be an improvement over Mario 64. Rareware had a heyday on the N64 with Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, the Banjo games, and Conker’s Bad Fur Day, but now that they’ve been sold to Microsoft, the next Banjo games will be on Xbox. Thankfully, Rare finally decided to finish the Banjo Kazooie game for Gameboy Advance, and it surprisingly isn’t that bad when you consider the GBA hardware limitations.
Grunty’s Revenge really isn’t a full blown sequel to Banjo Tooie; Banjo Kazooie 3 it isn’t. Grunty's Revenge proposes a revisionist history recounting the events before Gruntilda (or Grunty for short), the antagonist from the Banjo game, was rescued by her sisters. However, the actual game takes place before Banjo Kazooie. Grunty’s found another way to escape the rocky tomb she ends up in at the conclusion of Banjo Kazooie.
Anyway, Grunty’s scientist henchman, Klungo, builds a robot form of Gruntilda, and has Grunty use magic to transfer her soul to the robot. Now we have Mecha-Grunty, and she’s ticked. To take revenge on the bear and bird, Grunty comes up with a plan. She kidnaps Kazooie, and goes back in time to prevent Banjo and Kazooie from meeting, thus erasing any memory of their future adventures and her downfall. Mumbo Jumbo sends Banjo back through time with some Shaman magic, and so the next adventure begins. I guess you could call this Banjo Kazooie and a 1/2.
The story’s pretty much watered down in order to fit the game on the GBA, so there’s not much room to flesh it out.
I’ll cut to the chase: Grunty’s Revenge is a 6 level romp that can be completed in about 3 hours. This holds true even if you dawdle as much as possible. Because of the GBA’s limited hardware, the levels weren’t able to be broader, and so if you’re looking for the level design from the first two games, dust off your N64 and play the original two games instead. It would have been nice if there were some better level designs; the ones in Grunty’s Revenge just seem so generic. The levels are small and very straight forward, but they’re damn fun.
The gameplay hasn’t changed at all, and the top-angled down isometric perspective allows the game to keep its 3-D feel. You’re still collecting items like musical notes, jigsaw pieces, feathers, jinjos and eggs. Each level has 100 notes and 10 jiggy pieces, with 600 notes and 60 jiggys total. This is not as many items as the first two games, but it’s still a decent number.
Bozzeye the mole teaches you the moves as long as you have collected a certain amount of notes. Some of the “moves” are ridiculous, like learning to climb. Most of the moves return from the first two games, including the Fox Trot and the Flip Flap backflip. The chemistry between Kazooie and Bozzeye in Grunty’s Revenge isn’t quite as comical as the first two games, but the insults and puns are there. At least GR retained the comedy aspect. Mumbo Jumbo, will once again provide the different transformations. I was a little disappointed with the transformations this time around because they’re just not fun except for the tank.
While I was worried about Grunty’s Revenge being really bad, it’s pretty good.. It’s Banjo Kazooie on the go; how much more depth do you want to a 3-D platformer on the GBA? The only problem I really had was judging whether or not I was jumping up onto a platform, but other than that, the game was great.
Obviously, the Gameboy Advance doesn’t have the same power as the N64 but Grunty’s Revenge still keeps Banjo and Kazooie’s trademark: lots of color. Even though they are small, all of the levels look great. I couldn’t help but notice that all of the levels were very similar to those in the first game, like Breegull Beach, Bad Magic Bayou, and the Harbor level.. You can tell how much detail and such that has been taken out of Grunty’s Revenge in order to get everything in, but not enough so that the game doesn’t look good.
Those wacky sounds are back, including the mumbling voices. There aren’t as many syllables with the mumbling in GR, but they still sound almost exactly the same as the voices in the first two games. I’m not sure if the music was done by the same person who did the score for Banjo Kazooie and Banjo Tooie, but Grunty’s Revenge has all the catchy tunes that people are used to, like the Spiral Mountain theme which is stuck in my head There are also some new background themes for the new levels, but they aren’t nearly as impressive as the first two game soundtracks.
Banjo Kazooie: Grunty’s Revenge may not be the best Banjo Kazooie, nor is it very long, but it’s sure to be enjoyed by BK fans and any person who is looking for a fun little game to play on their GBAs. If you didn’t like the first two games, then chances are you won’t like Grunty’s Revenge. It’s fun while it lasts, even while being very watered down. There isn’t much replay value once you beat the game, unless you want to start a new game and see how fast you can beat the game (kind of like in Resident Evil), but I have yet to have a second chance to run back through the game a second time to work on speed and such. If you can rent GBA games at your local video store, give Grunty’s Revenge a rent, but if you’re like me and loved the first two, you’ll probably want to just buy the game, simply for collection purposes.
