The double act Banjo-Kazooie returns to your portable screen, combining their skills to defeat the evil Gruntilda and her servants.
This time it's in a 2D isometric perspective instead of the 3D perspective in the previeous games. I must say I'm really impressed by this hidden gem. Even in 2024, this game still feels like a fun, timeless adventure with a lot of fun stages, puzzles, minigames, items to be picked up, enemies to defeat and a big variety of ways to complete the stages and defeat the enemies, which keeps extending, the more you progress in the game and learn new moves for combining Banjo-Kazooie's skills and ways to transform them into something fun like a mouse or a tank.
The game has some very nice and colorful graphics, a big open world with many stages. I also appreciate the fun and cute looking animals. I really appreciate the pleasant, diverse soundtrack and voice acting, the fun and unique sounding ways the animals speak to each other and Banjo's hilarious sounding jibber-jabber that Rare brought back into the game.
This must be one of the most underrated games for the GBA. I could easily put it into my top 10 best GBA games list. The ideas, the minigames, stages, enemies, the characters and the storytelling really feels charming, diverse and original. It never gets boring and doesn't feel like something boring that has been milked hundreds of times like the Mario or Pokemon series.
Unfortunately the last Banjo-Kazooie game was Nuts and Bolts back in 2006, which is a shame because the series still feels fresh and fun to play.
Granted, there are some smaller issues in the game like defeated enemies that keep re-appearing once you leave the screen, which can be a bit annoying, and the lack of a map since you can sometimes get lost in the game world.
While some people may critisize the replayability, and how long it takes to complete the game, I don't because the game wasn't a full-price game. It was a game for a portable console. It took me about 12 hours to complete the game 100%, which isn't that bad.
A bad thing about the enemies though is that while they do change from world to world, they are still limited with the total number of 14 enemies being seen and there also being a few types of enemies that are seen in every world.
Although the straight-on overhead view makes it difficult to judge the height of platforms, the overall game play is fast-paced and enjoyable. [Dec 2003, p.148]
Like "Wario World" before it, Banjo Kazooie on the GBA burns ever so brightly during the entire game because it has the class and quality about it in design, gameplay and aesthetics. It is just a pity that it burns ever so shortly as a result.
While there are some interesting mini-games to break up the wandering, Grunty's Revenge is mainly an abject lesson in breadcrumb following game design. [Dec 2003, p.106]
Not as good as the two N64 installments, but a pretty solid game that keeps the player entertained. And, if you're the person who is confused if you should get this game, I would but just a reminder it's a good game but not as great as the previous games, like I said
I was a bit skeptical of this game. A 3D platformer turned into a GBA game which isn't 3D? Sounds odd. But, I played it and it was amazing! Sure the story is bad and the gameplay has some tiny flaws. But, the overall game, music, controls, and graphics are ranging from good to amazing! I don't recommend it but it's still a great game.
Rare does an incredible job at bringing the Banjo-Kazooie experience to the GBA. The gameplay style has been changed from a 3D platformer into that of an isometric one, but all of the series' staples are in place. You'll hunt down "jiggies" and notes in order to get further in the game and purchase new moves. There are quite a few areas to explore and the amount of variety in the side-activities is quite impressive for a GBA game. Every now and then you'll encounter character's who will let you play little mini-games for your jiggy. It's a nice way to shake things up from the standard platforming challenges and puzzle solving.
What's most remarkable though is just how well the feeling of the console games has been captured here. Alongside seeing familiar faces, you'll be doing a lot of similar things. The collect-a-thon elements are perfectly recreated. The moves new and old feel great to use and it's always nice to gain access to a new one and have more areas open up to you in previously discovered locations. The boss battles are excellent, even if there are really only three, and the level and challenge design is top-notch all around. There's also an excellent soundtrack and some of the GBA's best graphics.
There are one or two issues that just barely manage to keep the game from achieving masterpiece status though. The first is that the top-down view of the action can occasionally make it hard to tell just what you can and cannot reach. This also leads to some rare occasions where judging the distance between your jumps can be a problem as well. I also did not enjoy the timed challenges in the game. Having to beat the clock is something I never find enjoyable. Luckily these complaints are made very small due to the fact that their occurrences are so very rare over the course of the game. In fact the biggest complaint I think people are going to have with the game is just how short it is. However, even that is lessened by just how perfect it's length is for a GBA game.
This simply is Banjo-Kazooie on the GBA. The change in perspective doesn't rob the game of any of the series charm. Rare pulled out all the stops to create an excellent game and a wonderful continuation of one their most beloved series on a handheld system with a different gameplay style. If you love Banjo-Kazooie or just fantastic platformers in general, Grunty's Revenge is the game for you.
9.8/10
For starters, Grunty’s Revenge is the third installment of the Banjo-Kazooie games from the Nintendo era, however, chronologically speaking it serves as some sort of bridge between the two Nintendo 64 games. The story takes place right after the events of Banjo-Kazooie, Gruntilda (the main antagonist) takes Kazooie and then goes to the past to prevent the events that transpire in the first game, Banjo on the other hand goes to her rescue and that’s the basic premise.
In theory, the story sounds great, with the potential of having some sort of Back To The Future moments, though, that was ultimately far from the truth. Aside from some cameos from the other two games, the story unfolds mostly in an uninteresting way, rendering the time travel mostly inexistent, I didn't remember that I was in the past till the end and given that the duration of the game was around 4 hours, that says a lot.
That aside, one doesn’t exactly play a Banjo game for its storytelling, so how its game-play fares? For the most part, it’s decent. Banjo moves in 6 directions which feel good mostly, and it kind of replicate a similar feeling while moving on the 3D games, that I think it's pretty commendable, however moving diagonally doesn’t feel as comfortable, given that you’re using a D-Pad to move around, this is more pronounced on the platforming segments, which aren’t that many but if you want to go the 100% route you will have trouble with a few gaps that require precise movement and exact jumps that are more troublesome than challenging as they kind of have severe punishments as falling from a cliff just to climb it over and over. This is hardly new to the series because platforming and climbing vertical levels are one of the strong points of the franchise, yet navigating on Grunty’s Revenge can be an annoyance.
This navigation leads us to one of the level's main problems: its overhead view. Grunty's Revenge is a 2D game with 3D pre-rendered graphics that simulate a 3D environment, the problem with this is that some stylistic choices of the level design don't work that well. Some gaps would appear nearer or farther than they are, this translates to invisible walls that often lead you to fall from places and poor exploration, it is not the greatest problem but it will persist till the very end of the game. The level design starts good, but by each level is unlocked it feels more similar to the last one, I can't pinpoint exactly what it is but they felt repetitive and uninspired, the pre-rendered look doesn't help at all as its looks didn't age that well, the two Nintendo 64 games stand out of how creative and colorful their worlds were, and I get that they were designed on a superior hardware but it is more a problem of art direction rather than power.
The first two worlds were somewhat fun, they represent also the easiest challenges and puzzles of the game but you'll be entertained nonetheless, however, as you advance to the next levels the difficulty starts to increase, not with fun challenges but with annoying inflated mechanics as hazardous environments, invincible enemies and repetitive minigames. Most of the Jiggies you'll unlock fall in a similar pattern, so you'll have a sensation of Deja Vu for most of the time, in one level you'll be doing a fishing minigame while in the next you'll be doing the same but with different background and tweaked speed, that kind of repetition.
A great thing about Rare games was their backtracking, they often put things at the beginning of each level to tease you with an unreachable area or item just to get back after some time when you have more power-ups. This doesn't happen that much here, as you'll get most of the collectibles the first time you enter a new level, just to get back an hour later for the 1 Jiggie that you couldn't reach and that's it. This is more pronounced when transforming into other animals, aside from the rat form, you won't be doing that much with the other 3 forms. This kind of repetition is also visible in boss fights since they're mostly the same, although the final fight can be more than a challenge.
There are only 60 Jiggies in total and only 50 are required to enter the final boss fight, so it's easy to get a 100% completion if you're into that sort of thing. It seems that it has several endings depending on your completion time, deaths, and the number of collected items, given that is a short game I imagine that someone could play it a lot of times to watch those endings, it isn't that fun to play but it isn't also that terrible so I think that some people may do that just fine.
Grunty's Revenge is not nearly as fun as its big brothers so it is hard to recommend, as it is mostly mediocre in every aspect, but for casual thoughtless playing, I think it works just fine.
BK and BT are two of my favorite games ever. This game was pretty disappointing. It's quite difficult to control or tell where you're going, which is kind of important for a platformer, and the tasks/objectives are pretty simple and boring.
SummaryGruntilda is back, and it's up to Banjo and Kazooie to stop her master plan. In Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge, you'll play as Banjo and follow him through six worlds rife with trials and contests. Some of the challenges you must overcome include solving puzzles, avoiding obstacles, and battling different enemies. Defeat your foes by us...