Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge

"Good game, but not what I expected..."

A looong time ago, a Banjo-Kazooie game for GBA was announced. Later, when Rareware was bought by Microsoft, the game was cancelled. But now it has finally been released.

If you haven't played the previous Banjo-Kazooie games, they were some of the best platform-adventure games on the Nintendo 64 I had seen. So, I expected this one to be a worthily installment of the series, but just it wasn't what I had expected.

The game is played much like the other Banjo-Kazooie games, collecting items to make your way across different stages, accessed through a central world called ''Spiral Mountain''.
You start with a limited set of moves and attacks, and you have to find the rest, as well as other items to help you in your quest.

*Gameplay: 5/10
You collect Jiggys to open more stages, where yo can... collect more Jiggys... and stuff that allows you to... collect more Jiggys... It is not very original, and even if you play some minigames in your quest, it gets boring at the end. I had expected they would add some new elements to this game, but there is nothing new.

*Story: 4/10
While previous Banjo Kazooie games had a brilliant plot and funny dialogue, this game has almost no story. Dialogue is funny, but not as brilliant as I expected.

*Graphics: 7/10
Scenery and background lack color, and sometimes can confuse the player because they lack depth. However, character sprites are detailed, and animations are fluid and smooth.

*Sound: 8/10
Music is good and follows the style previous installments set. They have even recycled some memorable tunes like the one in Spiral Mountain.
Sound effects are also very close to their Nintendo 64 counterparts, but there is still no real voice acting.

*Control/playability: 7/10
Rare did a good job while mapping all the old moves to the GBA's few buttons, but moving with the Control Pad is uncomfortable. It is best is you play this game in a Gameboy Player, using the control stick.
However, some collision detection should have been improved

*Play time/replayability: 5/10
While previous games could take ages to beat, this one is short indeed. I got halfway through the game in one hour.
There is no multiplayer or anything that can make you want to play this again, so it's pretty short.

*Final score (not an average):6/10
I recommend you to rent this game, since it's short and you can finish it pretty quickly. It is by far the worst game in the Banjo-Kazooie series, and lacks the elements that made the previous games best-sellers, but can be fun for a short time.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 09/16/03