Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge

"Banjo Kazooie minus the fun"

From Donkey Kong Country to Conker's Bad Fur Day I have loved Rare's games. Rare gives its characters personalities – something Nintendo still doesn't really do with Mario or Samus, and other game companies don't even think about. Rare knows how to make a game fun, look great, and have great music. Playing a Rare game, you hum the tune, marvel at the graphics, and have fun with the game. Saying that, I've noticed that Rare is slipping, along with other game developers, into a territory where games look great, but aren't fun (Star Fox Adventures) or are just pointless sequels (Grunty's Revenge). With their great track record, I wonder why Rare made such a lousy game.

Story – 3/10

After being defeated in the previous games, Grunty's body lies under a pile of rocks. Her loyal henchman, Klungo, has created a machine (since he's so dumb it was most likely on accident) that will act as a body for the spirit of Grunty. Grunty decides she would be better off if Banjo and Kazooie never met. So she kidnaps the sarcastic bird, Kazooie, and transports back through time in order to make sure the two heroes never met. The voodoo priest Mumbo Jumbo helps the slow-witted bear, Banjo, to go back in time to save Kazooie. Nothing is really done with the fact that they have gone back through time, except that they have to go back to the present time eventually. So starts Banjo's and Kazooie's short adventure.

Gameplay – 4/10

Like the original two games, you must learn how to perform certain moves. No, wait, unlike the first two games, you have to learn how to perform any move…except for moving. In the gaming world this is such a step backward that it applies only to gamers with negative intelligence. Do we really need to talk to a mole in order to learn how to climb a ladder? The mole I am referring to, for those that don't know, is Bottles, a mole with glasses who is constantly insulted by Kazooie, but teaches the bird and bear their moves.

The game consists of recycled levels from the previous two games, horrible and stupid looking mini-games, easy to find jiggies (jigsaw puzzle pieces used to open new worlds and move on), and terrible dialogue that makes you wonder if Rare, the creator of the clever dialogue of games past, actually wrote it. There is no puzzle too hard; the only puzzles here are the obvious ones. The boss fights consist of Klungo learning one new move to add to the ones he had in the previous fights with him. Even the controls are clunky, as sometimes Banjo won't respond to a jump or move command. The only good thing I can say is that at first the game seemed alright. By at first, though, I mean for half an hour.

Visuals – 4/10

The game looks terrible. The textures are jaggy and unfocused. Unlike in Mario and Luigi, where outlines showed just how clean they were. Mario and Luigi also does a better job with depth perception than Grunty's Revenge. Both games are 3-D platformers on the GBA, but in Mario and Luigi you can tell that the world is in 3-D. In Grunty's Revenge it's impossible to judge how high or how far a platform is, and so you'll try and miss a lot of jumps in order to figure out where you can jump. Mario and Luigi remedies this solves this problem by showing the height of a platform from the ground to the top of it. Basically, it allows the gamer to correctly guess the distance between two platforms or the height of one by allowing them to see the whole front side of the platform. In Grunty's Revenge, the platforms are tilted so the gamer sees the top of the platforms more clearly than the front. Jumps are misjudged because they look shorter than they are compared to the ground.

Sound – 3/10

To add to the terrible gameplay, awful music plays in the background. I question this because the Banjo Kazooie series has some of the most memorable music in video game history. The theme song to the original games is a song I can hum from memory. Here the music is so grating I turned the volume down (you don't need the sound anyway). Also bad are the voices, which like the previous two games consists of strange noises coming from the characters. Where the noises were funny and fitting before, they are cringe-inducing here. But turning the volume down will only lessen the pain of playing this game, not cure it.

Longevity – 2/10

This game isn't worth 30 bucks to play, nor however much it costs to rent it. The four hours I spent with the game felt like eight, and not for a good reason. It felt like a chore, but one of my flaws is that I hate giving up, though I am overcoming that now. This game is pointless – it offers nothing interesting to the story of Banjo and Kazooie, nor any insights into the characters. The only thing I wonder is how Grunty has the will to live on even after the bear and bird have embarrassed her so many times.

Score – 4/10

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 09/10/04