Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge

"Proof that this type of game does NOT belong on GBA"

Introduction

As a fan of both Banjo Kazooie and its sequel, Banjo Tooie, I was intrigued by this third installment in the series. Unfortunately, since this is on the Gameboy Advance, one of the things was quite obvious is that it would not be anything like as good as its predecessors on Nintendo 64.

Gameplay - 7/10

The gameplay isn't that much different from the original; you have to enter a number of different worlds and collect jiggies. For the first level, you control Banjo only, since Kazooie has been kidnapped.

The main problem I had with the gameplay was how staggeringly repetitive it is. You are repeatedly expected to take part in "slide" races and fishing games at increasing difficulties in order to get jiggies, and after a while it became tedious, but some of the other jiggies were more enjoyable.

The boss fights leave a lot to be desired, as most consist of either Mecha-Grunty or Klungo, whose tactics always seem to be virtually the same technique of creating a shield and throwing stuff at you.

Mumbo's four transformations are generally enjoyable (even though the candle transformation seems almost useless), and bring at least some enjoyment to this game. However, this game is also just too short, with five main worlds (just over half of what was in previous games), and a mere 60 jiggies to collect.

A lot of the time, the gameplay can be confusing as you are faced with jumps that look a lot easier than they are and you may want to throw you Gameboy Advance across the room after Banjo's feeble jumping ability prevents you from getting up to an only moderately high ledge.

Story - 8/10

The story's reasonably good, despite it almost being a carbon copy of Banjo Tooie's plot at times. In an alternate timeline to Banjo Tooie, Klungo frees Grunty by putting her in a robot body and they kidnap Kazooie, and then spend the rest of the game trying to attack Banjo and Kazooie, then running away and waiting for you to find them. There seems to be considerably less of the characteristic banter between the two title characters, and until you rescue Banjo's better half, Kazooie (by far my favourite character), the story seems a little limp.

Graphics - 4/10

Even for the Gameboy Advance, the graphics in this game look extremely cheap. The "cinemas" in the game look particularly in terms of the animation, and almost seem like they belong on a kid's TV show. The world layouts are somewhat weird looking, and it doesn't really look right when you can't let the camera follow you around the levels, as instead you are forced to look at Banjo and Kazooie from above.

Final proof that 3D platformers should NEVER be put on the Gameboy Advance.

Music - 5/10

Some of the music is nice, but I certainly didn't find a lot of it to be particularly memorable.

Replay Value/Game Time - 4/10

You will probably want to play this game through again, but you are unlikely to take a long time over this game. I was able to get every single jiggy very fast. The only reasonably hard bit is the final battle, which may leave less able players (such as myself) frustrated.

Final Verdict

If you liked Banjo Kazooie and Banjo Tooie, you won't necessarily like this one. If you can't afford a Nintendo 64, then I'd suggest maybe buying this, but it hardly reflects the quality of the previous Banjo Kazooie games. If you're not a big fan of these sort of games, I'd suggest renting this first.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 02/14/05