Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge - Real Person Reviews

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Published on March 2, 2016 3:30:58 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dum2_Ep7L2g

Game:

Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge (2003)

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Review

Duration: 17:36

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6

The bear and bird get absurd!
Written review: http://hubworldhq.com/2016/03/31/banjo-kazooie-gruntys-revenge/
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Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty’s Revenge is an isometric platformer collect-a-thon for the Game Boy Advance. This game was released after Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie on the Nintendo 64, so I’m going to assume you’re up to speed on the previous two games from personal experience or perhaps from checking out my other reviews. While it was released after these two games, it actually takes place between them a few months after the events of Banjo-Kazooie. Grunty is still stuck under the rock as Klungo tries to fruitlessly push it off of her. Banjo goes out while Kazooie is back at the house cleaning the place up for a party. Klungo gets the idea to put Grunty’s spirit into a robot, so he goes and gets a Grunty robot out of nowhere and she uses a spell to bind her spirit to the machine. She then hatches a plot to kidnap Kazooie and go back into the past to keep the two from ever meeting. Mumbo overhears this and tries to warn Banjo but he is a moment too late as they witness Grunty kidnap Kazooie and take off through time. Mumbo then sends Banjo back in time with his own magic to stop their plans, but the side-effects of the spell erase Banjo’s memory of most of his abilities, so he’ll have to use the help of a wise old mole, Bozzeye, to show him the ropes.

You can learn moves by collecting enough musical notes, which are scattered throughout the levels as usual. There are also jiggies that can be found or awarded for completing minigames and quests. You bring these jiggies to the mighty Jiggywiggy to open up more levels. There are multiple boss fights along the way with Klungo and Grunty. Beating these battles will usually net you a Mumbo totem, which can be given to this young, aspiring version of our favorite shaman to transform you into different things. You also have to locate and save Jinjos as well. You’ll eventually get Kazooie back and start learning all sorts of things to get you back in action. It’s all very familiar stuff at this point. However, there are some things that make this game notably different.

The biggest shift is the perspective. The Game Boy Advance can’t exactly render 3D games, but rather than making it a sidescroller they went with an isometric view to closer emulate the type of gameplay of the previous entries. The overworld is still Spiral Mountain, but you can collect notes and jiggies in it like a regular level this time. You learn a few moves here that are not present in either game, which is interesting. There are also a few new characters thrown in with the familiars. Also unlike the other games, you can use any of the unlocked Mumbo transformations in any of the levels once you’ve unlocked them. It may not seem hugely different on paper, but the experience of this shift in perspective, along with the other small differences, will definitely make an impression on you one way or another.

Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty’s Revenge isn’t bad. If you’re a fan of the series then it’s definitely worth checking out. It’s interesting and sort of fun. It definitely feels like a Banjo-Kazooie game, even if it IS a short, watered down version. I think for fifteen bucks or less, it’s worth trying out. I can’t really recommend it to everyone, though. If you’re not a fan, and if you don’t care for isometric platformers, then you probably won’t get much enjoyment out of it. It’s certainly not the follow-up we were hoping for, but at least it still FEELS like a Banjo-Kazooie game and does plenty of things surprisingly well considering the circumstances. I guess the name sounds better than Banjo-Twopointfivedeeie.

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