Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge
From RWP Wiki
| Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge | |
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| System | Game Boy Advance |
| Release Date | NA September 15, 2003 EU October 24, 2003 AUS2003 |
| Publisher | THQ |
| Genre | Adventure, Platformer |
| Rating | ESRB: E for Everyone |
| Players | 1 |
| Controller Pak | |
| Rumble | |
| Expansion Pak | |
| Link Cable | Not Supported |
| Xbox Live | |
| Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection | |
Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge is a platform adventure game for the Game Boy Advance. It is the third chronologically-released title in the Banjo-Kazooie series and serves as a side-story which begins in between Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie, but takes place mostly in the past, long before the beginning of Banjo-Kazooie. The game was released on September 15, 2003 in North America and October 24, 2003 in Europe. It is the first Banjo-Kazooie game not to be released in Japan.
Contents |
Story
Two months after Gruntilda's initial defeat by Banjo and Kazooie, Klungo remains with his mistress, still trying to push away the large boulder trapping her underground. He soon realizes the futility of this, and decides to build something to help her.
Just at that time, Mumbo Jumbo walks by and overhears Klungo. Suspicious of what the ogre might be trying, Mumbo hides behind a nearby bush to observe. Soon after, Klungo walks back in with a new robotic body for Grunty, the Mecha Gruntilda. He tells her to use a magic spell to remove her soul from her body and transfer it to the robot.
After doing so, Grunty hatches a scheme on the spot to get back at Banjo and Kazooie. She flies off as Mumbo quickly runs to Banjo's house to warn him of the witch's evil plot. Unfortunately, he is too late, and Grunty swoops down and and kidnaps Kazooie, using her magic to transport herself and the breegull backwards in time to make sure Banjo cannot rescue her.
As Banjo swears revenge on Grunty for kidnapping his best friend, Mumbo decides to use his magic to transport Banjo back to the same time period Grunty ran off to so that he can rescue Kazooie. Mumbo also informs Bozzeye, a relative of Bottles the mole who lived in the era Banjo is travelling to, and a past version of the shaman himself, that Banjo will require their help. Banjo then sets out on his quest to rescue his friend and defeat Gruntilda once more.
Gameplay
Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge follows much the same design as previous Banjo titles, focusing on platforming and exploration. As it is on the Game Boy Advance, however, it is not in 3D, and instead uses a 2D isometric view to compensate. Banjo forgets all his moves after travelling to the past, and so as the player progresses and collects Musical Notes, Bozzeye will re-teach some of Banjo's old moves (refitted to a GBA control scheme), as well as teaching him new ones, for a specified price of Notes. Jiggies are also once again required to be collected, as once a certain number have been obtained, young Master Jiggywiggy will open his temple, allowing the Crystal Jiggy to be touched, which will open the next level. Mumbo also has a skull in each level, and will transform Banjo into various creatures and objects for a certain amount of Mumbo Tokens. Initially Banjo is on his own, but Kazooie is rescued fairly early on in the game, allowing Banjo to re-learn teamwork moves with her.
The game is much shorter than its console counterparts; it features only 60 Jiggies and 600 Musical Notes, within five levels plus a hub world, Spiral Mountain.
Characters
The game's principal characters are:
For more characters, including minor ones, see Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge characters.
Worlds
- Spiral Mountain (hub world)
- Cliff Farm
- Breegull Beach
- Bad Magic Bayou
- Spiller's Harbor
- Freezing Furnace
Development
Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge was originally announced at E3 2001. Initially, it was conceived to be a "What If?" story taking place in an alternate timeline where Grunty's sisters do not come to rescue her and thus Banjo-Tooie does not happen, with Grunty's Revenge taking place instead. This idea was dropped some time before the game was released, and it was instead placed as a side-story in the Banjo timeline, between Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie.
Grunty's Revenge is notable in that it is the only of Rare's initially-announced Game Boy Advance titles to be released without any major changes due to the buyout of Rare by Microsoft, unlike Diddy Kong Pilot, which became Banjo-Pilot and Donkey Kong: Coconut Crackers, which became It's Mr. Pants.
Music
The music of Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge was composed by Jamie Hughes. Grunty's Revenge was the first Banjo game where the music was not chiefly composed by Grant Kirkhope, although it did feature an arrangement of his Spiral Mountain music from the original Banjo-Kazooie.
Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge: Mobile
Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge: Mobile is a port of Grunty's Revenge as a mobile phone game. Grunty's Revenge: Mobile was released in September 2004. This version of the game is similar to the original, although with many changes:
- The game's graphics are lower quality, and in some cases completely different.
- The game's sound is very limited. Upon entering an area, the game plays a very short MIDI file consisting of part of that area's music.
- The game features far fewer collectibles:
28 Jiggies
500 Musical Notes
15 Jinjos (3 Pink, 3 Blue, 3 Red, 3 Green, 3 Yellow)
10 Empty Honeycomb Pieces. - The game features only ten of the moves from the original game.
- The game's intro is shorter and features Bozzeye. He comes up from a molehill and tells Banjo that Grunty is coming to kidnap Kazooie (oddly, speaking in exactly the same manner as Mumbo does in the original version).
- Spiral Mountain is partially redesigned.
- Jiggywiggy's Temple is located in a cave, rather than as its own building. In addition, it has been redesigned into a small, one-floor room, and lacks the Crystal Jiggy. Worlds are open by talking to Jiggywiggy with the proper amount of Jiggies.
- The entrance to each world features a sign with its name above it.
- None of the game's transformations are present.
- The "Farm Heights" area of Cliff Farm is completely different.
- Honey B's Hive is located within a cave in the Farm Heights area of Cliff Farm, rather than the Spiral Rise area of Spiral Mountain.
Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge: Missions
Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge: Missions is a version of Grunty's Revenge released to mobile phones in July 2005. This version lacks the adventure portion of the game, and is made up simply of eight minigames from Grunty's Revenge.
The game's story is also slightly modified. Gruntilda has kidnapped Kazooie and put her behind an impassible barrier. Banjo must win Jiggies from eight minigames, defeat Gruntilda, and then complete a sliding block puzzle of Kazooie in order to rescue her.
The minigames featured in the game are as follows:
- Egg Scramble: Banjo must collect 30 Eggs from a slide while avoiding obstacles.
- Sheep Dip: Banjo must catch 20 sheep.
- Battle Boats: Banjo must defeat a pirate using eggs.
- Grubby Chute: Banjo must collect 30 grubworms from a slide while avoiding obstacles.
- Magic Angler: Banjo must collect 20 red fish while avoiding Snippets.
- Slide o' Fear: Banjo must collect 30 silver coins from a slide while avoiding obstacles.
- Frozen Fish: Banjo must collect 20 red fish while avoiding Snippets.
- Snowy Sleds: Banjo must collect 30 gold coins from a slide while avoiding obstacles.
Reception
Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge was generally well-received by critics, who felt that the game was a decent handheld adaption of the Banjo-Kazooie franchise, although the isometric view was criticized as being confusing at times, and GameSpot felt it focused too much on item collection and was too short. It currently has a 73% on review aggregator GameRankings[1], and a 72/100 on aggregator Metacritic[2].
External links
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