Ah. Good old Rare.
Sort of like your favorite little dog. They make messes sometimes (DK64,
anyone?) and theyll make you mad (like when they jump ship to work for
MS), but its hard not to love them when you think of the great times you
have had together. When Microsoft bought Rare last year, a lot of titles
had to be put onto the back burner. Banjo-Kazooie: Gruntys Revenge for
the Game Boy Advance was one of those games that was nearing completion
but had to be delayed. It isnt readily evident what the extra year or
so of development added to the project, but Gruntys Revenge makes it
perfectly clear that Rare still knows how to get the most out of a
system and produce a fun game even though they arent working under the
Big Ns thumb anymore.
The story in
Gruntys Revenge is pretty lame, but the gameplay is so tight that the
story can be excused. The game takes place right after the first Banjo-Kazooie
where the evil witch Gruntilda was trapped under a ten-ton boulder. One
of Gruntys minions has built a robot and transferred her spirit into
the new Mecha Grunty. Her new scheme for world domination involves
traveling back in time to stop Banjo the bear and Kazooie the bird from
ever meeting. With the help of the witch doctor Mumbo Jumbo, Banjo and
Kazooie are whisked back in time to stop her. Along the way youll meet
up with younger versions of characters that appeared in the N64 games.
Gruntys Revenge plays just like the N64 games. You start out with only
limited abilities and earn new attacks as you play through the game. In
order to advance you have to pick up musical notes to buy new abilities,
collect jigsaw puzzle pieces and Jinjo birds in order to open new
worlds, and Mumbo Jumbo tokens so that the good doctor can change you
into different forms such as a mouse, tank, or candle. The attacks you
open up range from Banjo hitting enemies with his backpack, Kazooie
using her beak to peck enemies, the ability to fly short distances, and
you are even able to shoot eggs at enemies.
The game has all
of the same items and attacks as the console versions, but the
similarities dont stop there. The camera is directly overhead and
provides an excellent view of the action. You have to swim and climb
ladders and do a bit of platform jumping, and it is simply amazing how
much this game feels like you are playing the N64 games. The side
missions and mini games you can play to earn jigsaw pieces are exactly
like what we have seen before, just scaled back a bit. It is a pretty
safe bet to say that if you are a fan of Banjo-Kazooie or Banjo-Tooie,
you will like Gruntys Revenge because it plays exactly the same way.
The only bad
things about Gruntys Revenge, other than the goofy story (going back in
the past ... but what if Grunty already caught Kazooie? Wouldnt that
mean that she couldnt go back in time to save herself?), is that the
boss battles are pretty weak and the game is extremely short. There are
only five levels in the game and due to the limitations of the GBA none
of them are particularly huge or complex. You can beat the game in about
four hours and then there is maybe another hour of gameplay if you want
to collect everything 100%. After you beat it once, there is no reason
to go back through and play it again. The game is incredibly fun; it is
just too damn short.
The graphics in Gruntys Revenge are extremely impressive. Banjo and
Kazooie as well as the enemies are very detailed and simply look
amazing. The animation is also very smooth and the game simply looks
great. They really do like just like their 3-D counterparts from the
N64. The levels look good as well with tons of different backgrounds and
lots of variety.
Equally impressive
is the sound. The music and sound effects have been recreated perfectly.
When you pick up your first note or jigsaw piece and hear the familiar
sound effect, youll know that you are home. Just like the other games,
each character has a special sound effect when it is speaking and the
chirps and grunts and groans you loved (or loathed) are all back. The
sound is surprisingly high quality and along with the excellent graphics
make Gruntys Revenge a gorgeous game to not only look at but listen to
as well.
Overall, Banjo-Kazooie: Gruntys Revenge is worth checking out for Rare
fans old and new. The game looks and sounds amazing and the gameplay
does an excellent job of mimicking the same feel of the N64 games. The
only problem with the game is that it is only about four or five hours
long. It is a fun few hours, but once you beat it there is no reason to
play through it again. If you can rent it or find it on sale for cheap,
it is worth picking up. Die hard Rareware and B-K fans will probably
pick it up no matter what, but $30 is a lot to spend on four hours of
gameplay.
Eric Qualls (11/03/2003) |