É realmente incrível como eles conseguiram adaptar um jogo relativamente complexo como Banjo-Kazooie para o hardware e os controles do GBA. É um jogo até que curto, mas é bem divertidinho.
A hidden gem for the GBA with lots of humor and great music you'd expect from the series.
Finally got to finish the last of the Banjo games. Somehow this alluded me in my GBA era, even tho Banjo has a giant home in my heart.
Total runtime for a near 100% run was 4 hours. Which is wild and short. Final boss Grunty is very grindy, so I used the emulation save states to make it less frustrating. I just wish they did more here. You barely need to backtrack with mumbo power ups in previous levels. Also often frustrating because you can't really judge where you are going and what elevation you can travel to with the graphics//stereoscopic 3D.
Total runtime for a near 100% run was 4 hours. Which is wild and short. Final boss Grunty is very grindy, so I used the emulation save states to make it less frustrating. I just wish they did more here. You barely need to backtrack with mumbo power ups in previous levels. Also often frustrating because you can't really judge where you are going and what elevation you can travel to with the graphics//stereoscopic 3D.
Really bad platforming
I’m not a huge Banjo fan. I never was as a kid either. I felt the game was really tedious and easy. The only interesting parts of the game were the platforming and collecting everything, and even that got dull after a while. I personally feel it’s a very much overrated game and is one of the most nostalgia blind games in existence. I tried out Grunty’s Revenge for GBA, and it’s exactly what I expected. An over simplified version of an already pretty simple game.
The story is mostly nonsense, but Gruntilda has created a robot form of herself and you need to stop her. The end. Yeah, Banjo was never much for story. I do have the say the yapping voice samples are incredibly annoying and repeat themselves over and over again. It’s some of the most annoying voices I’ve heard in any game. It’s just irritating noises, they don’t even sound like voices. Never mind that though, your goal is to run around collecting Jiggies, musical notes, honeycombs, and various other odds and ends to acquire abilities to gain access to new areas. The levels in this game are fairly small but well designed. I have to say the level design overall here is great and I never got lost thanks to memorable landmarks which are key to a game with no map. You talk to a mole fellow who will grant you a new ability once you have enough notes. I never ran into an issue with this as exploring alone will give you more than enough notes. Abilities range from smacking enemies with your pack to a roll. Once you acquire Kazooie you can get the ability to fire eggs, batteries, a jump glide, and an aerial attack.
I do like how the abilities keep coming and in quick succession. It was satisfying to get back to the hub world and gain access to new abilities such as ladder climbing and diving. Thankfully just exploring on its own saw me collecting and completing 100% of each level with ease. There are boss fights and these are painfully easy and never change. The boss has an electric field around it and you just run around dodging attacks. Once the field is down you can attack. The life counter will go down with each attack and you are rewarded afterward. Enemy encounters are pretty much the same and enemies constantly respawn. Some enemies require more than one hit, but I found it annoying that they would get in the way of a platforming segment after I’ve killed them and only got knocked down to come back around have to kill them again. It was hard to judge depth with some platforms and it would lead to cheap falls.
I do have to say that while the game looks decent the pseudo-3D look makes everything look quite bland. While it’s by no means ugly I never cared for the art style of Banjo. Everything is just green and yellow in this game is it gets old after a while. There are only four large levels and the game can be finished in less than four hours. Thankfully you can save anywhere, and dying doesn’t even reset the area. You just start off at the next closest spot or platform so I didn’t see the point in having a life bar if there were no consequences to dying. The only thing that kept me going was the completionist in me wanting to 100% every level and acquiring the next ability was fun.
Overall, Grunty’s Revenge is a decent isometric platformer, but other games did it better such as Spyro. The visuals are kind of muddy and blurry and a bit hard to see when it comes to platforming, but the levels are designed well. The story is nonsense and there’s zero challenge outside of just the platforming. If you want a short and light-hearted pseudo-3D platformer for your GBA then you can’t go wrong here.
The story is mostly nonsense, but Gruntilda has created a robot form of herself and you need to stop her. The end. Yeah, Banjo was never much for story. I do have the say the yapping voice samples are incredibly annoying and repeat themselves over and over again. It’s some of the most annoying voices I’ve heard in any game. It’s just irritating noises, they don’t even sound like voices. Never mind that though, your goal is to run around collecting Jiggies, musical notes, honeycombs, and various other odds and ends to acquire abilities to gain access to new areas. The levels in this game are fairly small but well designed. I have to say the level design overall here is great and I never got lost thanks to memorable landmarks which are key to a game with no map. You talk to a mole fellow who will grant you a new ability once you have enough notes. I never ran into an issue with this as exploring alone will give you more than enough notes. Abilities range from smacking enemies with your pack to a roll. Once you acquire Kazooie you can get the ability to fire eggs, batteries, a jump glide, and an aerial attack.
I do like how the abilities keep coming and in quick succession. It was satisfying to get back to the hub world and gain access to new abilities such as ladder climbing and diving. Thankfully just exploring on its own saw me collecting and completing 100% of each level with ease. There are boss fights and these are painfully easy and never change. The boss has an electric field around it and you just run around dodging attacks. Once the field is down you can attack. The life counter will go down with each attack and you are rewarded afterward. Enemy encounters are pretty much the same and enemies constantly respawn. Some enemies require more than one hit, but I found it annoying that they would get in the way of a platforming segment after I’ve killed them and only got knocked down to come back around have to kill them again. It was hard to judge depth with some platforms and it would lead to cheap falls.
I do have to say that while the game looks decent the pseudo-3D look makes everything look quite bland. While it’s by no means ugly I never cared for the art style of Banjo. Everything is just green and yellow in this game is it gets old after a while. There are only four large levels and the game can be finished in less than four hours. Thankfully you can save anywhere, and dying doesn’t even reset the area. You just start off at the next closest spot or platform so I didn’t see the point in having a life bar if there were no consequences to dying. The only thing that kept me going was the completionist in me wanting to 100% every level and acquiring the next ability was fun.
Overall, Grunty’s Revenge is a decent isometric platformer, but other games did it better such as Spyro. The visuals are kind of muddy and blurry and a bit hard to see when it comes to platforming, but the levels are designed well. The story is nonsense and there’s zero challenge outside of just the platforming. If you want a short and light-hearted pseudo-3D platformer for your GBA then you can’t go wrong here.
Good music, good platformer, one of a kind on the gba
This was the second time I played Grunty's Revenge (and the first time actually reaching the ending), and I had more fun with it on a second playthrough than it was the first time around.
While it's probably unreasonable to expect a handheld pre-sequel to ever reach the highs of its console predecessors, when GR does something right, it does it quite well. Most of the minigames were alright. The music was pretty catchy and captures the spirit of Banjo-Kazooie quite well. The game doesn't rely too heavily on backtracking unlike Tooie. In fact, it's only required once for 100% completion. The idea of being able to use any Mumbo transformation in any world is a pretty cool one, although unfortunately the game doesn't really make much use of most of them (by the time you get the tank, which should be the coolest one yet because it's a fucking tank, the game's basically already over).
Something that I'm mixed on is the use of a few of the moves introduced in Banjo-Tooie in the game: the Bill Drill and the Breegull Blaster. While I suppose it makes sense when looking at it from the perspective of "this game came out after Tooie did, so why not" and it can look a bit more visually striking than the more simple moves in Kazooie, when looking it at from a chronological and story standpoint, it doesn't really make sense that the duo has to relearn the moves from Jamjars in the sequel, and I also think that the more simple equivalents from the first game would be better suited for the hardware and scope of the game.
The game is a bit on the short side, and by the latter half of the game, it tends to add more tedious and frustrating things into the mix while you're trying to hunt for Jiggies. The short length also means that there's also not enough time to explore on the stuff the game does particularly well. The depth perception is abysmal, making it hard to judge what you are able to jump on sometimes. In sandy locations, the color contrast becomes lousy, even for GBA standards. You only ever fight like two bosses, with the exception of the ghost pirate ship, which even then is later reused in format for a Mecha-Grunty fight. The finale is easily one of the weakest in the Banjo series, consisting of a gauntlet of the fourth rematches against Mecha-Grunty and Klungo with the obligatory quiz segments interspersed in-between the fighting with no refills on health or eggs and no checkpoints, which makes it tedious to die because that means you're kicked back to Spiral Mountain and you have to redo the whole process of opening up the portal to the final boss again.
Overall, while the game is okay, I can't really recommend this game to anyone other than the most dedicated of Banjo-Kazooie fans, who want to see everything the bear and bird have to offer. For anyone else, any game that isn't on the GBA is a better game to spend your time and money on (yes, even Nuts & Bolts).
While it's probably unreasonable to expect a handheld pre-sequel to ever reach the highs of its console predecessors, when GR does something right, it does it quite well. Most of the minigames were alright. The music was pretty catchy and captures the spirit of Banjo-Kazooie quite well. The game doesn't rely too heavily on backtracking unlike Tooie. In fact, it's only required once for 100% completion. The idea of being able to use any Mumbo transformation in any world is a pretty cool one, although unfortunately the game doesn't really make much use of most of them (by the time you get the tank, which should be the coolest one yet because it's a fucking tank, the game's basically already over).
Something that I'm mixed on is the use of a few of the moves introduced in Banjo-Tooie in the game: the Bill Drill and the Breegull Blaster. While I suppose it makes sense when looking at it from the perspective of "this game came out after Tooie did, so why not" and it can look a bit more visually striking than the more simple moves in Kazooie, when looking it at from a chronological and story standpoint, it doesn't really make sense that the duo has to relearn the moves from Jamjars in the sequel, and I also think that the more simple equivalents from the first game would be better suited for the hardware and scope of the game.
The game is a bit on the short side, and by the latter half of the game, it tends to add more tedious and frustrating things into the mix while you're trying to hunt for Jiggies. The short length also means that there's also not enough time to explore on the stuff the game does particularly well. The depth perception is abysmal, making it hard to judge what you are able to jump on sometimes. In sandy locations, the color contrast becomes lousy, even for GBA standards. You only ever fight like two bosses, with the exception of the ghost pirate ship, which even then is later reused in format for a Mecha-Grunty fight. The finale is easily one of the weakest in the Banjo series, consisting of a gauntlet of the fourth rematches against Mecha-Grunty and Klungo with the obligatory quiz segments interspersed in-between the fighting with no refills on health or eggs and no checkpoints, which makes it tedious to die because that means you're kicked back to Spiral Mountain and you have to redo the whole process of opening up the portal to the final boss again.
Overall, while the game is okay, I can't really recommend this game to anyone other than the most dedicated of Banjo-Kazooie fans, who want to see everything the bear and bird have to offer. For anyone else, any game that isn't on the GBA is a better game to spend your time and money on (yes, even Nuts & Bolts).
Lots of fun platforming and exploration, although the isometric style doesn't do it too many favours. Overall very impressive for the GBA and underrated
Not a bad Banjo Kazooie game. I really like this one!
idk if eekum bokum was in this
That perspective will absolutely kill it for many. Push past it, though, and it's a good time.
A short, cute adventure that manages to be almost as fun as the main n64 banjo games despite the limitations of the gba. However the fixed camera and the constant enemy spam plus quick respawning(and in such compact levels) gets annoying in the late game.
Also I need to comment on how horrifying is the design of mecha-grunty. Probably the thing I remember the most from the first time I played this back in mid 00s.
Also I need to comment on how horrifying is the design of mecha-grunty. Probably the thing I remember the most from the first time I played this back in mid 00s.
Safe to say I am fully gameboy-pilled now. I'm just playing middling gameboy games all the time. I'm fascinated by this era, when we had like, well this is the gameboy version of a big time console game. Now that the Switch is here, there's a lot less of that. Phone games had some of it but now they're kind of their own thing trying to bait whales with microtransactions.
Now, Banjo-Kazooie and its sequel are pretty much defined by being 3D platformers, but I'd have to say Rare was well positioned for this project for a few reasons. First, they had experience in making fake 3D sprites with Donkey Kong Country. Second, they're British so they made a ton of isometric platformers with controls designed for maniacs. Third, they were bought by Microsoft and could therefore unleash their full wrath on the North American audience by not using an isometric view for this one. You thought you didn't like three quarters perspective? See how you like it when you can't tell how tall anything is assholes!
Also, this is an interquel which attempts to expand on the Banjo-Kazooie lore, possibly the most ridiculous sentence possible. It doesn't actually do a good job of that because the time travel plot was invented later in development and doesn't exist beyond the opening story scene. But still, this video game has a plot and that plot is that the villain turns herself into a ghost to possess a robot body that can also time travel to try and prevent Banjo and Kazooie from ever meeting therefore altering the timeline and ensuring she can turn into Posh Spice in the first game.
The game's perfectly fine! It's all a little off model and scaled down but this allows for a level called Bad Magic Bayou that doesn't add any new incredibly racist charicature characters (Mumbo Jumbo is sadly still present). It's short and it's easy but I wish more of Rare's output had this level of restraint. If you made me play either this or Yooka-Laylee again.... this is shorter and I could try and get a maximum five jiggy ranking in it.
Now, Banjo-Kazooie and its sequel are pretty much defined by being 3D platformers, but I'd have to say Rare was well positioned for this project for a few reasons. First, they had experience in making fake 3D sprites with Donkey Kong Country. Second, they're British so they made a ton of isometric platformers with controls designed for maniacs. Third, they were bought by Microsoft and could therefore unleash their full wrath on the North American audience by not using an isometric view for this one. You thought you didn't like three quarters perspective? See how you like it when you can't tell how tall anything is assholes!
Also, this is an interquel which attempts to expand on the Banjo-Kazooie lore, possibly the most ridiculous sentence possible. It doesn't actually do a good job of that because the time travel plot was invented later in development and doesn't exist beyond the opening story scene. But still, this video game has a plot and that plot is that the villain turns herself into a ghost to possess a robot body that can also time travel to try and prevent Banjo and Kazooie from ever meeting therefore altering the timeline and ensuring she can turn into Posh Spice in the first game.
The game's perfectly fine! It's all a little off model and scaled down but this allows for a level called Bad Magic Bayou that doesn't add any new incredibly racist charicature characters (Mumbo Jumbo is sadly still present). It's short and it's easy but I wish more of Rare's output had this level of restraint. If you made me play either this or Yooka-Laylee again.... this is shorter and I could try and get a maximum five jiggy ranking in it.
This game is a perfect nosedive. It starts off really good with the first two worlds, and it does a lot right in bits later on, but the worlds get way more frustrating and annoying to traverse. I 100%ed the game, and some parts were just a massive pain to do. This game could really use a remake that makes it play like the first game.
Nostálgico...
Infravaloradisimo juego de la GBA, de los mejores de la consola IMO y una excelente entrega de la franquicia de Banjo
Medio saca de onda que tengas habilidades de Tooie siendo este una precuela del mismo y tambien a veces la camara isometrica no ayuda mucho, pero es raro que de verdad de problemas.
Also, este juego tiene los enemigos mas creativos y donde mas usas las plumas de invencibilidad de todos los Banjos xddddd
Una lastima que los jefes apesten incluso mas que los jefes del primer Banjo
Medio saca de onda que tengas habilidades de Tooie siendo este una precuela del mismo y tambien a veces la camara isometrica no ayuda mucho, pero es raro que de verdad de problemas.
Also, este juego tiene los enemigos mas creativos y donde mas usas las plumas de invencibilidad de todos los Banjos xddddd
Una lastima que los jefes apesten incluso mas que los jefes del primer Banjo
I'm kind of sad I never sought this game out sooner because it feels like the sequel to Banjo Tooie I never got as a kid. I mean, it's not on the same level as the N64 titles, but it is damn impressive how they faithfully adapted the gameplay to a 2D isometric perspective. You collect jiggies, notes, jinjos, mumbo tokens and learn a slew of signature moves throughout the game! The writing keeps its charm, too. What more can you ask for? That's Banjo Kazooie, baby! All around a pleasant experience, would recommend if you miss the bear and bird.
Realmente lo jugué en la DS con un adaptador para cartuchos de la Advance xD
still better than Nuts & Bolts
Decent isometric version of Banjo-Kazooie. While it is a little short with only 6 worlds in the game and also a little heavy on minigames, it's fun to run around, collect all the things and learn all the moves. It's probably better than it should be for what it is!
This is a good game that falls victim to the constraints of its hardware. If it were in actual 3D so you could tell what was going on, it would be a gem. But unfortunately, a 3D platformer without any way to approximate depth perception or change camera angles is ultimately more frustrating than it's worth.
I'll admit when I first saw this game I expected it to be another isometric game where you can barely tell what's going on half of the time, but the devs over at rare understood the system's hardware and made sure that everything was viewable and nothing was unfairly hidden out of sight. This was a fun little time, I can always count on Banjo to give me a solid collectathon experience and this was no exception. Was pleasantly surprised with this one, completed it in under 4 hours, not a very long game but it doesn't need to be given the hardware.
This review contains spoilers
It's banjo but more linear and without the 3D element. It's pretty fun to play through. I have some major complaints at the final boss though where the random minigames can just be a bad selection and kill you despite your minigame skill level.
A very overlooked and underrated game in the Banjo Series. It's got it's problems and quirks, but if you want a new portable Banjo experience, this game may just be a nice surprise for you. The game goes for a semi topdown view, but still very much feels like a Banjo Kazooie game, just shorter. There are a couple of headache inducing challenges, and the constant recycling of mini games can get a bit tedious, but it doesn't takeaway the fact that all in all it's still a quick and breezy playthrough. I highly recommend checking it out if you've never tried it before.
this was fine! charming graphics, an alright soundtrack (probably the worst of the banjo games but also it's a gba game like what do u want), and surprisingly well translated controls all lead to a pretty fun time.
the isometric camera angle is a little odd at times, a bit hard to know what's background and what isn't and if you can jump on specific platforms but otherwise it works well. the worlds were all okay, but bad magic bayou, and especially spiller's harbor were just frustrating and unfun. the rest were good, nothing super special but solid. i liked all the little mini games, and the bosses were alright too. i will say the final boss was a bit much, i only died once, but it's like 5 phases long and if you die at any phase you have to not only restart the fight, but also redo the puzzle to get into the fight! that's just obnoxious!
this game was silly and fun but not a must play or anything. mostly carried by the charm of banjo as a series, and if you don't fuck with that you probably will not have a very good time at all.
the isometric camera angle is a little odd at times, a bit hard to know what's background and what isn't and if you can jump on specific platforms but otherwise it works well. the worlds were all okay, but bad magic bayou, and especially spiller's harbor were just frustrating and unfun. the rest were good, nothing super special but solid. i liked all the little mini games, and the bosses were alright too. i will say the final boss was a bit much, i only died once, but it's like 5 phases long and if you die at any phase you have to not only restart the fight, but also redo the puzzle to get into the fight! that's just obnoxious!
this game was silly and fun but not a must play or anything. mostly carried by the charm of banjo as a series, and if you don't fuck with that you probably will not have a very good time at all.
Banjo-Kazooie in a bite-sized package! Whether you are a fan of collect-a-thons or goofy cartoon bears, Banjo-Kazooie is a series that, more often than not, delivers an enjoyable experience. Grunty's Revenge is no exception, being the third entry into the series and serving as the iconic duo's foray into the handheld world. As a fan of the series, finding out there were more Jiggies and Notes to collect left a smile on my face. Other fans will share a similar grin, but if the franchise is not one of your favorites, sadly, the game will be mediocre in terms of length and difficulty. Not every Gameboy Advanced title needs to be 10+ hours long, but coming in at a whopping 5 hours of playtime on the first playthrough, even a hardcore Banjo enthusiast will want more.
Rareware efficiently captures the core mechanics of the original and sequel, culminating in an isometric 2.5D platformer that takes place between the games. Gruntilda's lackey Klungo has created a giant mech suit capable of being inhabited by the witch's ghost for her to travel back to the past to prevent the events of the first game. The hag even kidnaps Kazooie! An inspired plot to say the least. Banjo has to travel back to the distant past to save his feathered friend, but during the trip, he loses his memory regarding the repertoire of moves learned from the titular N64 title. Some abilities stay forgotten, like the ability to fly once the brash-beaked companion makes her return, and others get altered somewhat, like Wonderwings requiring a designated pad along with golden feathers to use.
This change is disappointing since an iconic move does not appear until World 4 of a five World game, with the other omitted. Maybe the developers had hardware limitations, but regardless, the move pool felt shallow. Truthfully, most of the game is beatable by utilizing a mixture of the roll and the Talon Trot between moments of forced mechanic implementation. There were never times when the other moves felt necessary.
Equally shallow were the minigames - reskinned versions of either fishing, sliding, or keep away, none of which are overtly enjoyable. Spotty controls tend to make these games, along with some platforming sections, outright agitating. However, the most frustrating element of the entire game is learning that a max rank requires a player to defeat the final boss while finding all collectibles in under 2 hours and 20 minutes. A reasonable goal for the well-informed but ultimately compels a casual completionist into a forced second playthrough.
Issues aside, Grunty's Revenge is a pleasant addition to a beloved franchise long since left to the annals of gaming history (besides the Smash Ultimate DLC). Every quip and rhyme harkened to halcyon days spent nabbing Jiggies in front of a buzzing CRT. Even the music elicits memories of Grant Kirkhope's iconic soundtracks, even without his inclusion. It may have gotten released in 2003, but in 2023 it was a nostalgic surprise and simultaneously a disheartening cap end to an era of Rareware titles on Nintendo consoles, one that evaded this longtime fan's radar far too long. Seek this title out, core fans of the series (casuals, best to pass), and enjoy a brief reminder as to why the bear and the bird hold a special place in the hearts of thousands of players.
Rareware efficiently captures the core mechanics of the original and sequel, culminating in an isometric 2.5D platformer that takes place between the games. Gruntilda's lackey Klungo has created a giant mech suit capable of being inhabited by the witch's ghost for her to travel back to the past to prevent the events of the first game. The hag even kidnaps Kazooie! An inspired plot to say the least. Banjo has to travel back to the distant past to save his feathered friend, but during the trip, he loses his memory regarding the repertoire of moves learned from the titular N64 title. Some abilities stay forgotten, like the ability to fly once the brash-beaked companion makes her return, and others get altered somewhat, like Wonderwings requiring a designated pad along with golden feathers to use.
This change is disappointing since an iconic move does not appear until World 4 of a five World game, with the other omitted. Maybe the developers had hardware limitations, but regardless, the move pool felt shallow. Truthfully, most of the game is beatable by utilizing a mixture of the roll and the Talon Trot between moments of forced mechanic implementation. There were never times when the other moves felt necessary.
Equally shallow were the minigames - reskinned versions of either fishing, sliding, or keep away, none of which are overtly enjoyable. Spotty controls tend to make these games, along with some platforming sections, outright agitating. However, the most frustrating element of the entire game is learning that a max rank requires a player to defeat the final boss while finding all collectibles in under 2 hours and 20 minutes. A reasonable goal for the well-informed but ultimately compels a casual completionist into a forced second playthrough.
Issues aside, Grunty's Revenge is a pleasant addition to a beloved franchise long since left to the annals of gaming history (besides the Smash Ultimate DLC). Every quip and rhyme harkened to halcyon days spent nabbing Jiggies in front of a buzzing CRT. Even the music elicits memories of Grant Kirkhope's iconic soundtracks, even without his inclusion. It may have gotten released in 2003, but in 2023 it was a nostalgic surprise and simultaneously a disheartening cap end to an era of Rareware titles on Nintendo consoles, one that evaded this longtime fan's radar far too long. Seek this title out, core fans of the series (casuals, best to pass), and enjoy a brief reminder as to why the bear and the bird hold a special place in the hearts of thousands of players.
My status:
(60 Jiggies, 600 Music Notes, Time: 4:14:21, January 6, 2017)
(60 Jiggies, 600 Music Notes, Time: 4:14:21, January 6, 2017)
They really tried to make a legit Banjo game for the GBA. Not every part works (the platforming has some perspective issues, and the mini-games in particular are pretty annoying), but the spirit and charm of the originals is mostly here. Overall a very endearing little game.
When people rant and rave about how good the Banjo-Kazooie series was "until nuts and bolts", I always wonder why they forget to mention this one. I didn't think it was anything special, and I liked the first one. Do people forget or not know that this one exists, or do they like it?
I think doing everything in this game is a lot more frustrating than the first one. The platforming is really janky with the perspective they chose to put the game camera at. They also shove in a few of these mini games that are more frustrating than fun to complete. All of the areas are way less charming too, although it's funny that Grunty's come back yet again but as a giant mecha robot this time. It just wasn't the game for me, unfortunately.
I think doing everything in this game is a lot more frustrating than the first one. The platforming is really janky with the perspective they chose to put the game camera at. They also shove in a few of these mini games that are more frustrating than fun to complete. All of the areas are way less charming too, although it's funny that Grunty's come back yet again but as a giant mecha robot this time. It just wasn't the game for me, unfortunately.