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).