Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge Critic Reviews

A fine mix of adventure, puzzle and mini-games that all end up falling into place gracefully.

Enjoyable, simple, and compelling enough that you will want to play all the way through; finding every Jiggy and Jingo along the way. Unfortunately the journey is so short that Banjo-Kazooie veterans will be able to finish the game in its entirety in four or five hours.

What makes Grunty's Revenge work so well is that it never becomes boring or overly repetitive.

Every level offers new challenges and new abilities, so the quest continues evolving and new areas are continuously unlocked.

Sure the story is extremely weak and the boss battles prove to be more of an annoying distraction rather than a challenge, but it is, overall, the best conversion of a brilliant N64 game on the GBA.

Even though the plot is weak, the game design isn't; Rare's first GBA title is just as deep and extensive as the original Banjo-Kazooie game released on the Nintendo 64.

If you enjoyed the original Banjo-Kazooie games, you will enjoy Grunty's Revenge. If you didn't like the original games, you probably won't like Grunty's Revenge. It's that simple.

As good as the skeleton may be, the substance just isn't there.

A bad thing about the enemies though is that while they do change from world to world, they are still limited with the total number of 14 enemies being seen and there also being a few types of enemies that are seen in every world.

It isn't an outright revolutionary game but it has a lot of charm. The vibrant graphics and animations really spruced up the presentation of the title. Younger players will find the quaint story attractive.

Although the straight-on overhead view makes it difficult to judge the height of platforms, the overall game play is fast-paced and enjoyable.

Like "Wario World" before it, Banjo Kazooie on the GBA burns ever so brightly during the entire game because it has the class and quality about it in design, gameplay and aesthetics. It is just a pity that it burns ever so shortly as a result.

It has crisp sound, good graphics, and an ok game to play. The game will be good for a month, but unless you're a hardcore fan of the BK series, you might wanna pass.

No multi-player, recycled levels and a relatively short game by any standards is reason enough not to own this game.

May not be the best Banjo Kazooie, nor is it very long, but it's sure to be enjoyed by BK fans and any person who is looking for a fun little game to play on their GBAs. If you didn't like the first two games, then chances are you won't like Grunty's Revenge.

While Banjo and Kazooie have a healthy variety of moves and attacks, the short nature of the quest combined with the almost obsessive-compulsive focus on grabbing items means that players will hardly get a chance to enjoy what the characters can do.

Generally a good game by Advance standards, but practically all of the series' charm and sophistication is lost without complete use of the third dimension.

For those few short hours the title doesn't really involve much more than collecting, leaping and basic problem solving. The plot doesn't interfere much, and as such the time travel element that could have been used to good effect is cast aside as just another excuse for all Banjo's hard work.

Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge answers the very question that it poses: N64 into GBA doesn't fit.

The isometric view means that you can frequently get stuck behind things or die because you misjudged distance and/or height.