Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge: The Beta Version We Never Saw

Having enjoyed Banjo and Kazooie's Nintendo 64 games immensely, I was quite disappointed when their first hand held game, Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge, was a bit of a letdown. It was not a terrible game by any means, but it was too short, too easy, and lacking the charm that the previous games had. Perhaps when Rare made the move to Microsoft, they decided, for whatever reason, to turn the game into a weak entry in the Banjo series. I have wondered what the game might have been like if Rare had stayed with Nintendo. Well, thanks to a YouTube user named transparentjinjo, we have a series of videos that showed what the game was like while Rare and Nintendo were still close. Here, I shall give you the highlights of the videos that will give you an idea of what might have been. The highlights are as follows...

-There is no opening cut scene like in the final game, presumably because Rare had not yet programmed it into the game. It is likely that the scene would have been similar to that shown in the final version, except it would have pointed out that the adventure took place in an alternate time line. You see, the game was originally intended to occur in place of the events of Banjo-Tooie as if the latter game never happened. Ultimately, the game ended up taking place in between the Nintendo 64 games.

-The game opens with a Nintendo logo, which is proof that the beta version is from the time that Rare and Nintendo were together. The final game was published by THQ.

-Various bits of dialog would be left mostly intact, but in some instances, they were worded a bit differently in the beta version.

-When enemies died, a ghost would be left behind briefly, then vanish. I guess Rare wanted to tone down their deaths for the final version.

-Whiplashes would shrink when defeated.

-In the mini game where you had to catch more Snowies (snowflake-like creatures) than your opponents, the mouses' voices sound different than they did in the final version.

-Mumbo Totems were now simply placed near Mumbo's Skull, similar to how Glowbos were located near Mumbo's Skull and Wumba's Wigwam in Banjo-Tooie. You did not need to fight a boss to earn them.

-When you lose all of your health, the game over screen was simply a dark screen with the words "game over" and the options to either continue or quit the current game. Instead of the game over music heard in the final game, the title screen music would be heard.

-When you continue the current game, any eggs or feathers you had collected would be lost. Maybe Rare had yet to make it so that you would keep any eggs and feathers you had picked up.

-Freezing Furnace is actually split into two levels in the beta version. The icy section was known as Freezing Fjord, and the fiery section, called Grunty Industries in the final version, was called Fiery Furnace.

-In Freezing Fjord, the cave that led to the Snowies mini game led to a cave not seen in the final game. The entrance to the mini game was placed elsewhere. Additionally, Freezing Fjord has a number of different puzzles that were ultimately removed, including one that was similar to a puzzle in Treasure Trove Cove in the first game where you had to Beak Bust a series of Xes in order to find buried treasure.

-Perhaps the most interesting feature is the appearance of a younger version of Boggy the polar bear from the Nintendo 64 games. As in the first game, he has lost his sled and needs Banjo and Kazooie's help to get it back. There is even a hint of the race that the characters will have in the future. This is proof that Rare wanted to include more younger versions of various characters from the Nintendo 64 games, but for some reason, this did not happen. Personally, I think the sequence with Boggy is really cute, and it really makes me wish that Rare did include younger versions of other characters, as it would have made the game feel more like it took place in the past.

-When you reach Bozzeye's molehill, the amount of notes that you have know as well as the number of notes needed to learn the new move is not shown. Rare had likely yet to program that into the game.

-One move that was deleted from the final version is the ability to fly. As in previous games, you would collect red feathers and take off from flight pads, using feathers to fly higher. It looks as if flying in a game with an isometric view would have seemed slightly awkward, but I still wish Rare would have kept it in, as not having the bear and bird fly makes the game even less of a Banjo title.

-When Mumbo changes you into something for the first time, he does not explain the new spell to you.

-Fiery Furnace is like a much larger version of Grunty Industries from the final game...it even has the same music. However, it has areas and tasks that would be taken out of the final version. Some exceptions include the gold nugget side quest and using a Shock Spring Pad to reach a Jiggy atop a series of crates.

-Fiery Furnace also has a lot of unfinished graphics, and thus was more of a work in progress than the other worlds in the videos. I suppose Rare decided to merge this world with Freezing Fjord, changing its name and deleting a lot of features from both worlds in the process, rather than finishing it.

-An orange-colored version of Biggafoot is seen in Fiery Furnace, and does not show up in the final game.

-In Spiller's Harbor, there was a mission in which, as the octopus, you could dive underwater and protect a dolphin from various enemies. In the final game, the octopus can still dive underwater, but the technique is never needed. In fact, you only dive underwater three times in the first couple of worlds, and never again afterward.

Upon watching these videos, I got the sense that Rare truly wanted to make this game at least as good as the Nintendo 64 games, if not better. Including more moves, more worlds, and more younger versions of favorite characters would have surely improved the game to some extent. The game still seems to be easy overall, but if Rare could make it as fun as it was shaping up to be at the time, this may not have mattered too much. I guess that once Rare left Nintendo and became a part of Microsoft, for whatever reason they ended up changing and removing a lot of features, and as a result, the game changed for the worse. While I am pleased that the game was released at all, as it was presumed canceled after Rare left Nintendo only for THQ to acquire the publishing rights to the game, I still wish that it was released while Rare and Nintendo were still close, because then it would have been one of the best Game Boy Advance games of all time.

If you wish to see these videos for yourself and see what Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge would have, and should have, been like, visit this channel:

http://www.youtube.com/user/transparentjinjo

There are a total of seven videos: one that shows the start of the game without the opening cut scene, two taking place in Freezing Fjord, three showing the various portions of Fiery Furnace, and one devoted to the protection mission in Spiller's Harbor. Watch these videos, and be amazed at how the game used to be like before Rare left Nintendo. Maybe you, too, will agree that the game should have become more like it was in the beta version, and less like it was in the final version.