Video Game Ending Rants: Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge

Back when Rare was a company that could do no wrong, they made games that were brilliant in every way, right up to the endings. Two of their best endings came in Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie. The former introduced the mysterious Stop and Swop feature, while the latter included a funny kick around with Gruntilda the witch's head. If those endings were any indication, one would assume that the ending to Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge, the first of two Game Boy Advance entries in the series, would likewise have an epic finale. Unfortunately, we would end up getting a mediocre conclusion that feels generic and proves that by this point, Rare was gradually losing the knack of creating wonderful, memorable endings.

It begins after our heroes, Banjo and Kazooie, succeed in defeating the ghost of Gruntilda, who had spent much of the game controlling a mechanical version of herself. The ghost flails around for a bit before vanishing, and Banjo, satisfied that his archenemy has been defeated once again, declares that he and Kazooie should now go see Mumbo Jumbo the shaman so that they could return to their present time. Yes, most of the game supposedly takes place in the past, where Grunty hoped to alter history and prevent Banjo and Kazooie from defeating her the first time. The problem is that there is little in the game to actually suggest that the adventure takes place in the past. Not very many younger versions or ancestors of various characters from the Banjo games can be found, nor is there a sense of urgency that Grunty has to be stopped before she changes history forever. Rare could have worked on the time travel aspect a little more to change all of that, but for whatever reason, they did not do so.

Meanwhile, Grunty's ghost has somehow returned to the present, and promptly returns to being trapped underneath a heavy boulder. She immediately calls for her assistant, Klungo, and tells him that, rather than getting himself hurt by trying to move the boulder, he should inform her sisters, Mingella and Blobbelda, about Grunty's plight and ask them to rescue her. This sets up the story for Banjo-Tooie, but since Grunty's Revenge takes place two months after Banjo-Kazooie and twenty-two months prior to Banjo-Tooie, why would it take her sisters so long to come to Grunty's aid? Do they spend all that time constructing the Big O'Blaster, designed to suck the life out of everyone on the Isle O'Hags? Did they need that long to build the giant Hag 1 drill, or to master the levitation spell that destroys the boulder? Also, if Grunty's ghost can escape from the boulder, why does she not simply do it again before her sisters come to help her? Unless her spirit can only exist outside of something for so long, I cannot think of any other reason.

Back in the past, Banjo and Kazooie find Mumbo, who predictably praises them for defeating Grunty, adding that they would not have done it without his help. He then sends then back to their original time, where they find that the Jinjos have come to thank them for saving them all and for ridding the land of Grunty. Also congratulating them for their hard work is Honey B, the bee who upgrades Banjo's health meter as he finds empty honeycombs. She adds that the present has not changed and the future looks good, though the whole experience has had no effect on Mumbo, who is walking with her. After everyone leaves, Banjo decides that now is a good time to call his friends over for a game of cards, which also sets the stage for Banjo-Tooie, as they are playing cards at the start of that game before Grunty returns to seek revenge.

Having our heroes congratulated for saving history is all well and good, but it makes for a pretty boring ending. Also, if Honey B knows our heroes in this adventure, then she must have some kind of short term memory since she does not recognize them in Banjo-Tooie, nor do Banjo and Kazooie remember her. I know that Tooie was released before Grunty's Revenge, but the lack of continuity here is a bit jarring. Additionally, the card game that hints at the events of Tooie tell me that, in the event that Rare forgot that the sequel would not happen for another 22 months, the "new" (Tooie was nearly three years old by the time Grunty's Revenge came out) adventure would take place much sooner than it was supposed to, and if that were the case, than it would indicate that Rare would have no idea what is was talking about.

Surely Rare would make up for all of the generic features of the ending with one last portion that would redeem it. Sadly, instead of a Stop and Swop reference or a hilarious kick around, we get a short sequence of Mumbo and Honey B preparing to do something called a "bee dance", which we never see. This is followed by a screen that gives you a rank of four or five Jiggies, depending on how well you played the game. You get a rank of five Jiggies only if you find all of the game's collectibles and beat the game in under 2 1/2 hours, which is not all that difficult if you become proficient enough with the game. Otherwise, you receive a rank of four Jiggies by collecting everything and taking longer than 2 1/2 hours to finish the game. What saddens me about the rank system is that having to beat the game with everything in such a short amount of time only shows how Rare was not really trying to create a solid Banjo game this time. Its predecessors offered countless hours of fun and challenging tasks, so why did Grunty's Revenge fail to do the same?

The final part of the ending has Banjo on a slide as the credits roll, and the player will need to collect as many coins as possible while avoiding obstacles and using zippers to gain a speed boost. This results in a mixed bag. On the one hand, being able to interact with the action during the credits instead of merely watching them is a neat idea, and has been pulled off nicely in other games, as well. On the other hand, it is impossible to pick up all of the coins the first time, and you will need to beat the game again to try and collect some more (you can defeat the final boss as many times as you wish). You need not bother doing so, however, unless you wish to unlock the option of playing the eight rather lackluster mini games as much as you like. That's right...for every twenty coins that you collect, you unlock a mini game that is rather boring compared to those found in previous Banjo games. This reward seems hardly worth the effort.

I was hoping for a great ending to make up for the game's rather mediocre features, but it was not to be. Much of the ending feels generic and boring, and is lacking of any nice surprises. The efforts to set up the story for Banjo-Tooie seem a little weak, and the Jiggy rank system and its requirements of beating the game quickly and with everything to get the maximum rank make me feel that the game was rushed out to cash in on the success of the Nintendo 64 games. The slide mini game at the end, while a neat idea, fails in its execution when you realize that you are trying to unlock the generic mini games that you played in the main adventure. Rare could have added a hilarious sequence, or try and deepen the Stop and Swop mystery, in order to redeem the entire ending. Unfortunately, they failed to do so, and as a result, this is one Banjo game that hardly seems worth all the trouble of collecting every last item.

My understanding is that there is something of a "bad" ending that you can get if you beat the game without picking up everything, but I tend to always skip it by picking up all of the important items. In that ending, when Mumbo sends you back to the present, he messes up the spell a little, and as a result, when our heroes return home, they encounter several Banjo clones! I admit that the sequence sounds entertaining, but at the same time, it makes the real ending seem all the more generic. When the "bad" ending turns out to be better than the "good" ending, you know that something is amiss. If Rare did something that was similarly humorous for the real ending, it would have surely turned out to be much better.

I was looking forward to Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge since it was announced in 2001, and by the time I had finished it, I was disappointed. While the game did have its moments, it was brought down by mediocre features, especially the ending. Rare failed to put in a lot of effort into the game's conclusion, and consequently, it was a let down, especially compared to the clever endings of the previous Banjo games. Yes, we received closure to the game's story, but at the cost of having it not be entertaining or interesting in the least. This is yet another ending that Rare should be ashamed of, and one more reason why they seemed to have jumped the shark. Banjo's first hand held adventure deserved a better ending that this.