Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge is a 2003 platform game developed by Rare and published by THQ for the Game Boy Advance (GBA). It is the third installment in the Banjo-Kazooie series and takes place between the events of the Nintendo 64 games Banjo-Kazooie (1998) and Banjo-Tooie (2000). In Grunty's Revenge, the evil witch Gruntilda travels back in time to prevent the events of Banjo-Kazooie from happening, and the bear Banjo and his bird friend Kazooie set out to stop her. Grunty's Revenge retains the focus on collecting items and most of the other game mechanics from its predecessors, but is presented in 2D rather than 3D. Aside from the main game, players can also access minigames such as fishing and target shooting.
Rare began to plan Grunty's Revenge in August 1999. At this time, it was titled Grunty's Curse and was planned for release on the Game Boy Color, and featured a different plot. Rare was working on the game's sprites when production halted in late 1999, but it was revived after Nintendo released the GBA. It was the first game in the series to not be published by Nintendo; Nintendo rival Microsoft's purchase of Rare in 2002 did not affect their plans to develop the game; Microsoft negotiated a deal with THQ to publish Grunty's Revenge alongside Rare's other GBA projects. The game was released for the GBA in September 2003 and a port for mobile phones was released by In-Fusio in June 2005. Grunty's Revenge received mixed reviews; although its visual style and gameplay were praised and favourably compared to those of the N64 games, its low difficulty, short length, and story were criticised.
Gameplay
thumb|left|Banjo, the [[player character, explores one of Grunty's Revenges levels.]]
Like its Nintendo 64 (N64) predecessors Banjo-Kazooie (1998) and Banjo-Tooie (2000), Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge is an adventure platformer The player must control the player characters, the bear Banjo and his bird friend Kazooie, through several levels. Production lasted four years and began in August 1999, a year before the release of Banjo-Tooie Although it was developed and released on the GBA, Grunty's Revenge was initially planned for the system's predecessor, the Game Boy Color. Grunty's Curse was to feature more levels and power-ups than Grunty's Revenge. Rare was working on the game's sprites when production halted in late 1999.
Production restarted after Nintendo released the GBA. Rare retitled the game Grunty's Revenge It was announced and showcased along with Rare's other GBA games they were working on at the time at E3 2001. In 2002, Microsoft, who had entered the gaming industry with the Xbox a year prior, acquired Rare. Despite this, development of Grunty's Revenge continued, as the game was nearly finished and Microsoft did not have a handled system at the time. In 2003, Microsoft collaborated with THQ to publish Rare's GBA projects, including Grunty's Revenge, a remake of Sabre Wulf (2004), Banjo spinoff Banjo-Pilot (2005), and It's Mr. Pants (2005). The game was released in North America on 15 September 2003 and in Europe on 24 October. It was Rare's first game after the Microsoft buyout