Home Games Boss Rush – Banjo Kazooie (N64)

Boss Rush – Banjo Kazooie (N64)

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Welcome to week two of Boss Rush, the series that profiles the world of video games most fiendish foes.
This time we’re moving up one console generation from 16 to 64 bits with another title from the developers at RareWare. Banjo Kazooie is the very first 3D adventure game made by the developer and was once classified as Project Dream. It is the story of an unlikely pairing. A Bear and a Bird traversing different lands to put a stop to the tyranny of a wicked witch. Which witch in question?

Gruntilda

None fairer. None wiser. None better, of course! A villain of vanity and…little remorse.
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Old Grunty is the spark that ignites the flames of our heroes adventuring spirit.The journey of the pair known collectively as Banjo Kazooie becomes thrust upon them one fine day when they find out that this nasty wench has ensnared Banjo’s younger sister, Tooty. The oblivious young Tooty is taken away due to the jealousy of the hot tempered witch. Grunty knows a secret all about the girls true calling told by her magic cauldron, Dingpot. A prophecy of sorts has been revealed. It is declared that Banjos sister is truly the fairest in all of the lands. This information is what incites the rage of the magical mistress leading to her seeking to harvest the youthful looks from the blonde beauty for herself.
Gruntilda is a long running antagonist in The Banjo Kazooie series. Her goal has shifted over the times, but the general concept of her lust for youthful looks has stayed throughout her tenure. The intent of the character was to make a tongue-in-cheek parody of typical evil female characters in fiction. Her appearance is in direct reference to The Wicked Witch of The West from The Wizard of Oz.
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Her motivations are directly based upon the fairy tale of Sleeping  Beauty. The twist in Gruntilda’s role compared to others of the same variety comes primarily from her unique personality. She plays the constant comedic foil to the games heroes. A rare trait to be seen in a female protagonist in any form of media.
The witches trademark is her boisterous and boastful nature. In terms of bosses, she is one of the few who will openly taunt the player throughout the entire duration of a game. A quirky aspect of her character that is coupled well with her sharp tongue is her need to rhyme every sentence she speaks. Often times she will spout memorable quips and quotable slews of comments that often reveal too much information about her plans. The information that she reveals to the player is occasionally useful in the long term. The reason given behind her spouting out such precious knowledge about herself is accounted to the arrogance of the character.  A constant patronising tone is found in Gruntilda’s manner.
A major strength in my mind is that her character is blissfully ignorant when it comes to estimating her enemies. Strength in the sense that it is well written flaw in terms of being a plot device. Naturally, we can assume that when Grunty spills the beans about herself that this is a quick means for the game to give you tips on how to beat the boss. The clever part in this is by virtue of the company formerly known as RareWare using it as a character fault — thus they add a layer of character development to her personality – overconfidence.
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Behind her humorous and smug side is a heart of stone. Despite the childish gleeful gestures of teasing the games player, there is never an indication that there is a good natured element to the character. Peppered on top of her kidnapping crime is a smattering of abuse to all who serve under her. There is many implied beatings of her subordinates to get them to do her bidding exactly to her required tastes. One such task allocated to her minions is the abduction of creatures known as the Jinjos. When Banjo and Kazooie arrive on different levels they help these creatures by freeing them. The connotation behind this is a decidedly interesting one to add to the eclectric mix of traits Gruntilda has.

This is a female character who will consistently break the fourth wall in her speeches, cares only of her appearance, has an unrelenting sadistic quality about her and makes poems about these aspects of herself as often as she can. Gruntilda is a wonderful character. Perhaps not a great representation of women, but definitely a great representation of what a complex villain truly should be regardless of gender.
The final showdown with her at the end of Banjo Kazooie closes in a suitably epic fashion as you toss eggs at her whilst she takes flight on her magic broom. The music accompanying the battle mixes songs from previous levels of the game and gives them a more sinister and manic edge to each note. The theme lends beautifully to a complex and thoroughly enjoyable character.
Lets hope the company formerly known as RareWare give us a new Banjo game someday (in the same vein as the old) where we might get a fresh glimpse of this gruesome but deadly “femme fatale” once again.

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