Gruntz

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Gruntz is a puzzle/strategy game for the PC, released in February 1999 by Monolith Productions.

[edit] Story

Below is the story from the game's instruction manual

One Fine Day in the Land of Groan

As always, it was a beautiful day in the land of Groan. The King and his clan of Gruntz were out on the hill playing with their Toyz. The King himself was taking a break from all his kingly duties so that he could enjoy the day with the rest of his clan. Grumley had just gotten a new beach ball that day, and was happily playing with it on the hill. The entire day was picture perfect until Grumley lost his beach ball in the nearby bushez. As he dove in to the bushez to retrieve the beach ball, Grumley noticed three strange Purple Switchez in the ground. Having no idea what the Purple Switchez were, he called out to the other Gruntz to come and have a look, and then went back to playing with his beach ball.

Grumley stumbles onto the Purple Switchez

Nobody had ever seen anything quite like the strange Purple Switchez before. The King was extremely curious as to the purpose of the strange devicez, so he ordered Grimley, Gromley, and Grumley to jump onto the three Purple Switchez. When the King gave the command, Grimley and Gromley quickly jumped onto two of the Switchez. As you might imagine, nothing happened. Everyone’s attention was soon diverted to Grumley who had gone back to playing with his beach ball rather than playing attention and jumping onto the third Switch. As soon as the King realized this, he shouted at Grumley in order to get his attention. Grumley was so happy to be reunited with his beach ball, that he didn’t even hear the King shouting. The King, who was quite angry by now, walked over and used his scepter to whack Grumley in the back causing him to drop his beach ball and to stumble onto the third Switch.

The Disgruntled

What the King and his clan didn’t know is that a group of evil Gruntz known as the Disgruntled were quietly hiding in the nearby treez and watching. A typical day in the life of a Disgruntled consisted of work, combat training, and then more work. Seeing the King and his clan always out playing with Toyz and enjoying themselves made the Disgruntled extremely jealous. Since the King and his clan had no weaponz to defend themselves with, the leader of Disgruntled found this day as the perfect opportunity to launch a surprise attack on them. Armed with various weaponz, the Disgruntled stayed just out of view and anxiously waited for their leader’s command to attack.

The Magical Wormhole

As Grumley stumbled onto the third Switch, his beach ball started bouncing down the hill heading towards a strange stone structure that nobody had ever really paid any attention to before. As soon as all three Switches were pressed, the front of the strange stone structure at the bottom of the hill started to open revealing a swirling magical wormhole inside! Their jawz dropped. That made two thingz in one day that nobody had ever seen before! As the Gruntz were all marveling at the wormhole, Grumley, totally unaware of the miraculous eventz that had just transpired, was running down the hill chasing after his beach ball. As Grumley was catching up to the beach ball, he saw the ball bounce right into the center of the wormhole and disappear. Without even hesitating or thinking about where the wormhole might take him, Grumley continued to run down the hill and dove into the wormhole hoping to save his beach ball.

The Conflict

Seeing the King and his clan still in awe of the great wormhole, the leader of the Disgruntled issued the attack command. Within secondz, there were Gruntz running in every direction. Since the King and his clan did not anticipate this attack, they soon found themselves totally surrounded by the Disgruntled. In a desperate attempt to save themselves from certain doom, the King and his clan fled down the hill towards the wormhole. The Disgruntled could feel victory in their handz as they chased the King and his clan down the hill. The King realized that the wormhole was their only hope at this point, so he ordered his clan to jump in. As the King and his clan jumped in, the wormhole began to close. Not willing to let the King and his clan get away, many of the Disgruntled jumped into the wormhole before it closed.

The Journey Home

Where would the wormhole take them all? Would they ever be able to get home again? What about the Disgruntled? Would the King and his clan run into them along the way? You’ll have to play the game to find out!

[edit] Gameplay

Gruntz is a puzzle/strategy game where players must solve a variety of puzzles and/or tasks to complete the game. The playing field consists of an overhead view of a map, which you must guide your gruntz through. Moving requires the player to select a grunt and then click on the desired location on the map. Gruntz can receive a variety of items which they must use to get through the levelz. Toolz can be used for a specific ability which that tool gives, or to use in battle against enemy gruntz. In addition to toolz, toyz can be used against enemy Gruntz to force them to stop and play with the toy for a given amount of time, while you sneak by them.

There are two playing modes in Gruntz, Questz and Battlez. Questz is a single player mode which consists of puzzles and obstacles in which you must guide your Gruntz through. To win, each level consists of a warpstone which you must take to your King to end the level. Battlez is a multiplayer mode where up to four players can compete against each other in a free-for-all game in which you must protect your fort against opposing grunt teams from taking it over. The last player standing is the winner.

There are plenty of custom levels (over 200) available at [1]GooRoo's Gruntz Forum, if you get bored with the standards.