
	Platform Turbo-Grafx 16 Genre Platformer Publisher Atlus Developer Hudson Soft Released 1990
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Bonk's Adventure

We all know that Nintendo has Mario, and Sega has Sonic. Consoles need a mascot to represent the console and allow users to identify the company by that one iconic character. In 1990, along with Nintendo and Sega, NEC attempted to associate a mascot with its Turbo-Grafx 16 console. They took a caveman who looked uncomfortably like a encephalitic infant, placed him into an entertaining and diverse platformer, and Bonk was born.

Bonk is a caveman with a huge head that serves as his only weapon. He can simply head-butt his enemies, or he can do a jumping head-butt in which he hits the ground straight on and freezes enemies for a few seconds which allows for subsequent one-hit kills via head-butt. In addition, by jumping on certain flowers, you can find a piece of meat that, depending on size, can make Bonk bigger, stronger, or even cause a little cranial explosion which renders Bonk invincible for a short period of time. It is also possible to find icons that turn Bonk into Mini-Bonk, allowing him to work his way into otherwise inaccessible areas.

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But that is only the beginning. Bonk can bonk practically everything. Enemies, butterflies, flowers, even bonking walls serves a purpose. And with his head as his only weapon, you would think Bonk possessed a limited arsenal of moves. Not true! Bonk can jump, he can do a head-butt jump, the enemy-freezing jump spin mentioned earlier, breathe fire, and fly with the aid of special flowers that carry him up and away. Even with all of these moves, his most

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entertaining maneuver involves climbing. When bonk needs to climb up a cliff or tree, he does it not by grabbing it with his arms and legs and shuffling his way up, but rather by grabbing on with his comically protruding teeth and gnawing his way up! With all of the fatalities and finishing moves and high-speed crashes that have adorned video games over the years, this remains one of the best signature moves of them all.

Bonk bonks his way through five diverse levels, and while this does make the game come out on the short side it sure is a ride the whole way through. You bonk enemies, climb walls, swim through the stomach of a sea monster, traverse deserts, valleys, lava, and underworlds, all on an ill-defined quest that you only figure out upon the completion of the game. Each world is well detailed, with both horizontal and vertical gameplay and a lot of jumping swimming and climbing. Regardless of level, the graphics are colorful, each enemy is comical (notice the sleeping enemies complete with zzz's) and well drawn, and the game provides a bright, cartoony environment in which to bite, bonk, swim and climb.

The music is, well, let's just say it's functional. It makes a serious attempt at complementing the action, however what it actually does is show the limitations of the TG-16's sound processing capabilities. It's not grating and doesn't need to be muted, however it doesn't add to the overall experience either. The sound effects, on the other hand, are all relatively amusing and add real punch to the action on screen. From the skull-based nuclear reaction of Bonk's meat eating to the sound of his teeth biting into the side of a cliff or trunk of a tree, the sound effects really bring the character to life.

Why Bonk is on his adventure is something of a mystery as the story doesn't provide a lot of details, however it seems that his friends, who turn out to be the level bosses, have been corrupted and need a little head-butt to set them back on the right path. The final level presents all the bosses again, and this caused quite a stir as some saw it as a cheap attempt at expanding the overall length of the game, however others saw it as an interesting twist on the standard platforming approach.

Bonk is an entertaining and well-designed platformer that shows off what the TG-16 is all about. It starts out as a standard platformer, but after your first enemy encounter you realize that it is anything butt (get it?). It may come in as short overall, however there are two sequels to satiate your Bonk jonesing, and those build on the original concept. It's a shame that Bonk didn't become as successful as those other two, but that doesn’t mean this game should be missed. In fact, it's quite the opposite.

- Darren

(May 21, 2004)


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