Back in the early 90’s a three way system war as on. At the time the market was still dominated by the mighty NES. However the upstart Genesis was starting to take a hold on the market with it’s 16 bit graphics and sound. While these two giants battled it out a third company entered the market with their entry. It was Designed by Hudson and built and manufactured by NEC it was the mighty Turbografx-16. When NEC and Hudson launched the system they knew they needed a system seller. At the time Mascot games were huge. While Nintendo had Mario and Sega had Alex Kidd (sonic wouldn’t come around until later. NEC needed a mascot for their fledgling system they found one in a loveable blockhead.
Not that Blockhead this one
is it me or does bonk look a lot like Charlie brown in game?
Bonk’s Adventure was the first game in the series starting the big headed cave boy. His quest was simple rescue his friends from King Drool. The game was an action platform game that had you jumping, Climbing trees with your teeth and smashing enemies with your big head. Power ups included collection Smiley faces to get 1-ups and eating meat to become more powerful. Eat enough meat you go into a fit of rage and become invincible. The game was a runaway success and took the little cave boy and thrust him into gaming superstardom. He was now the face for the T-16.
Bonk’s Revenge was released in 1991. This time King Drool decided that kidnapping Bonk’s friends were so passé and decided to steal half the moon!. It was up to bonk to head bang his way into space in order to get it back. This game started a bit of a rift in the fledgling franchise because Bonk’s trademark spinning head but was slowed down a lot. the game had also taken a jump in graphic quality as everything was a lot more colorful. Also he had a power up that turned him into a butt head… literally.
Bonk’s success sparked an Idea at Hudson and Red (the team behind the bonk Franchise) why not take two popular things and them together thus the Bonk RPG project started. With RPGs being huge in Japan Hudson thought that taking the popular mascot and putting him into an RPG would be a great idea. However for unknown reasons the project was canceled. It’s sort of funny when you think that Bonk RPG started an idea that would later result in Super Mario RPG. That being the mascot RPG.
Air Zonk came out as the T-16 tried to redefine it’s self. At that time the T-16 was getting it’s ass beat down by both Sega and Nintendo. NEC had what it thought was an ace up it’s sleeve as they re-released the T-16 as the Turbo Duo. They had combined the Main System and the CD add-on at a lower price than buying them separate. To commemorate this and show they had a new attitude akin to Sega’s now famous Sonic they decided to let Bonk’s Descendant take center stage. The game was a Shooter where Zonk could power up with by combining with his friends to create more devastating shots. Your powering up friends included a magician, a puffer fish, a flying dump truck and a big old missile. The game was met with much hurrah but unfortunately sales of the title slumped. NEC decided to go back to old hat.
Awe isn’t the mini butthead cute..
Bonk 3 Bonk’s big adventure was released at the end of the T-16’s life cycle and was made as both a HU-card and a CD version. This game bonk was on another quest to stroll king drool form doing evil. However this was bonk’s Big and little adventure as you could get power up’s that made you huge or tiny depending on the what you might need at the time. The game was produced in limited runs and fetches a hefty price on E-bay.
When the T-16 tanked in 1993 many people thought it was end of the plucky little cave boy that defined that system. However Bonk lived on. His games were ported to the NES and the Gameboy for a new generation of gamers to play. He even made a stop on the SNES.
Bonk’s SNES outing was similar to his last on the T-16 he could eat meat to power up and grow big and small. This time though Bonk was traveling through time and space to stop the evil King Drool again.
Saturn Bomberman is considered by many to be the best Bomberman game ever made. Not only is it a ton of fun but bonk was a character in multiplayer as well. I spent many a night blowing the heck out of my friends as the little caveman and Saturn Bomberman tournaments everywhere always had the chant of Bonk, Bonk, Bonk, Bonk every time he was used in a final.
The original bonk’s adventure saw a remake in Japan as Hudson Selection Vol 3 for the PS2 and Gamecube. It was a complete remark of the original Bonk’s adventure with cell shading for all the characters. Everything was given a visual overhaul as well and Bonk is sporting a little bit of attitude that I am sure is left over from Air Zonk. It plays the same as you remember. However this game never made it to America and that is quite sad as it is a great game and can be imported on the cheep ($21 at play Asia). However if importing is not your thing you can always….
Just download the original game for your Wii. Bonk’s adventure was one of the launch title for the Wii’s virtual console. The game is a classic and is well worth your Wii points.
So discus everyone’s favorite little cave man Mosher!
edit: link removed due to possible TOS problem. my bad sorry about that..
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remember Tomba?
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You had a Jump button and an Attack button. If you were standing and pressed Attack, Bonk would do a small headbutt for a little damage.
If you jumped up and then pressed Attack, Bonk would come crashing back down, headfirst, to the ground to cause a lot of damage should he land on an enemy.
Bonk could also attack an enemy directly above him by simply jumping up and hitting them with his head.
Other attacks include the ability to power up, and then head butt the ground to freeze enemies, or gain an invincibility upgrade.
Never played it. Heard good things, though.
I always envied my older bro. He had a really rich friend, back in the early NES->SNES days. He always would go to his house for parties and come back the next day to tell me all about the consoles and games I never got to see, let alone play. He was the first one to tell me all about the TG16 and about how awesome Bonk's Adventure is. Man, I was jealous. But not as jealous as when his friend got a NeoGeo with Samurai Shodown... man... lucky bastard with a spoiled rich-kid friend...
I remember commercials of Bonk's Adventure on TV, vaguely. I remember the short clips they showed. One of them was of Bonk attacking the first boss. I thought it looked like tons of fun, being able to jump and smash down on enemies' heads.
Finally have a Wii, so now I finally have the game!
It's really good. The ability to bounce around by attacking up/down with the jump and headsmash is an interesting gameplay mechanic when you get good at it, especially in boss fights. I suggest anyone playing Bonk to sort of take their time in the game, getting items and such, more so than say Mario or Sonic. You'll need to retain your lives for the later levels, of which I have not beaten yet. It starts out easy, but the game gets pretty tough, especially the really long level with lava and stuff. 5th world maybe? Or 6th? Something like that.
Good game. Wish they would do something more interesting with the series than release cell phone games. I think they could do some sweet stuff with the DS.
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The thing about Bonk is the rapid fire is absolutely essential for making it fun. We are very lucky Hudson realized this and brought rapid fire to the VC.
By the way, the cell phone game is "just the beginning" according to Hudson.
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There was also an Amiga version, but the site i was browsing doesn't allow hotlinked images and I'm too lazy to rehost.
Is that the jelly thing you were supposed to hit with your head and it changed colors or something? Used to play this all the time when I have the turbo grafix, so much fun
The ice levels were my favorite. When Bonk's revenge gets put on the VC, I will buy it in a heart beat even though I have both the Turbo Duo and Hu-card versions.
Also, about the cell phone games... hudson has been AWESOME lately with cellphones. They've basically revived all their old turbografx franchises on the cellphones. Whats really weird is that they released a port of Wonderboy In Monsterland... with master higgins set in adventure island.
I hope those cell phone games go to the Wii.