Bonk is awesome

[Anayo]

I played Bonk's Adventure on an emulator on my Nvidia Shield Portable, now I'm playing Bonk's Revenge on an emulator on my homebrew-enabled Wii. I really like this series. The humor and art style have won me over and it makes me kinda sad the Turbo Grafx 16 got steamrolled by Sega and Nintendo. I wouldn't mind seeing a modern Bonk sidescroller with current day graphics and audio.

[marurun]

They tried and it didn't go well. I love Bonk, but he may be an anachronism if he isn't completely reinvented.

[BoneSnapDeez]

I tried the first game on PC Engine last year and absolutely hated it. Boring levels, poor hit detection, goofy and dated protagonist. Maybe the sequels are better but I'm in no rush to try them. I do love the TG16 though.

[marurun]

Bonk's Revenge is more accessible and playing it will probably make you feel better about Adventure.

[mas]

Don't like bonk 3 it's not worth the price and gameplay or game sucks

[Anayo]

I tried the first game on PC Engine last year and absolutely hated it. Boring levels, poor hit detection, goofy and dated protagonist. Maybe the sequels are better but I'm in no rush to try them. I do love the TG16 though.

I kinda liked the goofiness. It made me laugh. I agree about the clunky hit detection, though. Some bosses were almost impossible to beat due to that.

[Tanooki]

It's fun. Over the years I've had it on TG16 (and the 2 sequels), then the NES and now FC versions. I've got the modernized version of the original on Gamecube imported and it's excellent. There's also 3 releases (2 in US) in a Japanese collection cart for gameboy which I have that's awesome. SNES had a couple as well. Bonk got around quite a bit and has been fairly consistent as a good game, not AAA quality, but it's a good B+/A- title.

[Exhuminator]

Well if you enjoy Bonk platformers, there are plenty out there, quite a few sequels and ports galore. Some ports are actually very different games despite sharing the same name. Last year I got hooked on Bonk games for a little while, here's the ones I beat and how I reviewed them:

Bonk's Adventure (TG16)

There was a time in gaming history when every console manufacturer wanted their own clever platforming mascot. And so it was that Nintendo has Mario, and Sega has Sonic, and NEC had Bonk. Bonk's first outing to come stateside was this game; Bonk's Adventure. And what an interesting though flawed adventure it is.

Traveling the prehistoric country side, Bonk goes about his personal mission to exterminate every dinosaur he comes across. Bonk being the sole human present, I can only assume he's doing this to promote his future species territorial advantage. To kill dinosaurs, Bonk bashes them to death with his large deformed skull (a result of calcified hydrocephalus as best I can tell). Sometimes Bonk gets hurt while doing this, and so he eats copious veggies and fruits to restore his life. Once in a while Bonk will accidentally eat a chunk of dinosaur meat broke off from their mutilated corpses after he cranial-assaults them. Being a vegetarian such as myself, accidentally ingesting meat causes Bonk to fly into a furious rage which makes him temporarily invincible. Somewhere along the way Bonk ends up being excreted out a crying dinosaur's rectum, after which he travels up to the moon, and falls in love with an alien plesiosaur. Typical caveman stuff you know.

From a technical perspective, Bonk's Adventure has some positives. The sprite work is all above average, very expressive and humorous enemies abound. The soundtrack is quite good, with catchy and moody tunes in equal measure. And the controls are simple enough to be mastered in mere seconds. That said, most of this game's levels are very straight forward boring affairs. Being a platformer that's a real detriment, instead of clever challenges the player is often merely subjected to waves and waves of silly enemies. Making levels even more mundane is the fact most areas lack background artwork entirely. At least boss battles are done quite well, often being very large and well animated.

On one hand Bonk's Adventure is a cool game, with its silly setup and lively graphics. But on the other, Bonk's Adventure feels amateurish compared to the likes of Mario or Sonic. One has to take into account this game had a development time of only three months. For such a tight schedule, what's here is a little impressive. But the fact remains the bulk of Bonk's Adventure's gameplay is so simply made in the first place, that even a caveman could do it.

Bonk's Revenge (TG16)

Bonk's Revenge didn't learn much from its TG16 predecessor "Bonk's Adventure". The same problems that game had its sequel does as well. Mainly lackluster level designs, slowly responsive jump controls, and bosses that take way too many hits to kill. However the same strengths persist as well, such as bright colorful expressive graphics and an upbeat whimsical OST. (At least this time the backgrounds have actual artwork, so that's an improvement.) Just as in the first game, with this sequel the developers are hiding amateur game design behind above average aesthetics. Thus with Bonk's Revenge, Bonk himself still had a long ways to go if he wanted to compete with Mario or Sonic. But if you just want to bash your skull into cute dinosaurs a lot, Bonk's Revenge is up to the task.

Bonk's 3: Bonk's Big Adventure (TG16)

King Drool has once again stolen half the moon because why not? And Bonk doesn't take too kindly to this considering his pink dinosaur girlfriend lives there. One more time Bonk sets out to kill any dinosaur between him and crushing King Drool's face. That's about as deep as the story gets, so on to the specifics then.

Bonk 3 has barely evolved past what the first two games offered. The biggest difference here is that Bonk can grow or shrink in size thanks to special candies. This new feature is rarely used to any meaningful effect however, and comes across more of a graphical gimmick than much else. Outside that, the level designs have at least improved in complexity, with more climbing, mazes, and platforming than ever before (along with a strange fascination with tube traversal). Bosses still take too many hits to kill, but outside that aspect the overall gameplay is much more forgiving in Bonk's third game compared to his earlier efforts.

Graphically Bonk 3 continues its series' strength in large expressive sprite work, although quite a few enemies are recycled from earlier games. One big step down unfortunately is the OST isn't nearly as good as the first two games. Maybe Hudson was trying to encourage players to buy the CD version of this game instead in that regard (I played the HuCard version). Overall Bonk 3 simply isn't enough of an upgrade over earlier games in this series to competently show the developers are learning from their prior mistakes. If you want to laugh at a cave-baby-man eating narcotic candy and headbutting a transvestite nautilus this is your game. If you're looking for actual solid platforming the likes of Mario or Sonic, keep looking.

Bonk's Adventure (Game Boy)

Bonk's Adventure on Game Boy is not the same game as it is on TurboGrafx-16. Although it shares the same basic gameplay elements and concept, there are improvements. The level layouts are much better designed for example, and enemy placement is more respectful to the player. Actually the difficulty has been toned down quite a bit in the Game Boy version, and it feels fair now rather than aggravating. That said, bosses still take too many hits to kill (especially the final boss), but unlimited continues help with this issue. Bonk's Adventure on GB has very nice and clean graphics, and excellent music, with good controls. Honestly it's a better game overall than the original trilogy was on TG-16, and I'm not just saying that from all the head trauma either.

Bonk's Revenge (Game Boy)

Bonk's Revenge on Game Boy is not the same game as the original TurboGrafx-16 entry was, nor was it developed by Hudson Soft for that matter. But that's not a bad thing, because this Game Boy port is the better game. Primarily its level designs are of much higher quality and length than the original Bonk's Revenge. Difficulty is better balanced now as well, although bosses still take way too many hits to kill. Graphically and musically this title pushes the hardware and is definitely above average for its platform. Another improved aspect is that Bonk has multiple forms in this game, giving him special powers with a variety of benefits. Bonk's Revenge on Game Boy would have scored higher with me if some of its bosses were more reasonable, and if the final level was as imaginative as the earlier ones. Still, if you're looking for a solid old school platformer for the venerable Game Boy, Bonk's Revenge is worth banging your head against for a while.

That's as many as I beat before I got burned out. I've heard from reliable sources that Super Bonk 2 on SFC is legit great. I plan to give it a try sometime.

[Anayo]

Yeah, those reviews are pretty spot-on. I'm wondering if Bonk is so much unlike NiGHTS into Dreams on the Sega Saturn, which I didn't play until 2005, but when I finally did I fell in love with it. It was imaginative, full of flair, and kinda cheesy, but I felt like I really "got" Yuji Naka's vision for it and it just jived with me so it became one of my favorites. But a flying purple jester fighting kids' insecurities in their dreams was pretty much the opposite of what people wanted in 1996. Same with Bonk vs. Sonic the Hedgehog in the early 90's. Kids wanted cool 'tude, not a funny goofball.

[marurun]

The Bonk series also has some neat side details. The first title was Atlus-developed, but the second and third were Hudson/Red. The engine and physics change between 1 and 2, but 3 is clearly using the same engine as 2.