Bonk's Adventure

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US TurboGrafx-16 cover.

Bonk's Adventure also known as PC原人 [PC Genjin], "PC Caveman" in Japan, and BC Kid in Europe, is a platform action game originally released on the TurboGrafx-16 on 1989-12-15. You play the role of Bonk, a young caveman who uses his comically large head to smash apart enemies. In the story, Za, the Princess of Moonland, and her four subjects, have been corrupted by King Drool and banished to the land of Bonk where they are creating havoc. Bonk must free them from King Drool's spell and then travel to Moonland to defeat King Drool.

Bonk's Adventure was ported to the Amiga, and NES, and then emulated on modern consoles. A Game Boy port was also made, but it is an amalgam of the original and its sequel Bonk's Revenge.

I first played Bonk's Adventure at my brother's rich friend's house in the early 1990s, but I remember very little about playing it other than I did. Shortly after I found out about NES emulation, I found out that it was ported to the NES, but I never made an attempt to beat it. Around 2015, I decided to try hard to beat the TG16 game, and did.

Status

I do not own this game, but I've beaten the game on TurboGrafx-16.

Review

  • Overall: 4/10 (TG-16)
  • Best Version: TurboGrafx-16

Good

  • Overall, for each port, the game play is fun and the graphics and animation are enjoyable to look at.
  • The animation of Bonk is fantastic and quite hilarious. He has his normal vacant smile which changes to an animal when he climbs walls with his teeth. When he's injured, his eyes bug-out and he foams at the mouth, when he eats spicy meat, his head erupts like a volcano, and when he reaches full power, he becomes a zombie.
  • The very large sprite graphics were quite impressive for 1989.
  • There is enough variation among the monsters and hazards to keep the game fresh through to the end.
  • There are a fair amount of hidden sections which keep the game interesting.

Bad

  • The music is pretty dull across all ports.
  • Large portions of the game can be sailed over using the default controller's built-in turbo buttons.
  • Collecting fruit is pretty pointless as it only gives a few points, and you need a lot to earn a free guy.
  • You're given unlimited continues, but when you use one, you lose all your additional hearts. So, if you get a game over at the final boss section, and you can't beat the bosses with only three hearts, you have to restart the game from the beginning. Kind of annoying.

Ugly

  • Nothing really.

Media

Box Art

Documentation

Videos

Links