The TurboMento-12: Bonk's Adventure

Mento

Follow

4969

Forum Posts

551638

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 39

User Lists: 212

Edited By Mento Moderator

Hey all, it's time to delve once again into the TG-16's mostly maligned library for another TurboMento entry. I took time away from reviewing intelligent Indie puzzle-platformers to cover a platformer that... well... I don't know if I'd call it smart, but you definitely have to use your head a lot. As it were.

Bonk's Adventure, known elsewhere as BC Kid and PC Genjin (it's like "PC Engine", get it?), is a platformer with a bit of a brawler angle to it. It's also one of Hudson's best known franchises and certainly the most famous mascot character for the Turbografx-16. Bonk had a couple more adventures on his home turf - Bonk's Revenge and Bonk 3 - as well as a couple of SNES games and a few portable spin-offs and ports. Of course, today we're dealing with his debut.

I call buzz_clik "BC Kid" a lot. I don't think he appreciates it.

Hey all, welcome to Bonk's Adventure. There's our hero, asleep in the big O. Aw, he's so peaceful. Soon put an end to that.

So Bonk's a guy with one huge asset: his colossal coconut. Most of his offensive capabilities are based around headbutts - he has a standard headbutt attack and a diving headbutt as seen above, but he can also damage enemies just by hitting them from underneath.

This creepy moon can be seen in every level if you jump high enough. This screenshot right here is actually foreshadowing. (I can't believe I had the wherewithal to think this far in advance, honestly.)

So here's where we get most of our items - those little red plant things. Unfortunately, they sometimes turn into the grinning terrors you see on the left, so some caution is necessary.

This is Bonk's other big gimmick: the meat. Eating a small piece of meat transforms Bonk into a considerably more badass version of himself. Not only does he hit harder, but by hitting the ground with his head he can stun all enemies on the screen briefly.

He also has this little determined scowl. There's an even more powerful third form as well, which we'll see a little later. Alas, these transformations are only temporary.

This is how Bonk climbs walls. With his teeth. In fact, he does a lot of things with his teeth. It's damn eerie.

We find this oddly colored ground towards the end of 1-2. Like we just walked into Golden Axe or something.

Yup, belongs to this guy. Whacking him on the head opens his mouth, which is where we need to go next. Marching right into the mouths of carnivores definitely sounds like a plan.

These little uvula guys are the absolute pits. You can't hurt them; you can only walk underneath them when they're dangling to the side like that. Get hit? It's an entire heart gone, and those things don't grow on trees (they grow inside plants FYI).

Case in point. When Bonk dies, he just kind of froths at the mouth then lies perfectly still. In an interesting if slightly unsettling twist, the player can decide to wake him up whenever they feel like continuing.

Anyway, we eventually find the dinosaur's, uh, "exit" and find the first of these skull elevators.

For every world but the last, they lead to the boss chamber for that chapter.

And here's our first boss, Huey. Real mental giant this one. It doesn't play in static screenshots, but every boss wears a flashing helmet and you need to keep bopping them on the head until it eventually breaks and disappears.

Huey's chief weapon are his snot bubbles. Slow and predictable. Future bosses won't be as kind. They will be just as goofy-looking, however.

Anyway, the big guy eventually goes all technicolor and...

He's revealed to be a nice fellow who just got brainwashed. Gee wiz indeed.

No problem big guy. Happy to help. Certainly wasn't self-defense or anything.

Plenty more of the game to go. What awaits our mightily-domed hero? Will he keep pulling terrifying faces? And how long can I go on pretending that everyone doesn't already know this game? Like with Neutopia last time, I'll keep on posting new screenshots in the comments below. Thankfully this game is nowhere near the length of Neutopia: in part because there's way fewer badly translated NPCs to talk to. Fewer, not zero.

In the meantime feel free to watch Kacho Arino take on the game here. There's spoilers for the rest of this LP but I don't imagine that'll bother you all too much. Thanks for checking in and stay tuned for more wonky Bonk playing below (and more May Madness later in the week).

The TurboMento-12
January - Ninja Spirit	May - Bonk's Adventure	September -
February - Dungeon Explorer	June -	October -
March - The Legendary Axe	July -	November -
April - Neutopia	August -	December -

10 years ago

Video_Game_King

Follow

36563

Forum Posts

59080

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 54

User Lists: 14

#1 Video_Game_King

@mento said:

Kinda surprised you didn't comment on his bad hairdo. That toupee isn't fooling anybody, Dogasaur!

10 years ago

Mento

Follow

4969

Forum Posts

551638

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 39

User Lists: 212

#2 Edited By Mento Moderator

@video_game_king: Every boss has an awful toupee. None of them seem to realise that they're reptiles.

ETA: Aw heck, I forgot the first rule of screenshot LP threads on Giant Bomb: never post a comment without turning it into an update. Never know if you'll get stymied by a double post.

I've Quit Better LPs Than This

For some reason, you get some moral support at the end of each stage. Beating the first stage is "incredible". And people are wondering why Millennials aren't making anything of themselves. (Well, because the Baby Boomers bankrupted us, but that's not... look, this is a screenshot LP about a cartoon caveboy, let's focus.)

World 2-1 starts us off near a whole bunch of these little bonus rooms. The goal here is to use the sparsely spaced-apart yellow launcher flowers to get as much fruit as possible. It's here where you start to hone the flip jump technique. What is that? Well, every time you flip to do a diving headbutt, you can flip yourself again to right yourself in mid-air. Doing this a lot lets you significantly slow your descent. This is some Bonk 301 shit right here.

This is one of the other bonus rounds. Just gnaw like mad. I mean, how else are you supposed to climb walls? With your hands? Like a baby?

Hey Tricerajock, did you a load of the nerd? "...pardon me?"

World 5-2 is a fun waterfall level. Bonk can stand on waterfalls for a brief period before falling down. He can also swim up them in some cases, like a manic salmon.

2-3 meanwhile is more cave-like. Bonk has a weird attitude towards reusing assets. A lot of the time you'll get completely unique stages like this cave level or that biological dinosaur one.

And then you get a hell of a lot of very basic "walk to the right and kill things" set-ups like the first half of 2-4 and most of 4-1.

There are also these mudslide sections where you can wake up trees and let them walk you acrsss. I love their little concerned expressions.

How Bonk uses vines. The visual style reminds me a lot of Coktel Vision's Gobliiins, actually. I might need to "Brief Jaunt" one of those games someday.

Don't ask me what's up with conspiratorial Nessie. Maybe he has a Loch on who really did 9/11. And it's connected to the Locherbie bombing. Wake up, America!

2-6 is full of these tree branches and is one of a few vertically-oriented stages. It's cool, because you can climb up the trees and move around to the opposite side of the branches. I guess the bark is worse when you bite it? ... I'm going to have to workshop that.

2-7's in the treetops, where there's lots of fluffy clouds to bounce off. Water vapor is a lot like Jell-O.

We eventually reach the end of world 2. It's seven stages long and is the second longest of all the worlds - compare this to world 1 with its paltry three stages. Also, you can see here what stage 2 Super Bonk looks like. Angry as hell, essentially.

Gladdis isn't the pushover Huey was. As well as being very quick, she also switches between three modes of attack as you wear down her health. First she summons an illusionary twin, as seen here, then she jumps around flinging shuriken at you and finally starts warping and vanishing like a certain Dr. Acula. The unpredictability can trip you up the first time you fight her.

But then you rescue her and she goes back to the ridiculous hair and glasses combo so common with administrative professionals during the 80s. Very "Janine from the Real Ghostbusters".

I really hope this isn't leading to where I think it's leading.

Fortunately I got the hell out of there. "Prime!!" indeed. I suppose it's possible that someone used that as a positive exclamation at some point in time.

World 3-1 pares us off with our reptilian doppleganger here. He bonks as well as you do, so it's best to avoid them.

And I leave you all with the bone bridge of 3-2. This moment is sort of infamous because it's possible to reach an exit on the other side that skips pretty much the entirety of world 3. However, it is not easy, and you only get one shot at it.

Do I make it? Or rather, did I bother to abuse save-states until I made it? Would I actually skip over so much content despite the fact you really shouldn't do that in a LP?

Wait for the next update. The answer may surprise you. (But it probably won't.)

10 years ago

Mento

Follow

4969

Forum Posts

551638

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 39

User Lists: 212

#3 Mento Moderator

Part 3:

The Godzilla in Manila

Yeah, I skipped ahead. Big shock. 3-5's an ice level, because there's always an ice level.

Oh man. They did not have Listerine back then.

Slopes are almost impossible to scale with the low friction effect. The trick is to ride these big ice cubes. By the way they fly around at incredible speeds though, you'd be forgiven for assuming they were hazards to avoid.

Kong Zilla is perhaps the most challenging boss save the final one. It takes some trial and error to figure out when to strike: when he pumps his fists in the air, he's effectively invincible. Best bets are when he's walking across the screen with his arms down (as seen above) or when he's about to throw an ice ball at you.

Or... a lizard. I don't even. At least he doesn't have a toupee.

No. But thanks for reminding me about what I should be doing.

I suspect these positive affirmations are just randomly plucked from a pool of "bodacious wordage".

I am killing the shit out of these baby birds. (4-1 is an incredibly dull stage for whatever reason.)

More walking trees. In what is perhaps the most unfortunately timed screenshot, I snapped an image of the blue heart power-up. They're extremely rare and give you an extra heart container. Unfortunately they vanish if you get a game over and continue.

Neat little background detail: that big "Wario Land"-esque tower at the back. We'll see it up close fairly soon.

Punchy Pedro is an enormous boxer dinosaur. Despite his intimidating (well, I'm not sure if that's the word) look he's kind of a pushover if you can get into the rhythm of headbutting that big target of a dome. Just as long as you avoid his whirlwind punch, which seemed to always kill me in one hit.

If they had more of an animation budget, he'd do that swooshy hair thing that Teddie does the first time you see his human form.

They hint at some kind of prior relationship but Protip: Princess Za is like 1/5 this dude's size. She must take yoga classes or something.

All right, just the absurdly long (and final) World 5 to come and then the big finale.

10 years ago

Mento

Follow

4969

Forum Posts

551638

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 39

User Lists: 212

#4 Edited By Mento Moderator

Part 3:

The Godzilla in Manila

No, but thanks for the reminder. I almost forgot there was a point to all this.

I am killing the shit out of these baby pterodactyls. (4-1 is an incredibly dull stage for whatever reason.)

More walking trees. In what is perhaps the most unfortunately timed screenshot, I snapped an image of the blue heart power-up while it was spinning. They're extremely rare and give you an extra heart container. Unfortunately the extra health vanishes if you get a game over and continue.

All right, just the absurdly long (and final) World 5 to come and then the big finale.

10 years ago

Video_Game_King

Follow

36563

Forum Posts

59080

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 54

User Lists: 14

#5 Video_Game_King

@mento said:

So essentially Gemini Man?

10 years ago

Mento

Follow

4969

Forum Posts

551638

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 39

User Lists: 212

#6 Mento Moderator

@video_game_king: All I remember about that guy are all the 45 degree angle lasers. I should probably play Mega Man 3 again in some capacity. Or 2, since that's the better game. As everyone knows.

Talking about old video games:

The Frequency of Skull Decorations is Directly Proportional to One's Proximity to the Final Boss

Oh man, a watermelon room! (This was the only screenshot of 5-1 I bothered to take, it seems. It's another vertically-oriented level like 2-6.)

5-2 starts getting all castle-like. Heading deep into the Tyranno Lair here. I hope Azala isn't around. (Normal people might've gone with a Bowser reference. Actually, normal people would've just skipped ahead to something more interesting.)

Oh I hate those things. They'll show up a lot in the next stage.

5-3 is almost entirely underwater. It's also really hard to avoid constant damage.

Take all these passageways lined with spikes along the top AND the bottom. Constantly poking you. And then there's all those aforementioned prehistoric monster crocodiles.

One of the many fairly well-hidden bonus rooms. I just wanted to show off three power-ups I haven't snapped yet. The big heart restores three entire hearts, the big meat instantly transforms you into the badass indestructible second Super Bonk. You'll never guess what the little Bonk does. Unless you guessed it was an extra life, and if you did are you some kind of witch?

Finally, an underwater lizard skull elevator. A combination of words I always knew I'd say someday.

These triceratops gargoyle things (called T. Rexes, because that makes sense) will charge you as soon as they see you. They're annoying, but they tend to drop a lot of meat. If you're quick, you can basically maintain a constant state of Starman-esque invincibility and breeze past the next few sections.

These tiny Dry Bones are the toughest enemies in the game. You wouldn't think a tiny skeleton could take so much punishment.

Finally, we have these Magikoopa assholes. They also take an absurd amount of punishment and it's just better to run past them.

5-4's another vertical level. The GCCX episode called it the "Unclimbable Room". With good reason.

Passing through... hmm, wait a moment. What's going on with this glitchy wall tile?

Oh right. A big cartoonish exit to a bonus room. Towards the end of the game it's best to test anything suspicious for items. The game will start getting very difficult around this point and you'll need every bit of help.

So these blocks split in half almost as soon as you jump on them, so there's a lot of Mega Man fast jumping to get through here. Dropping to the bottom because you mis-timed the jump isn't fun.

You pass all these petrified versions of former bosses. Very ominous.

The last part of the game that is anything like a freebie. All you do here is climb a waterfall collecting fruit and veg to refill your health.

Our first meeting with King Drool just leaves us with questions, as he fires a few eggs around and flaps off to parts unknown.

Check out this awesome exit. Why give your giant statue head an eyepatch? Because why wouldn't you?

So the exit drops you back down to the entrance of 5-5, only now you have to fight those four bosses again. If you lose all your lives at any point between here and the next seven bosses (yes, seven) you'll get dumped here just before this boss rush. This tends to be where people get stuck into they eventually become the Ezio of handing dinosaurs their scaly asses.

After the four previous bosses, you meet this vaguely human-like Princess Za who is clearly as brainwashed as her friends. She quickly absconds to the throne above and...

...sics this guy on you. T. Ractorhead (hey, I didn't name him) can fire every type of projectile that the previous bosses used and can also charge and hop around to vary things up.

As tough as he is, he's also kind of predictable and the key is to patiently pick your moment to bop his only weak spot: that little flashing aerial on his forehead.

Eventually he explodes into a dozen pieces and snaps Za out of her conditioning.

And she suddenly becomes this thing. I'm not sure how she went from Wendy O. Koopa to Lapras, but I guess that's the sinister magic of King Drool.

So I guess we're going to the moon? Where dinosaurs live? (Foreshadowed!)

This one goes all "Bonka and the Great Skull Elevator" and blasts off into space.

It's the final showdown with Bonk's drooling nemesis. Finally time to wrap up this Adventure. Of Bonk's.

10 years ago

Video_Game_King

Follow

36563

Forum Posts

59080

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 54

User Lists: 14

#7 Video_Game_King

@mento said:

It's the final showdown with Bonk's drooling nemesis. Finally time to wrap up this Adventure. Of Bonk's.

Do do DO do, do-do do-do do do. Wait, you said COUNTdown. That ruins the entire joke.

10 years ago

Mento

Follow

4969

Forum Posts

551638

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 39

User Lists: 212

#8 Edited By Mento Moderator

Thrilling conclusion:

More Like King K. Drool? No? How Many Crown-Wearing Giant Reptile Bosses Could There Possibly Be? Besides Hundreds?

Well, all right, there isn't much to this one. Landing on the Moon you get into a fracas almost immediately with the big cheese.

This freakish looking thing. King Drool is understandably the toughest fight in the game. He has the rather dickish tactic of always hurting you whenever you hit him (his weakpoint is his massive nose). You really need to reach him with as much health as possible, otherwise you'll die before you do enough harm to him. Battles of attrition are the worst.

If you outlast him, he'll eventually explode and leave his crown behind.

Well, by explode I really mean he just bails.

Well, "still on Moonland" it should say.

The Princess is restored and she... suddenly has the cross-species hots for our hero. Aren't there any nice bald human ladies around? (There actually is in the Arcade version.)

The statue bosses wake up again and magically float back home.

He's an ape dinosaur, so of course he likes bananas. But where is this banana farm he speaks of?

Oh right. On Moonland. I... guess I should've figured.

Again, entirely incidental. It was on the way.

Certainly looks like enough space up here on this tiny satellite for us all to live happily.

Aww, kissed by a reptile princess on the moon. So damn cute.

You get a neat little cast roll call filled with awful pun names for all the enemies in the game. I capped the entire thing for some reason, but there's no reason to subject you all to it. You get enough terrible wordplay from me already.

And so the moon waves you goodbye with the hands it has. It has hands. The moon does. Hands.

Bonk's Adventure is one of the better-aged games I've covered for this feature. I mean, I guess it was a bit of a fix since Bonk was eventually ported everywhere and with good reason, but it was a TurboGrafx-16 original and I couldn't really avoid it forever given how its little bald star is essentially that system's Mario.

Next month I'll come up with something a little more obscure, honest. Maybe one of the many Japan-only PC Engine releases we unfortunately never saw. There's more than a couple of them.

10 years ago

Mento

Follow

4969

Forum Posts

551638

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 39

User Lists: 212

#9 Edited By Mento Moderator

@video_game_king: That would've been a good time to use that song. It's not like Bonk wasn't blasting off into space.

10 years ago

Video_Game_King

Follow

36563

Forum Posts

59080

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 54

User Lists: 14

#10 Video_Game_King

Under those circumstances, this song would have been slightly more appropriate.

10 years ago

Bonk's Adventure

As meat-loving caveman Bonk, the player battles egg-headed enemies and dastardly dinosaurs on their quest to rescue Princess Za from the clutches of the villainous and tyrannosaurus King Drool.

I call buzz_clik "BC Kid" a lot. I don't think he appreciates it.

I've Quit Better LPs Than This

The Godzilla in Manila

The Godzilla in Manila

The Frequency of Skull Decorations is Directly Proportional to One's Proximity to the Final Boss

More Like King K. Drool? No? How Many Crown-Wearing Giant Reptile Bosses Could There Possibly Be? Besides Hundreds?

Comment and Save

The TurboMento-12: Bonk's Adventure

I call buzz_clik "BC Kid" a lot. I don't think he appreciates it.

I've Quit Better LPs Than This

The Godzilla in Manila

The Godzilla in Manila

The Frequency of Skull Decorations is Directly Proportional to One's Proximity to the Final Boss

More Like King K. Drool? No? How Many Crown-Wearing Giant Reptile Bosses Could There Possibly Be? Besides Hundreds?

Move topic to another board

Pick a List

Comment and Save