Air Zonk and Super Air Zonk
By Marmaladebrat 3 Comments
I made some big submissions to the Wiki today for Air Zonk and Super Air Zonk. I thought it was funny that there were no descriptions unde rthese games at all. I remember these games from the early nineties, so I thought they should be added. Here is an excerpt of what I wrote for Air Zonk.
Air Zonk, named PC Denjin Punkic Cyborg in Japan, was a side scrolling shooter game. It served as an unlikely and unusual sequel to the prior Bonk games from Hudson and NEC that were successful on the TurboGrafx-16. The game was developed by Red Company and provided an update to the popular boy-caveman character Bonk. For this game Bonk was renamed Air Zonk and converted into a more punk rock, modern and contemporary style. The result was this game's punk rock cyborg character sporting sun glasses and a mohawk. The game even uses the same villian from the Bonk series, King Drool.
Red Company and Hudson Soft decided instead of creating a direct sequel to the Bonk games' popular platformer gameplay, Air Zonk would be a side-scrolling shooter game. Side-scrolling shooters being almost equally popular as platformers in the early nineties video game era. Air Zonk's art style was somewhat distinctive in the shooter category at the time, using cute cartoon like graphics, in a very similar manner as presented in the earlier Bonk games. The game is recognized by most as what would be called a "Cute 'Em Up," a cuter art style version of a typical "Shoot 'Em Up." Other games in this "Cute 'Em Up" style of the period included Parodius and Ordyne.