Is Bonk's Adventure still good?
Bonk's Adventure is a platformer developed by Atlus and Red Company and released for
the PC-Engine in 1989.
The game was successful enough to spawn an entire trilogy, with Bonk's Revenge arriving
in 1991 and Bonk's Big Adventure in 1993.
After this he would appear on the Super Nintendo, make a brief comeback on mobiles devices in
2006, and of course was the star of a spin-off shoot-em-up among numerous other ports.
But on today's video, we're going to look back at the game that started it all.
As one would expect from a game with such a pedigree, Bonk's Adventure was met with
positive reviews.
Back in 1990 Electronic Gaming Monthly scored the game a 7.5 out of 10 stating, "Excellent
game play and bright and detailed cartoon-like graphics will delight all types of players."
In a 2002 retrospective, Game Informer Magazine gave the game an 8.8 out of 10 noting, "While
TurboGrafx eventually gave up the ghost, Bonk's games were some of the best of that era.
Bonk's Adventure was full of all the platform goodness one would expect: Bonus levels, swimming
areas, and big bosses."
With the launch of the Wii Virtual Console, the game continued to receive high marks and
IGN scored the game an 8 out of 10 proclaiming, "Bonk's first outing is one of the classics
of the age, inspiring numerous sequels, spin-offs and ports in following years.
Those follow-ups you can safely go without – but the original Bonk's Adventure is firmly
recommended as an icon of the 16-bit era's oft-forgotten third place finisher."
So, is Bonk's Adventure still worthy of all the praise?
Let's take a look.
Bonks' Adventure begins with a fairly standard opening level and it is here we learn most
of the basic controls.
Bonk can run and jump as expected, but his main weapon is his giant noggin.
The standard attack is a head-butt, but Bonk can also jump at enemies from below, or dive
at that them from above, both which do more damage than the normal head-butt.
The reliance of using the head over feet or fists definitely gives Bonk's Adventure
its own feel.
Being a platformer, there are also plenty of items to collect, following a paleo food
theme.
Fruits and vegetables replenish health, while meat beefs up Bonk's stats.
After eating one piece of meat, Bonk can dive at the ground and freeze enemies in addition
to doing extra damage with the head-butt.
After a second helping, or a large helping, Bonk becomes temporarily invincible and can
run straight through enemies.
After beating the first stage Bonk moves onto stage 2.
If you were playing the English version of this game, the signposts would be similar
to Psycho Fox, with the signpost noting the world and stage.
Basically, Bonk's Adventure has 5 worlds broken into smaller segments, with a boss battle
concluding each world.
Anyway, as Bonk ventures through the first world, the player will learn two more skills.
First is climbing, where Bonk uses his teeth to scale specific walls.
This is accomplished by rapidly pressing the jump button.
The second skill is a sort of hovering ability, achieved by rapidly pressing the attack button
while in the air, causing Bonk to spin, slowing his descent.
Even better, as most PC-Engine and TurboGrafx controllers have rapid fire turbo switches,
these are put to good use.
Setting the turbo switch to maximum allows Bonk to scale walls and waterfalls with relative
ease, but that fails in comparison to the pseudo-gliding Bonk can achieve with the head-butt
attack.
By flipping the turbo switch to the maximum setting, Bonk can glide effortlessly through
the air avoiding all ground enemies.
Curiously enough, Bonk is not invincible while doing this, and if it is not his head colliding
with an enemy, he will take damage.
It's a sort of tradeoff for the increased agility provided.
It can even be utilized on bosses.
If you choose, you can do a standard head-butt dive on the first boss, and then repeat the
process throughout the fight.
Or you can flip the turbo switch, and defeat the boss this way, which is much easier.
In either case, after defeating the boss, he or she seems to befriend Bonk, marking
the end of the world.
World 2 introduces a couple more gimmicks.
This first are doorways leading to bonus rooms.
In here you'll be challenged to hit fireballs with your head, receiving points for how many
you successfully bonk.
Another one has you using the plants to launch Bonk into the air, again rewarding points
for how many fruits and vegetables the player manages to collect.
Another rewards points for rotations, although racking up points here is trivial thanks to
the unique controller design.
Same goes for the climbing one, which is again an easy task with the rapid-fire turbo switches.
There are also water areas.
Swimming with Bonk is actually handled really well.
Bonk cannot drown, and you don't have to rapidly press the jump button to swim.
Instead you just use the d-pad to navigate, although Bonk will slowly descend, requiring
a quick tap of the up-button to get off the seafloor.
Even better, you could stay above the water if you so choose, for those gamers that despise
water levels more than myself.
The second world also offers a chance to increase the lifebar, by collecting the blue heart.
This is permanent until you receive a game over, which is nice.
As we near the end of World 2 there are also springy clouds which launch Bonk high into
the air, and if you pay attention to the level design, you'll also discover breakable blocks
leading to more bonus rooms.
Moving on, the world 2 boss is a lot different than the first one.
Here the boss will split into two, with one being a decoy.
You have to hit the correct one to actually make progress.
It's also worth noting when Bonk dies, he can resume the game right where he left off,
after watching the bizarre death animation.
This is an interesting mechanic, and reminds me more of a shooter than a platformer.
In any case, after learning the magic patterns of the boss and befriending her, Bonk makes
his way to World 3.
There isn't much to say about World 3.
Unlike many 2D platformers, the worlds in Bonk's Adventure don't really carry on a
theme.
Instead, most of the game carries on the prehistoric caveman theme, and different environments
like lava are repeated in different sections of each world.
Still, ice is introduced here, which was somewhat mandatory for the time.
The ice is naturally slippery making Bonk harder to maneuver and making it impossible
to get up slopes.
Thankfully, there are ice-blocks Bonk can ride to get up the tough inclines.
World 3 also introduces this alligator enemy, which will lunge towards Bonk if the player
gets to close.
You can jump into them from below which is nice, but their chaotic behaviors makes these
one of the more annoying enemies found in the game.
The world 3 boss is also quite formidable, and like the bosses before him, he only takes
damage when hit on the head.
Unfortunately, his arms move up and down making landing a critical hit quite challenging.
It does become much easier with subsequent playthroughs, but this is a significant difficulty
spike.
This brings us to World 4.
Curiously, there is just a single stage in World 4 and it is not broken into multiple
parts.
That isn't to say it's short, but it's a curious departure from the rest of Bonk's Adventure.
Level gimmicks are all the same here as well, though the enemy design does continue to evolve.
If you leave these baby pterodactyls alone long enough, they will actually grow into
adults, which is kind of cool.
There is also a second blue heart hiding in the level, expanding Bonk's healthbar to five
hearts if you managed to nab both on the same playthrough.
After the platforming marathon comes boss number 4.
Like the very first boss, this one can be defeat by using the head-butt gliding attack.
Just don't miss, because her punching attack will wipe away two full hearts of life with
a single hit.
Bonk then moves onto the fifth and final world.
Up to this point, the world themes have been fairly similar throughout, and often repeated
with minor changes.
World 5 on the other hand, finally makes it feel like Bonk is making progress through
whatever prehistoric area he is in.
It begins with scaling a large vertical wall.
Once you reach the top, it appears Bonk reaches some castle walls, perhaps the castle you
see in the background on select stages.
Next, you travel through the castle, starting with an underwater section filled with gators,
with spikes on both the top and bottom of narrow passages, making for some challenging
swimming.
After this Bonk is challenged with an onslaught of new enemies not previously encountered,
before he moves onto a vertical section with collapsing platforms.
From here, things get weird.
Bonk travels through a bunch of rooms featuring statues of the previously defeated bosses
before taking an elevator up to some waterfalls, and then a second elevator to get a glimpse
of the game's main villain, King Drool, who drops four eggs before disappearing.
After going through a door, Bonk is presented with a boss rush.
While the four bosses are presented exactly the same as the first encounter, the floor
is ice which makes things a little tougher.
It is here I also grew to appreciate one of Bonk's Adventure's greatest features,
unlimited continues.
If you run out of lives, you start back at the beginning of a world, rather than the
beginning of the game.
Considering the difficulty spikes presented, this is a terrific addition and makes the
game significantly more accessible to newer players.
I also really appreciate how if you die during the boss rush or thereafter, you are not brought
back to the beginning of world 5, but back to the beginning of the boss rush, which I
am extremely thankful for.
So, wrapping up Bonk's Adventure are two more boss encounters.
The first is against a van which bounces around the screen and mimics all of the attacks of
the previous bosses along with a few other enemies and volcanoes.
As you can see, using the spin attack is a must for this section, making it easy enough
to hit the weak point on the antenna.
After defeating the van, you free a mythical looking creature named Princess Za who brings
you up to space to finally take on King Drool.
This encounter is divided into two parts, first against an outline of the beast while
avoiding simple projectiles.
The weak point is the eye, or near the eye, and using the spin attack is again key.
After this King Drool will finally reveal himself while tridents zero-in on the player.
Again the weak point is the eye with the spin attack being the most effective way to get
in multiple hits.
High level players can take advantage of the spin attack and pin the boss against the wall
and defeat both of these easily, but myself, I'm not quite there yet.
Still, once you get a feel for the patterns it is surprisingly straightforward to defeat
King Drool and finally bring on the game's ending, with all of the creatures freed from
King Drool's spell.
Then of course, the credits roll.
Moving on let's talk about the game's graphics.
For starters, I really dig the art direction overall, especially Bonk.
The oversized head and little body are charming, even when he eats meat and receives a more
menacing look.
It also makes sense from a gameplay perspective; the head is both the most prominent feature
of the character, as well as the main weapon.
The style is carried over into the enemies.
Most are big, bright, and bold, with exaggerated features like large craniums.
While none feature more than a couple frames of animation, they are well drawn and most
are appealing to look at.
And of course some of the bosses are terrific, filling a large portion of the screen with
no slowdown and zero flicker to speak of.
Be it Bonk or the enemies, these all look great and do an awesome job helping Bonk's
Adventure feel prehistoric.
Unfortunately, I'm not sure I can give the same praise to the actual environments.
Sometimes these look rich and lush, with the screen filled with detailed rocks and leafy
plants.
Other times, Bonk's Adventure looks downright bland.
While I'm pleased to report the framerate is rock solid and there is almost zero slowdown
throughout the adventure, there is a real inconsistency here, and the fluctuating quality
can be jarring.
Thankfully, Bonk's Adventure excels in the audio department.
The music ranges from catchy to tranquil to whimsical, and the strange instruments add
to the feeling Bonk is not of our time.
I wouldn't call any of the tracks earworms, but they all work great as background music.
The sound effects are also pleasant with the appropriate thunks when hitting enemies or
landing on the ground.
I do wish the sound of Bonk spinning through the air was a bit more subdued however, as
it will often drown out the sound of everything else which is a real shame.
So, with all of that out of the way, we arrive back to the question asked at the beginning
of the video.
Is Bonk's Adventure still good?
Of all the 16-bit platformers I've reviewed over the past year, Bonk's Adventure has
been one of the hardest to really pin down.
For the most part, Bonk's Adventure is a fairly safe bet.
There are few, if any, truly controller-throwing, frustrating moments.
Life refilling power-ups are plentiful, ensuring even frequent player mishaps are never punished
too harshly.
Even the lifebar is forgiving, and you can take a few hits before actually losing a full
heart.
While the art design and graphical quality is sometimes bland and inconsistent, it's
generally pleasing enough, with bright colors, good contrast, and a smooth framerate.
There is occasionally even some faux parallax scrolling, with a background object or moon
moving slowly in the distance giving the illusion of depth.
These are quality touches for the hardware and I appreciate the attention to detail.
Yet even after multiple playthroughs, I couldn't help but feel something was off, or missing.
Despite being reasonably successful at the game and having a good understanding of the
mechanics, I just didn't feel compelled to keep playing the game.
Instead I forced myself onward for the sake of developing a coherent understanding of
Bonk's Adventure, inside and out.
The first issue I noticed is there are virtually no moments I genuinely looked forward to.
Early on in the first world, there is a large dinosaur head that will open its mouth, allowing
Bonk to enter, and then swim through its guts.
This is really cool and an awesome transition to the next stage.
Sadly, it's never repeated again.
A few more marquee moments like this would have gone a long way.
A bigger issue however, is the way Bonk interacts with the environments.
Bonk is most effective when attacking from above or below.
Head on, and things get a little dicey.
At times it can be difficult to time the head-butt correctly, resulting in a ton of moments when
you take damage when you thought you were going to land a hit.
For comparison, I did not receive this feeling when playing Psycho Fox, another platformer
relying on a forward melee attack.
Granted the forgiving lifebar masks many of these issues, but it can make for an unsatisfying
experience.
Since attacking enemies head on is underwhelming, it results in the player resorting to just
spinning through levels.
And well, it really doesn't feel like the developers planned for this as there are huge
swaths of Bonk's Adventure you can basically skip.
It doesn't make for engaging gameplay.
The two coolest gimmicks in the game are just vastly underutilized.
Compare it to something like Castle of Illusion, where the main gimmick, the bounce attack,
is constantly useful, be it to reach higher platforms or secret areas.
The designers created levels to complement the character, creating an awesome level flow.
Sadly, few areas in Bonk's Adventure take advantage of Bonk's unique skills, and the
gameplay ends up feeling very generic.
Other design choices are just plain annoying.
Areas of quicksand are the worst.
As the jumping is effective for attacking enemies in the air, it doesn't make sense
to be sinking in quicksand.
You're left constantly jumping to avoid sinking, but this causes you to miss your
attacks.
It's a clumsy experience, and not much fun.
Enemy and hazard placement also feels haphazard, like a bunch of random stuff was simply placed
in the levels without much thought into how the character would interact with them.
This cave level is a good example.
Bonk will lose momentum when hitting the ceiling, making most of the jumping nearly impossible
to perform without taking damage.
Other areas have impossible, or nearly impossible to reach items as well.
There was one section late in the game where the enemy placement and lava blasts did seem
logical, creating a fun moment where pattern recognition was rewarded, but these areas
are few and far between.
The best levels in Bonk's Adventure are the vertical levels, as they play to the strengths
of the character.
Many of the water stages are a lot of fun.
Not only can bonk head-butt incoming arrows, which is satisfying, but enemy placement caters
to Bonk's most effective attack.
Same goes for the tower stage near the end.
Bouncing up the level bashing enemies with precision and timing is a blast, and I wish
more of the game featured this type of level design, instead of this type of level design.
Finally, I do appreciate all the bonus areas to discover.
Some of these are obvious, with a piece of the graphics sticking out signifying a place
for Bonk to smash his noodle and receive a reward.
Even on my final playthrough for this review, I was still discovering new ones.
If there is one thing that will get me to continue to play this in the future, it's
secrets and bonus rooms.
At the end of the day, Bonk's Adventure is a decent game.
The controls are responsive, Bonk is a wacky character that could have only come from Japan
in the late 80's, and the prehistoric enemies are a real treat.
Many of the gameplay misses are masked by the forgiving health bar and unlimited continues.
But I cannot say Bonk's Adventure is a great game, not by a long shot.
The level design rarely meshes with Bonk's skillset and the designers seemed to miss
the fact the spin jump breaks half the game, creating in my opinion, a very average platforming
experience.
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