Bonk's Adventure

"Bonk's Adventure is a great reminder as to why the old school days were so good... and so frustrating."

Figuring that if I was going to use my money on older games, I decided to buy a classic sidescoller. Bonk's Adventure was one of my first purchases for the Wii Virtual Console, since I've played the game before and I knew that I was in for trouble. There's nothing like the purity and difficulty of the games of the 80's and 90's to remind us just why we used to want to throw our controllers across the room. Bonk was something of a mascot for Hudson Soft when it came to the Turbografx-16. The games were fairly popular back when it was first released and many people recognized the icon, if not knew who Bonk was. However, anyone playing the game quickly learned who this little caveman was due to the original game design implemented in this quirky little title.

The story of Bonk is as threadbare as it gets, much as was the norm in those days; you're out to save the princess. Except here, youre a caveman, the princess is some dinosaur looking chick and your weapon is your enormous head. Yes, thats right. Unlike all the mario clones, jumping on an enemy means you're getting hurt in this game. You have to use Bonks incredible cranium to... well, bonk the enemies and defeat them.

There are a few variations on how to do this as well. You can either do a standing headbutt or you can leap into the air and dive down onto the enemies to do double damage. Also, the dive attack, with proper timing, allows you to repeatedly bounce off the enemies, damaging them more than once and not getting hit in return. Bonk can also abort the diving attack by pressing the attack button again, this allows him to spin and not only land on his feet but to slow down his descent if done repeatedly.

There are a variety of things to be picked up in this game, each with a different effect. You can pick up smiley faces which you redeem at the end of each stage for points or you can pick up pieces of fruit, which heal Bonk a tiny bit, as well to increase his score. The most important power up in this game, however, is the meat chunks. These will not only heal you, but they will give Bonk new powers. With one small chunk of meat, he enters a rage mode of sorts, where all enemies on the screen are paralyzed by a diving headbutt that hits the floor. More meat will make him invincible and faster, enabling you to burn through the enemies in the stage, destroying them willy nilly.

The enemies in Bonk all follow the prehistoric theme, some more loosely than others with the bosses being fairly silly. Anything from dinosaurs to attacking plants will make appearances in this game, each with a particular strategy that makes beating them easier and less risky. Most notable are the bosses, of which there are seven. Everything from a giant dinosaur attacking you with nose bubbles to a giant boxing dinosaur and an ice boulder throwing reptile monkey... thing will make an appearance. Learning their patterns and figuring out how to hurt them are the real challenges to be had.

For a side scrolling game, Bonk is pretty easy on the platforming and focuses more on getting from point A to point B while fighting enemies. This makes Bonk a bit more accessible but no less challenging and thats the charm of it. Bonk's Adventure is a short little game with a definite charm that is one of the best side scrollers of its time. With its cheap price, any Wii owner is doing themself a disservice to not at least play this game.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 02/05/07