Bonk's Adventure

"A prehistoric smash"

While Mario stole the 16-bit spotlight in 1991 with the release of Super Mario World, Bonk made his debut on the Turbo Grafx16 a whole year earlier. Bonk didn't receive nearly as much attention as Mario did, and it's likely that the large-headed caveman was overlooked by many. Fortunately, with the re-release of Bonk's Adventure on the Virtual Console, Nintendo fans can finally get a taste of the prehistoric head banging action.

Bonk's enormous head is essentially what sets Bonk's Adventure apart from other 2D side-scrolling platform games. Not only does the disproportionate body provide for a loveable character design, it also becomes the core mechanic of the game. Bonk's only defense is his head. He can either jump into flying enemies from below or perform a head smash on ground enemies. After an enemy is “bonked”, they fly into the air allowing time to get underneath them and continually bounce them to rack up a high score. Pulling off combos is not easy, and in fact it's not even necessary, but it's highly satisfying to see just how long you can bounce an enemy on your head. Using Bonk's head as a weapon makes for some very unique gameplay. Unfortunately though, Bonk's feet aren't as strong as his noggin'. Simply jumping on top of enemies will cause Bonk harm—requiring every hit to be executed via the head. This is frustrating because it's easy to forget about Bonk's Achilles' heel, seeing as most other platforming heroes have the ability to perform a basic stomp. This can be overlooked however, as the head fighting mechanics are what make Bonk's Adventure unique. Bonk's other, more glaring shortcoming is his sever lack of speed. He walks way to slow which makes it impossible to maneuver out of tight situations, and overall makes the game feel sluggish. Bonk also lacks the ability to duck, which again makes it hard to avoid enemies and thus easier to sustain damage. Each little bit of damage Bonk takes affects his health greatly, and with only three hearts total, that becomes very serious. In rare occasions enemies will drop replenishing hearts, but in most cases this is left to smashing bulbous flowers scattered throughout the level. These flowers will either spit food, hearts, meat, or in most cases, more enemies. Food only slightly replenishes Bonk's health, while hearts fill an entire heart container. Meat will make Bonk's head larger and redder, briefly giving him the ability to freeze enemies by slamming into the ground. If enough meat is consumed, Bonk will momentarily become invincible. While meat is a common find, food and hearts are a rarity, which at times make this game incredibly difficult. Fortunately, when Bonk dies it's not back to the beginning of the game, just the current level. Which can still be rather devastating since each level is broken up into an average of four parts.

Bonk's Adventure features five levels, each of which feature their own end boss. The bosses are generally fairly easy to defeat, all based on the principle of repeatedly bonking the flashing body part, which is always their head. Defeating the bosses will return them to their normal state where they will reference the vague story line and urge Bonk to rescue Princess Za. With only a total of five levels, rescuing the princess really doesn't take very long. The average gamer can probably run through the game in just a couple of hours. There are numerous secrets to be found in Bonk's Adventure. Oftentimes these are only found by smashing into random pieces of terrain to see if they crack. Whether or not this warrants another, more careful play through is entirely up to your patience. There are also occasional mini-games within levels such as bouncing on flowers to obtain fruit, but these are generally very boring and take away from the action. Their sole purpose is to provide a quick access to points. Racking up 10,000 points will earn an extra life, but in most cases it's easiest to just die and restart with two continues as Bonk's Adventure isn't very generous with rewarding points.

Bonk's Adventure is loaded with colorful environments and sprites. Bonk has a limited array of comical animations, and while most of the enemies have very few frames of animation, they still function without being distracting. The game barely falls short of most Super Nintendo games as far as graphics are concerned, but it's leagues ahead of the NES. The audio, on the other hand, is extremely primitive and basic. While there are a few catchy tunes, the majority of the sounds in Bonk's Adventure are so painfully produced that they actually induce headaches.

Final Comments
Bonk is a unique and quirky character from Hudson's past. The head bonking mechanics work wonderfully, and the game has a lot of style and character working for it. However, due to a lack of speed, the game feels somewhat sluggish. The adventure won't last long either with its meager five levels. Still, Bonk is an excellent game that any 2D side-scrolling platform fan should check out. Plus at the attractive price of 600 Wii points, Bonk's Adventure is a steal.

Points
+ Head bonking mechanics
+ Varied/interesting level design
-- Slow and sluggish
-- Only five levels

Score: 7/10

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