Bonk's Revenge

Like all good mascots, Bonk returns to the frontlines for his second adventure on the Turbo Duo. This one maintains the aspects of the original that made him a platforming darling, and adds new elements to keep the game play fresh and fun. And boy does he love that food!

This is a tale as old as time; princess is abducted by evil madman and it is up to our hero to right the wrongs. In this case, righting those wrongs means pummeling everything in sight with an enormous cranium. I do find it a bit odd that Bonk walks around in caveman garb while the rest of society has clearly evolved and adopted the Divinity of Kings idea. Regardless, Bonk don't take nothing from nobody, and his hubris is evident in his usual tricks, as well as several new moves. In addition to the classic jumping and diving onto enemies with your head, you can also swim up waterfalls and swing around poles. The pole swinging seems an obvious direction for a platforming star, but it's the swimming up waterfalls that really shows the world how hardcore this little guy really is.

The level design has been re-worked a little here, thankfully, and each world now has a similar number of stages. That was a real problem I had with the first one. The stages themselves range from the usual bright, colorful tropical/ Precambrian zones like the first game, and move on to snowy levels and even more medieval inspired layouts. Again, why does this fellow refuse to don more modern attire when there are clearly knights walking around, armor and all? I guess this also shows his hard-edged taking no guff approach to everything.

The music is fun and appropriately fits each stage. There really isn't anything particularly bad to say about these games, other than the formulaic gameplay getting a little tired after playing for a long period of time. But that should in no way deter you from enjoying this series.