Bonk's Adventure

Bonk was essentially the mascot for the Turbo Grafx, with three games under his belt before moving on to the Super NES. If you want to get technical, and I know how you love to get technical, the first Bonk was also released in Japan on the NES. While this game had quite a lot going for it in terms of innovation (i.e.: not just another Mario clone), the layout and overall presentation just didn't impress me.

If you frequent this page I'm sure you know all about Bonk; the big-headed caveman who loves to eat food and go on rampages. Bonk's weapon of choice was his enormous noggin. He could jump and dive toward enemies for the kill, which was actually a lot of fun once the process becomes familiar. And, as mentioned above, eating the hunks of meat scattered around each level would transform Bonk into a remorseless killing machine, complete with evil eyes and a glowing aura. Bonk could also bite into the side of a cliff wall and chomp up said wall until he was at the top; a unique approach to scaling a wall versus simply jumping to the next level.

The layout in this one was pretty confusing, though. The worlds were divided into several stages, as they are in nearly every platformer, but the number of stages in each world was sporadic at best. This means that you are never sure when you are about to encounter a boss, or if the world is going to keep on keeping on.

Another problem I had has to do with the switches on the Turbo controllers. I understand Hudson's want to utilize these switches in their game, but should you forget to just leave them at the max setting you may fail to properly negotiate a jump. This gets really annoying really fast.

I would still recommend this game to anyone with a Turbo Duo. This is a solid platformer with fun, original elements and a unique character to boot. However, if possible, I would recommend one of the sequels, which have a more cohesive flow.