Saturday 13 November 2010

Hidden Gems - Bonk's Adventure

Bonk's Adventure is a platform game released on the TurboGrafx-16 in 1990,
Set in prehistoric times, dinosaurs wearing propeller caps and shades rule the earth...naturally.
It's about a boy-caveman with an abnormally large noggin called Bonk.
He attacks by 'bonking' enemies with his head, either headbutting or doing an aerial slam with it.
The 'Power Mushrooms' of the game are hunks of Meat, you eat one, steam'll burst from Bonk's ears and he'll get mad, momentarily freezing enemies if he does a head stomp, eat another and he'll turn invincible charging through everything in sight and will freeze enemies for much longer.

You play through 5 worlds, each containing various amounts of levels, to beat King Drool (A large green dinosaur) and rescue Princess Za (a cute pink plesiosaurus)
So all in all a storyline that everyone will be familiar with.

It's an easy enough game to get to grips with, simple to get through, and in general very fun
the levels are bright, colourful, vivid and most, creative (one level has you going through a dinosaurs insides!)
Others though are pretty stereotypical for prehistoric times, (jungles, caves and savannas)
but this doesn't mean to say that they aren't great looking levels!


The music, in my opinion, is absolutely fantastic.
They suit the levels and feel of the game perfectly and are very memorable,
one of my personal favourites is the Swamp theme, which I am listening to now actually!
It's always a pleasure to listen to and sometimes I stop in the middle of the game just to listen to it.

At the end of every world there's a cool looking Dino-bones elevator that takes you to a boss stage (music kicks ass there too!)
The bosses are all Dinosaurs full of character that have been brainwashed by King Drool via an egg shell on their head, the main idea is the same, keep smashing their head till the shell and the spell breaks.
After the fight, you have a little cutscene where the brainwashed Dino introduces himself and thanks you for breaking Drool's hold over them it's pretty cool.


Wrapping things up Bonk's Adventure is an awesome game that was sadly ignored because people at the time were fussing over Mario and Sonic instead, so to you people that bought Bonk when it originally came out.. Well Done! I bet you got hours of enjoyment outta the game.
Bonk went on to have many sequels (which I may review in the future)
and a couple of Spinoffs (which I may buy in the future)
I'm not surprised at all, because after beating this wonderful game, you'll be hungry for lots more!

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