Bonk's Adventure - PC Engine

Review comments

Bonk's Adventure box art Set in prehistoric times, this Wonderboy-style scrolling platform game has the hero, a slap-head baldy called PC Kid, running and jumping his way through many levels, head butting an unbelievably weird load of beasts who run, hop and fly around him.

Each collision with a beastie diminishes energy, but there are loads of fruits to collect to top your total, and there are also kebabs!! Eat one of those and you can kill an enemy with one head butt. Eat a second and become invincible for a short period of time!

There are a variety of levels, starting off in the Prehistoric countryside. Get to the end of the that and it's across a volcanic landscape, followed by a hazardous clamber over the back of a massive dinosaur - get to his head and he opens his mouth, allowing PC Kid to continue his mission through the monster's stomach!! Weird, eh? And that's only the beginning…

Retrospective comments

Nintendo have Mario. Sega have Sonic. NEC have...Bonk! (Or PC Kid if you're Japanese.) This is one of best games available for the PC Engine/Turbo Grafx and is well worth hunting down. The gameplay is addictive, the visuals are nice and colourful (although it had to be said they look a little bland compared to Mario and Sonic) and the music is pleasant enough. This also presents a harder challenge than most platformers of its type, as well.