Bonk’s Adventure (NES Review)

Bonk’s Adventure
Platform: Nintendo Entertainment System
Developed by Atlus
Published by Hudson Soft
First Released July 30, 1993 (JP)
NEVER BEEN RE-RELEASED

Despite being very stripped down from the TG-16 original, Bonk NES is actually one of the best looking games the console ever had. There’s an alternate universe where Bonk never came out on the TG-16. Where THIS is the first Bonk, it came out in 1990 instead of 1994 (in the US at least). In that universe, I imagine Bonk is a certified NES legend.

NOTE FROM FUTURE CATHY TO CATHY IN THE PAST: STOP committing to theme months before knowing if you can muster up the enthusiasm to write a full review you dumb ass! So yea, no Bonktober. Maybe I’ll get to Revenge in October, 2024.
-Yours Truly.. well, Yours Truly.

You’ll note that I’m not going in chronological order for Bonktober. If I were, Bonk on the NES would be the fifth game I’d be reviewing this month. However, only the NES game (and some home PCs, but I’m not playing those) tries to be something resembling a direct port of the TurboGrafx-16 original, so I opted to play both back-to-back. It’s really the only true port of Bonk during that era, despite the coin-op and Game Boy titles having the same name. Along with Super Bonk, they’re all entirely original games. Meanwhile, the NES carries over as much of the level design, enemies, bosses, and set pieces from the first game as the Famicom could handle without catching fire. Imagine that: the entire PC Engine trilogy of Bonk released before this NES port of the original Bonk’s Adventure debuted. Incredibly, the game that was pegged as the killer app for the American side of NEC’s efforts ended up as one of the final globally released NES/Famicom games. That doesn’t really mean anything in the grand scheme of things, but I found that fact to be an oddly fitting historic quirk.

Remember that the Famicom/NES and the PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16 are very close cousins in terms of architecture, so it’s no surprise that the NES can come so admirably close to replicating the original’s striking looks.

Remarkably, NES Bonk is still Bonk. It looks the part, with some of the best graphics on the NES, especially for a platformer. Bonk was one of the most colorful games of the era, and I figured the NES would look drab. But, their choices of color palettes were especially wise, with various shades of brown and green that work with the prehistoric theme. I’m THIS CLOSE to saying it works just as well as the colorful TG-16 build. Bonk retains enough charm to count as.. well.. charming, and even managed to keep all the bosses, though a couple play slightly different. This is a really close approximation of what Bonk was on the TG-16. A very impressive effort. So, why isn’t Bonk more recognized on the NES? And don’t tell me it has to do with the late release.

Okay, the late release factored in for sure, but there’s more.

The climbing and swimming controls are, in my opinion, much better on the NES. Sadly, the creepy-ass flower whammies aren’t so much creepy as they are pitiful now. Yea, that’s one in the picture. Sad.

Bonk on the NES has a overall smaller feel to it. There’s levels that have been cut from the TG-16 version. The ice level that actually surprised me with its quality on the TG-16? It’s gone. There’s a memorable segment on the TG-16 where a level immediately starts with a collapsing bridge that leads directly to the level’s exit, but if you don’t make it across, you have to play a swimming stage. That’s gone too. While I mourn the ice stage’s loss.. I never thought I’d say those words.. it really feels like a lot of the gristle was cut from Bonk. On the other hand, the combat that I loved so much feels significantly muffled on the NES. Oddly, the OOMPH is retained, but it’s the enemies themselves that are less fun to fight. They’re smaller, come in lesser numbers, and easier to manage. When you’re powered-up, you can clear the entire screen of baddies just by performing a diving headbutt to the ground. The NES Bonk feeds into my notion that Bonk is meant to be baby’s first platformer.

Probably the best swimming controls on the NES. No button mashing. Just move, swim, and attack as needed. You can even jump underwater while you’re swimming. It’s very nice.

Oh, it’s still fun. I’m giving it a YES! and everything. But, while the three main methods of combat are still every bit as excellent on the NES as they were on the TG-16, the scaled down enemies lead to Bonk NES almost completely lacking in urgency. It’s not as if Bonk was white knuckle to begin with, so the fact that what little intensity it had has been further scaled back stings quite a lot. Oddly, the NES build does have some technical improvements over the original, but all those do is further simplify the game. The biggest positive change is that collision detection feels more accurate on the NES. It controls better, too! The swimming is faster paced, and the climbing is a cinch. Other “improvements” actually hurt. The “bonus stage” flowers stick out like a sore thumb on the NES, which meant I had racked-up over twenty extra lives that I didn’t need. I only died twice the entire time. Once against the third boss, and once against the second-to-last boss. All the bosses feel easier, though, and while the scale of them is shockingly retained, they are nerfed. The second boss doesn’t create a clone of itself, and the final boss seems to have a much more generous collision box.

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I wouldn’t go so far as to call Bonk on the NES a lost classic. Even during those moments where you think to yourself “hey, this is slightly better than the more advanced TG-16 version” you’ll always wish you were playing the original build. I really don’t understand why they made the decision to attempt a port. Look: it’s hella impressive that the NES could even have a game that runs this closely to what is arguably the game that sold the most TurboGrafx-16s in America. But, at the point when this was released, I think it’s a safe bet that most people who REALLY wanted to play it probably found a way to do so. It’s not like this was an arcade port. The NES is not the TG-16 and Bonk’s Adventure on the NES, as good as it is, is also a reminder that paying tribute to the spirit of the original game is always preferable to attempting a port you can’t possibly run. With that said, when the inevitable Bonk Collection hits, I hope they include this, because it’s worth a look, even if only as a historical curio.
Verdict: YES!