bonk is one of those games that just makes you grin from ear to ear, and giggle like a school girl.
bonk is one of those games that just makes you grin from ear to ear, and giggle like a school girl. it's a happy, sunny day kind of game, but there's also something strongly nostalgic about it, even if you never played it when it first came out.
you play as bonk, a sort of strange, cave-man type boy with a big hard head. you flutter around lots of colourful landscapes such as jungles, beaches and icy plains, headbutting dinosaurs and the like.
on bonk's charming journey to smash all reptiles unconcious, there is plenty to eat along the way, such as ice cream, cooked meat wrapped around a bone (these make bonk go bezerk), and all manner of exotic fruits.
bonk's big head isn't just good for nutting the local fauna though; it's actually quite a versatile tool. he can dive bomb his enemies from the sky; jumping and then pressing the action button in mid-air sends bonk crashing down, head first, into passers-by.
bonk's teeth are also fairly durable, as he can sink his jaws into stone, using them to scale any large walls. when confronted with networks of palm trees, bonk can latch his big gob onto the thick branches, and spin around, flicking himself up to higher ground. all you need is a good head on your shoulders and you'll be alright.
bonk's world is drenched in day-glo pastel with thick, black, and slightly fuzzy border lines. the colour pallete, while limited, evokes images of childrens' drawings, drawing with confident and consistantly applied force.
the music of bonk's world unites wonderfully with the slightly drenched, naieve pastel, creating an overwhelmingly happy feeling, that eventually surpasses the feeling of familiarity.
what will tip you over the edge though is the liberal spreading of mini games, masked as little flowers that bonk can jump on; the flowers grow eyes and the petals flutter upwards, lifting bonk into a jolly, fruit-eating collect-a-thon. although nothing new, its thanks to the varied challenges and charming music and sounds, they never get old. the game just wants to fill you with joy.
for all the joy of strolling with bonk through his world, there are perhaps too many monsters for the little big-head to deal with, and you never feel fully in control of his strictly binary movements. when in the icy parts of the world, bonk's shiny head has a tendency to slip even farther away from your grip, often making him crash into the many varied creatures on parade.
bosses too, take you by suprise. perhaps as a trade off for the fresh novelty of the aesthetic and story, you're never sure of who you will face and what tactics are involved. making that special connection with the bosses can prove taxing. sometimes bonk will 'hit it off', but at other times he'll fail miserably.
all in all, bonk's journey is short, conventional, charming, but rather slippery until you learn the ropes.
revenge has never tasted so sweet!