RGR006 - TTFN

Do the Bonk! (But just this once)

Yeah, I messed up the "dancing" Bonk up there; the animation defaulted back to playing once when I went to save it, and I deleted the source frames. Oh well. Anyway, not to go throwing blame around, but the TurboGrafx-16 emulator I'm using on the PSP has a problem keeping track of more than 10 screenshots at a time, and just starts overwriting old ones when it reaches the 10th. What this means for you is that the majority of the pictures for this post were lost along the way, including boss and final stage pictures. I'll give you everything I've got, though.

Round 3 Boss: Ice Ballerina

Her pattern is simple enough; after emerging from beneath the ice floor in the center of the screen, she moves back and forth in a tight spin, kicking up snowballs when she changes direction. She's invincible until she stops in the center of the screen to do a pirouette, at which point you can head drop onto her one time. The problem that arises is in her height, since I myself took damage every time I hit her. Just like I said I would, I built up my score and stocked up on lives, but she took a couple back. In the end, though, it was enough to beat her.

Really? You fight with figure skating?

That is why you fail.

Round 4 Boss: Captain Cook (Pictures Lost)

Captain Cook is awfully goofy. He starts out playing Whac-a-Mole with you, popping his head out from any one of three pipes protruding from the ground, until you've done enough damage. Then he takes to the air in a flying warship, sending missiles and fireballs your way. You just have to dodge his attacks until he comes down low enough for you to get above him, and get in a few headbutt drops. Repeat until he's done for.

Round 5 Boss: Unnamed Armored Flying Guy (Pictures Lost)

A proper name isn't given anywhere for this guy, but he appears to be some sort of armored pterodactyl warrior. He fights in two similar phases: a helmeted phase and an unhelmeted phase. When his helmet is on, he just hovers back and forth at the top of the screen, occasionally diving at you. When he dives, you can jump up and drop onto him. Once he loses his helmet, he starts launching flying robotic Bonk-seeking gauntlets, mainly as a distraction. Otherwise, he fights the same way. Take out the gauntlets as soon as they appear, and fight as usual. He's pretty easy.

The final stage is the Moon Pyramid, a series of short levels that can be played in any order, each of which ends with a battle with one of the previous bosses. Once they've all been cleared, the route to the final battle with King Drool III opens.

King Drool is actually too easy, in my opinion. He launches one of three attacks from the top of a pillar in the center of the screen: falling icicles, flaming rocks, or missiles, all of which are easily avoided. Then he floats off one side of the screen, and runs back and forth a couple of times to trample you. A well-timed head drop during each pass will finish him off quickly. Once King Drool is defeated, his moon base is destroyed, and the two halves of the moon reunite. Hooray for Bonk!

But it'll just start waning
again next week.

Bonk's the ultimate ladies' man.

Who're you callin' a booga?

Exclamapses?

And that ends yet another fun-filled retro game! I think I'm going to take a hiatus of two weeks or so to get things packed up and moved into the new house, but shortly after that, it's Dragon Warrior III time! YOU CAN'T WAIT!!!

RGR Game #006: Bonk's Revenge

Revenge? For what?

As soon as I started Bonk's Adventure, I knew I'd be opening a can of worms. After all, the game's got two official sequels and a spinoff shmup. But that's just the way it goes, so I'm going to go with the flow here and move on to Bonk's Revenge. I should point out that Bonk isn't actually seeking revenge for anything; it was just a questionable choice for a title.

Anyway, the story involves King Drool III, the grandson of King Drool from the first game, constructing a floating fortress out of the top half of the moon. Now it's up to Bonk to beat up the bad guys and make the moon whole once again. At least that's what I infer from the game itself, as the intro given in the instructions almost seems to be describing a different game.

The game itself plays exactly like the first one, with some powerup tweaks, including the ability to freeze enemies with projectiles, breathe fire, and destroy all enemies on the screen with a head drop to the ground. Bonk's appearance has also changed in his most powered-up form, which is best known as Butthead Bonk. See below for the reason.

Note: this batch of screenshots isn't the best, as they've been resized, but they'll do in a pinch. I swear I'll do better next time.

Why would I just play part of the game?

Uhh... NSFW?

Yes, Bonk, hop inside the
suspicious contraption!

That CAN'T be good for your teeth.

Round 1 Boss: Dodogie

Dodogie's your average crotchety old giant tortoise with a volcano for a shell. Nothing special. He's also very easy to beat, as his only attack involves launching flaming rocks, six at a time, into the air. They fall slowly enough that they're easy to dodge. He then pulls his head and tail out of his shell and stands there absent-mindedly, giving you plenty of time to beat up on him. Just stay away from his spiked tail!

Is that ear hair?

Foiled again!

Round 2 Boss: Witch Doctor

The Witch Doctor isn't tough to beat, with the only difficulty being the initial jump to get high enough to drop onto him. His attacks consist of wildly trampling you, and some sort of beam which he fires using a targeting reticule on his front horn. I never got hit by it, but I suspect it turns you to stone. Just avoid the beam and jump when he comes at you, and hit him all you can. Easy enough.

Ting tang...

Walla-walla bing-bang!

According to the instructions, I've only got 3 continues, so from here on out, I'll be trying to maximize my score to stock up on extra lives. I'd like to clear this one without continuing too.