Most platform heroes jump on their enemies. Bonk hits them with his head. He is a small bald caveman with a skull far too big for him, and in Bonk’s Adventure he head-butts dinosaurs, flips over in mid-air to land on them head first, and climbs cliffs by biting into the rock. The game came out for NEC’s PC Engine in Japan in 1989, published by Hudson Soft and made by the studio Red Company. Its hero went on to become the face of the machine.
Three names
In Japan the game is PC Genjin. British importers knew it as PC Kid. In America, where NEC sold the console as the TurboGrafx-16, he became Bonk. Ken Wirt, who ran NEC’s TurboGrafx-16 group from 1989 to 1991, explained the choice to Retro Gamer: the character “would go around and hit things with his head. In the US, a slang term for hitting something is to ‘bonk’ it, so we renamed the game Bonk’s Adventure.” He knew the word meant something else in Britain, and remembered that the advertising “got a lot of attention in Europe”. NEC also ran a “Bonk for President” campaign in the United States.
Playing it
Computer and Video Games reviewed the Japanese PC Engine game as PC Kid in March 1990 and gave it 93%. Paul Rand called it a “Wonderboy-style scrolling platform game” with a “slap-head baldy” for a hero, and enjoyed its strange enemies: “an unbelievably weird load of beasts who run, hop and fly around him”. Each hit costs energy, and fruit tops it up.
Meat makes Bonk stronger. In C&VG’s words, “Eat one of those and you can kill an enemy with one head butt. Eat a second and you become invincible for a short period of time!” The levels move from prehistoric countryside to a volcano, and then Bonk has to climb over the back of a huge dinosaur; when he reaches its head, it opens its mouth and he carries on through the monster’s stomach. “Weird, eh? And that’s only the beginning.”
The head is useful in the air as well as on the ground. Nintendo Magazine System, reviewing the Game Boy version in 1992, explained that pressing the button in mid-air “flips GB Kid over so that he lands on his head”, and pressing it again puts him back on his feet; on a long enough jump he can flip several times and hit a large enemy repeatedly. Bonk climbs walls by biting into them, which the German magazine Video Games still described in 1993 as gnawing his way up “rock faces and bamboo poles”. Nintendo Power’s description of the later NES version gives the plot: Bonk must rescue a kidnapped Moon Princess from King Drool.
NEC’s mascot
Retro Gamer put Bonk’s place in the console war in three sentences: “Sega had Sonic. Nintendo had Mario. NEC had PC Kid.” Video Games said the same in 1993: what Mario was to Nintendo and Sonic to Sega, Bonk was to PC Engine fans. He was never as famous as either: in America the TurboGrafx-16 struggled against Sega and Nintendo, as Retro Gamer put it to Wirt. Wireframe called the first game “the PC Engine’s refreshing alternative to the wholesome Super Mario”.
Sequels
| Game | Also known as | Year | Machine |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bonk’s Adventure | PC Genjin, PC Kid | 1989 | PC Engine |
| Bonk’s Revenge | PC Kid 2 | 1991 | PC Engine |
| Bonk’s Adventure | GB Kid | 1992 | Game Boy |
| Bonk 3 | 1993 | PC Engine | |
| Bonk’s Adventure | 1993 | NES | |
| Super Bonk | Super PC Kid, Super BC Kid | 1994 | Super NES |
PC Kid 2 was in the PC Engine importers’ chart printed by C&VG in November 1991. Video Games reviewed Bonk 3 in June 1993: two players at once, new meats that turn Bonk into a giant or a tiny “Bonk pea”, and seven levels of three parts each. Nintendo Magazine System liked the Game Boy version’s “almost perfect miniature renditions” of the sprites but finished it in “slightly over three quarters of an hour”. Nintendo Power thought the NES game “good for younger players, mostly because it’s not very challenging and is not very long”. The Super NES game reached Britain in 1995 as Super BC Kid, published by Virgin. There was also a shooting game spin-off, PC Denjin.
Sources
- Computer and Video Games issue 100, March 1990, p. 100: Paul Rand’s review of PC Kid (PC Engine, £29.90; meat; the levels; 93% overall). Issue 120, November 1991, p. 110: PC Engine chart with PC Kid 2.
- Retro Gamer issue 40, 2007, pp. 46–49: PC Engine feature and interview with Ken Wirt (the Bonk name, “Bonk for President”); the PC Kid/Bonk’s Adventure profile (1989, Hudson, Red/Atlus; “NEC had PC Kid”; PC Denjin); the TurboGrafx-16’s struggle against Sega and Nintendo.
- Nintendo Magazine System issue 3, December 1992, p. 63: review of the Game Boy version (the mid-air flip; “GB Kid”; the length).
- Video Games (Germany), June 1993, p. 39: review of Bonk 3 (two players, the new meats, the levels, climbing; Bonk compared with Mario and Sonic).
- Nintendo Power issue 60, May 1994, p. 100: the NES version (King Drool, the Moon Princess; the copyright line).
- Super Play issue 25, November 1994, p. 49: a comparison with Super PC Kid. Issue 31, May 1995, p. 38: Super BC Kid (Virgin).
- Wireframe issue 53, July 2021, p. 88: “Developer Profile: Hudson Soft” (Bonk’s Adventure, PC Engine, 1989).