Uploaded April 2026 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
A playthrough of Hudson's 1994 platformer for the NES, Bonk's Adventure.
Bonk's Adventure is an adaptation of the TurboGrafx-16's signature mascot platformer, and it was one of the last NES games to be released before the platform was officially retired in North America in late 1994. It was also the only official NES title to be developed by AI Co., a small Tokyo-based firm that had previously worked on the unreleased Time Diver: Eon Man.
This isn't a port or a demake of the 1990 TG16 game. Rather, it's a new game built on the original's gameplay mechanics, characters, and settings.
Bonk is a caveman who's on a mission to save his girlfriend, the dragon Princess Za, from King Drool III. He's a little guy, but he uses his ginormous head to smash anyone who dares get in his way and his cast iron jaw to scale cliffs, and whenever he eats meat, he "goes nuclear" (according to the ads, at least) and turns into an unhinged psycho who creates earthquakes by smashing his bulbous dome into the ground.
The game controls like the Turbo version, much of the music is the same, the flow of the stage design is similar, and the enemies and bosses return for encore performances, but the stages are new. They incorporate callbacks to memorable moments (like whacking the dinosaur's head to enter its mouth, or riding skull elevators down to the bosses' lairs), but the layouts and enemy placements are different, the background graphics were completely redone, and the game is only about two-thirds the length of the original. It's not at all a 1:1 recreation, but it effectively captures the vibe of the original experience. That goes for the presentation, too. The move to the NES obviously required cuts, but it still looks the part.
I prefer the TurboGrafx-16 game, but I enjoyed this as an alternate take on the same idea. It's a fun play.
_____________
No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
NintendoComplete (nintendocomplete.com/) punches you in the face with in-depth reviews, screenshot archives, and music from classic 8-bit NES games!
A playthrough of Hudson's 1994 platformer for the NES, Bonk's Adventure.
Bonk's Adventure is an adaptation of the TurboGrafx-16's signature mascot platformer, and it was one of the last NES games to be released before the platform was officially retired in North America in late 1994. It was also the only official NES title to be developed by AI Co., a small Tokyo-based firm that had previously worked on the unreleased Time Diver: Eon Man.
This isn't a port or a demake of the 1990 TG16 game. Rather, it's a new game built on the original's gameplay mechanics, characters, and settings.
Bonk is a caveman who's on a mission to save his girlfriend, the dragon Princess Za, from King Drool III. He's a little guy, but he uses his ginormous head to smash anyone who dares get in his way and his cast iron jaw to scale cliffs, and whenever he eats meat, he "goes nuclear" (according to the ads, at least) and turns into an unhinged psycho who creates earthquakes by smashing his bulbous dome into the ground.
The game controls like the Turbo version, much of the music is the same, the flow of the stage design is similar, and the enemies and bosses return for encore performances, but the stages are new. They incorporate callbacks to memorable moments (like whacking the dinosaur's head to enter its mouth, or riding skull elevators down to the bosses' lairs), but the layouts and enemy placements are different, the background graphics were completely redone, and the game is only about two-thirds the length of the original. It's not at all a 1:1 recreation, but it effectively captures the vibe of the original experience. That goes for the presentation, too. The move to the NES obviously required cuts, but it still looks the part.
I prefer the TurboGrafx-16 game, but I enjoyed this as an alternate take on the same idea. It's a fun play.
_____________
No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
NintendoComplete (nintendocomplete.com/) punches you in the face with in-depth reviews, screenshot archives, and music from classic 8-bit NES games!
