I missed out on the Turbografx-16 while I was growing up, but I still remember the Bonk series. I would see it advertised in many catalogs back in the day, and I always wanted to give it a try. Now that I have I’m not the biggest fan, but the games are definitely fun. After releasing a few sequels the developer, Hudson Soft, took the series in a new direction by releasing a futuristic shooter named Air Zonk. Bonk was firmly rooted in the caveman world and so looking back this is a pretty interesting title. I’m a huge fan of horizontal shooters, and this is one of the first games I collected. It was only yesterday that I finally gave it a shot. I was surprised to discover that this spin-off is easily one of the best shooters ever released for the platform. Any Turbografx fan knows this is a tall order because the system is well known for its shooters, but it’s true.
Air Zonk is the story about Bonk’s descendant who becomes a cyborg when he puts on a pair of glasses. He’s all punked out with a lightning bolt mohawk and he’s out to defeat the evil King Drool who is bent on world domination. It’s got that nineties attitude that I’ve grown to love over the years, and it’s all around pretty bizarre. The enemies standing in your path include what basically amounts to toy helicopters, arrangements of sushi, clusters of scrap metal, cow fish, and several objects I can’t even decipher. This is significantly more crazy than anything we’ve previously seen in the Bonk series, and it’s even more odd than most of the abstract Japanese titles like this but that’s half of its charm. As I’ve already said the game is a horizontal scrolling shooter. Zonk begins with a simple green colored shot, and this is the basic set-up that you return to each time that you die. You don’t have to start from the beginning of the stage when you lose a life, and instead are thrown back into the action but with only the basic shot again.
Shooters often suffer from a lack of variety, but that’s not the case here. Enemy formations are varied and make for some rather interesting scenarios. There are also a lot of different types that change between each of the stages which is rather nice. The power-up system is really what propels this game above the rest. The basic projectile types are quite varied, and they’re just as zany as the rest of the game is. The game includes throwing cards which go in all forward directions, a laser with limited range, alligator teeth that chomp anything in their path, boomerangs that must either return to Zonk or go off-screen before you can use more, and a boxing glove that functions in a similar manner. I didn’t even list them all, but they’re all useful and there’s good variety in the arsenal. In addition most of the weapons have a charge shot with varying effects. These too are useful, but in this game you need to use them strategically because charging takes some time. I really liked the reference to past Bonk games in that the power-ups are pieces of meat with an icon representing which weapon they are. You even have option characters which differ between the levels and touching the big happy face icon that appears once per stage will combine Bonk with them allowing for even more weapon variety. The power-up system here is better than in most.
Unfortunately the game is only five stages long. That’s pretty disappointing to read, but these areas are actually quite long to complete. In addition you also have end of the stage bosses to deal with as well as mid-level super powered enemies. Air Zonk is challenging, but it’s far from unfair. Collecting any weapon power-up grants you an extra hit before dying, but your weapon does revert back to the original simple green shots. You have several lives that increase as you reach specific scores in your overall points, and are thrown right back into the action when you die. When you lose all of your lives you can continue with little penalty. You need only start the level over from the beginning. This makes everything pretty easy, but the sheer number of enemies on screen ensures that you’ll always be challenged. I didn’t even realize until the final stage that enemies directly behind Zonk are damaged by his jet pack which just adds to the chaos.
Did I mention that Air Zonk is one of the most beautiful games on the Turbografx? The game is vibrant and colorful so much that you would actually think this was beyond what the other 16-bit consoles were capable of. The game features limited animation, but that’s okay for this type of game in this era. The sprites are huge though, and push the system to its limits. The most impressive part of this title is the parallax scrolling. The game features so much of this that it has a definitive 3D look, and in particular the first part of stage five is very impressive even featuring objects in its purple background flowing liquid. Air Zonk is easily one of the best looking titles of its era. It looks better than most late released Genesis titles. The soundtrack is pretty good and has a style all its own. It’s very pop centric with some electronic notes, and I liked it overall. It’s not something I would listen to outside of playing the game however, but the soundtrack is well done.
It’s pretty obvious why Zonk was the mascot of the Turbo Duo hardware. The sequel isn’t as good, but Air Zonk is a solid shooter on every level. The unique style along with the fantastic power-ups and great enemy patterns make this one a winner. Forget Star Soldier, forget Lords of Thunder; Air Zonk is where it’s at.
