Bonk's Adventure

Bonk's Adventure, known as PC Genjin (PC原人) in Japan and PC Kid in Europe, is a scrolling platform game developed by Red Company and Atlus and released in 1989 in Japan and 1990 in North America for the PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16. The Japanese title PC Genjin is a play on the system's original name, PC Engine, with the European title PC Kid similarly referencing the system's name. The first game in the series, it was followed by two more games for the TurboGrafx-16 before branching out to other platforms.

In a time when consoles had to have mascots, Bonk was the representative for the TurboGrafx-16. As a platformer it was held in direct comparison to Mario and Sonic. Although it was a star when it came to graphics, in particular color palette, it never garnered enough popular appeal to push sales of the TurboGrafx.

Bonk's Adventure was ported to the NES and Amiga, as well as being released as a coin-operated arcade game, under different titles (FC Genjin and BC Genjin in Japan, and BC Kid in Europe). A completely different game with the same name appeared on the Game Boy (under the title GB Genjin in Japan). In November/December 2006, Bonk's Adventure was released on the Wii Virtual Console. It was also added to the PlayStation Network store in 2011.

Story
The game's protagonist is Bonk, a strong caveboy who battles anthropomorphic dinosaurs and other prehistoric themed enemies. Bonk's mission is to rescue Princess Za (a small pink Pleisiosaur-type reptile) who has been kidnapped by the evil King Drool (a large, green, Tyrannosaurus-type dinosaur). In the Arcade version, Bonk is also assisted by a female version of himself.

Gameplay
Bonk attacks enemies by "bonking" them with his large, invincible forehead. Bonk starts the game with three hearts' worth of health, which are depleted to blue as Bonk takes damage, and three extra lives. Bonk's health can be restored in increments by collecting fruits and vegetables.

Bonk can also collect pieces of meat as power-ups; these lend him special abilities and make him stronger. There are three stages of power-up: his normal self, a second stage during which he can stun enemies by pounding on the ground, and a third stage where he becomes temporarily invulnerable. Meat can be found in two varieties: big meat and small meat. The effects of meat are additive but wear off over time. A small meat gives Bonk the second stage of meat power but will eventually decay into the first stage of meat power, and then back into regular Bonk. Eating a small meat while in stage two will put Bonk into the third, invincible stage of meat power. And eating either size of meat while in the third stage of meat power-up will reset the timer on Bonk's meat power.

Bonk can occasionally collect red heart power-ups that refill an entire heart worth of health, or even more rarely, a large red heart, which restores all of Bonk's missing health. There are also two rare, blue heart power-ups in the game which will increase Bonk's maximum health by one heart.

Bonking an enemy will typically knock it backward and slightly into the air. Defeating an enemy yields points and also releases a small "smiley" power-up. Bonk's smileys are totaled at the end of each stage after defeating the boss of that stage. The player is given additional points and a caveman type congratulation based on how many smileys were collected.