Bonk or Zonk?

[ShinobiMan]

I recently was playing some of my old Turbo Grafx 16 games, and was having a blast playing the old Bonk and Zonk games. Yes, even the Super CD release of Super Air Zonk is still a joy to play... although the original is better.

Given the two "mascots" and their respective games, who do you prefer? Who is the most iconic and badass???

Bonk or Zonk? And what does Zonk even mean? I know Bonk refers to a headbutt... but... Zonk? Hmm.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_CGdbWRAh_KI/Sbg8YzZ3RXI/AAAAAAAABFc/y_u1QYOf7us/s320/AirZonk.jpg http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2009/225/Bonkadventure_05475_640screen.jpg

[tomaitheous]

Tough choice. I love Air Zonk for hucard. I even wrote a music engine to play the songs ripped from the game. But the original Bonk (and part 2) are a lot of fun. I love the gameplay mechanics. I just wish Bonk 1 was a little longer (some more challenge in the later area bosses too) and that Bonk 2 retained that super float/spin of the original. Bonk 2 was great in every way but that. Well, I hate that they capped the amount of extra men you could hold in Bonk 2. That was lame.

[Robocop2]

Bonk all the way; I never got into Zonk

[Aussie2B]

I pick PC Genjin. :P Considering his name is actually a clever spin-off of the system's name rather than a lame description of what the character does.

[tomaitheous]

I pick PC Genjin. :P Considering his name is actually a clever spin-off of the system's name rather than a lame description of what the character does.

What else could they have named him for the US release? BC-kid? That's lame. I like PC-Genjin too, but Bonk fits fine.

[Aussie2B]

I know, the joke is a localization nightmare so it's not like they could've done better, but it's still my favorite of the three.

[Jorpho]

Zonk always struck me as a desperate move, as if someone said, "Our character isn't popular! We need to make him Darker and Edgier (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DarkerAndEdgier)! Let's throw a bunch of crap on his face!"

So jah, go Bonk.

[Arkhan]

I pick PC Genjin. :P Considering his name is actually a clever spin-off of the system's name rather than a lame description of what the character does.

its not a clever spin off. Its a clever coincidence.

Genjin means primitive man in Japanese. :)



I pick Bonk because the games are more fun than Air Zonk. Air Zonk should have been a contra style game.

[Aussie2B]

Coincidence? What, do you think it was a happy accident or something? Of course it was intentional. I don't know what came first, the idea for the system's name or the idea for a mascot's name (likely the former), but obviously one begat the other. I don't think they came up with the idea for a game that stars a caveman and then half way through development realized "Oh crap, 'genjin' rhymes with 'engine'!"

[Icarus Moonsight]

Bonk > TG Cro-Magnon - If chosen to judge, I would accept Turbo Australopithecus though.

Isn't this kinda like asking, "Who's better? Astro Boy or Fred Flintstone?" I mean, one is a robot and the other stops stone cars with his feet... Tough call. LOL

[Arkhan]

Coincidence? What, do you think it was a happy accident or something? Of course it was intentional. I don't know what came first, the idea for the system's name or the idea for a mascot's name (likely the former), but obviously one begat the other. I don't think they came up with the idea for a game that stars a caveman and then half way through development realized "Oh crap, 'genjin' rhymes with 'engine'!"

you said "his name is a clever spin-off" like they made up the word for the sake of rhyming with the game.

at least, thats how i took it.

[todesengel]

Gonna have to go with Bonk, the little bastard makes me smile every time I look at him.

[Aussie2B]

you said "his name is a clever spin-off" like they made up the word for the sake of rhyming with the game.

at least, thats how i took it.

No, I said it was a spin-off of the system's name, so that would suggest "PC Genjin" came second, not first. And I do believe that they came up with with the idea of a platformer starring a caveman purely because "genjin" rhymes with "engine". It's kind of funny to think about; if they had chosen a different name for the system, there would probably be an entirely different kind of mascot and probably different gameplay too considering the whole headbutting business wouldn't make sense with most other character concepts.

[tomaitheous]

No, I said it was a spin-off of the system's name, so that would suggest "PC Genjin" came second, not first. And I do believe that they came up with with the idea of a platformer starring a caveman purely because "genjin" rhymes with "engine". It's kind of funny to think about; if they had chosen a different name for the system, there would probably be an entirely different kind of mascot and probably different gameplay too considering the whole headbutting business wouldn't make sense with most other character concepts.

Correct. PC-Genjin(1990) came out after the PC-Engine(1987). PC Genjin was also a comic first, before it was a game. Due to its popularity in a japanese game magazine, and gamers mistaking it as a promotion for a game, Hudson contracted Red to create a game based on the comic. Chris Covell has a write up on it.

Another fun fact, Air Zonk the first one - wasn't created from the ground up. They (Red? Hudson?) licensed the engine from Naxat, who was already running it as Coryoon. It's not speculation (although one can easily see the similarities). I actually wrote a Air Zonk music player from scratch to play song data from the rom. After hearing about the similarity between the two games, I looked/traced through the code. And sure enough, it uses the exact same code/engine. Even ram variables and code in the *exact* same place, which is very rare even for having source code (small changes offsets the ram/rom addresses).

(Shameless plug) And this thread reminded me to upload this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVDiPPtYMUE&fmt=18 . An Air Zonk song playing on a half working music engine at the time (there are a lot of errors, so that the result was something very much different and with different tracks playing at different parts, etc).

And with that, I finally decided. I voted Bonk. I love me some Air Zonk shooting action, but Bonk 1+2 has more content than just Air Zonk 1 (I don't care for Air Zonk 2 CD game).

Edit: You know, the cover of Air Zonk reminds me a lot of "Garbage pal kids"....

[Arkhan]

No, I said it was a spin-off of the system's name, so that would suggest "PC Genjin" came second, not first. .

hmm.


I pick PC Genjin. :P Considering his name is actually a clever spin-off of the system's name rather than a lame description of what the character does.

Yes you did. :whip:

its not a clever spin off, its a happy accident. lol

[Aussie2B]

Huh? You're not making any sense. Those two sentence say the SAME dang thing, man. It (as in the title "PC Genjin") or his (as in the character's name: PC Genjin) were derived from the system's name, PC Engine. How can I possibly make such a simple statement any clearer?

[Famidrive-16]

zonk was the first TG16 game i played as a kid

so, zonk

i love bonk but zonk is hella underrated

[Arkhan]

Huh? You're not making any sense. Those two sentence say the SAME dang thing, man. It (as in the title "PC Genjin") or his (as in the character's name: PC Genjin) were derived from the system's name, PC Engine. How can I possibly make such a simple statement any clearer?

HIS means the little bald guy running around

ITS means the title of the game.

you were making it sound like they pulled out their clever-o-matic and had it create a word that rhymed with "engine". All they did was put PC in front of the Japanese word for caveman. Thats all I was sayin'

I love the game and all but I don't see whats so clever about it, or how its a "spin off". You're not spinning anything off of anything if you're just using two vocabulary words. :)

[j_factor]

I love the game and all but I don't see whats so clever about it

PC Engine.
PC Genjin.

It's called a pun. And it's pretty goddamn clever.

[MarioMania]

Bonk for me, I have it on my NES

Can Air Zonk be done on the NES or the Mega Drive??

[tomaitheous]

Bonk for me, I have it on my NES

I found the NES port of Bonk to be pretty bad. I mean, for a late gen NES game - it could have had better controls, and little better graphics. The lack of the spin/float of the original PCE one also makes it lacking (that's part of the fun - you can find hidden places/items/bonus areas with that).


Can Air Zonk be done on the NES or the Mega Drive??

With sacrificing stuff and maybe some changes here and there, yes for the NES. And probably a little bit of colors loss (if noticeable at all), but definitely on the MD. AZ has nice graphics and all, but it's not pushing the color limit on the PCE/TG (nowhere near). I'd like to hear some Genesis revisions of the AZ music too. That would be cool.

[nectarsis]

Zonk easily. Still one of my fav TG/PCE games.

[Jorpho]

Can Air Zonk be done on the NES or the Mega Drive??Sir, anything can pretty much be done on pretty much anything else, depending on how much you're willing to sacrifice. Stop asking.

[MarioMania]

lol I gotta ask

[Arkhan]

PC Engine.
PC Genjin.

It's called a pun. And it's pretty goddamn clever.

so what if its a pun, most puns arent clever, lol.

i guess I dont see whats so clever about rhyming words.

:) oh well.

[InsaneDavid]

so what if its a pun, most puns arent clever, lol.

i guess I dont see whats so clever about rhyming words.

:) oh well.

Go play some Hydlide.

[ScottK]

It is a tough question, but i'll go with Bonk. If i remember correctly, Zonk was given his name through a contest tzd hosted. I remember you could suggest a name at the Summer CES in the early 90's, before the game was released. Zonk is supposed to the Bonk's futuristic cousin or some other relative...kinda like Wario is to Mario.

[ReTrO-pLaYeR]

To me, the Air Zonk character feels a little more marketable. After all, he's "cooler" and much edgier than his prehistoric counterpart. He's the kind of character you'd expect to go big and become a big sellout ala Zelda- but of course since TurboGrafx16 was a failure in the market that never happened. I always thought Bonk was better though. He's adorable and animated, it's always fun seeing his various antics- especially that moment in Revenge when he eats fishing bait and a Chikkun (egg head monster) reels him in. Classic.

[sevin0seven]

i voted for Bonk. =]

[Arkhan]

Go play some Hydlide.

I did already. Now what? :)


It appears not too many people like Zonk very much, especially when compared to Bonk.



What if Bonk were the shmup and Zonk were the platformer? I wonder if it'd change anything

[Nintega Grafx-16]

I voted for Zonk because his game is a shoot 'em up. I also tend to root for the underdog most of the time :D

[Arkhan]

I voted for Zonk because his game is a shoot 'em up. I also tend to root for the underdog most of the time :D

dont let zonk hear you calling him an underdog!

hell mess you up sucka

[Ed Oscuro]

It's good that they got some use out of the lame name "PC Engine." YES, let's make a system name that will obviously be confused overseas with the acronym for Personal Computer!

Anyway, Bonk / Genjin is pretty cool, but I've not spent any time with the shooters.

[j_factor]

It's good that they got some use out of the lame name "PC Engine." YES, let's make a system name that will obviously be confused overseas with the acronym for Personal Computer!

I'm pretty sure "PC" means the same thing over there. The name PC Engine is probably derived from NEC's computer line (e.g., PC-88). It's probably an intentionally generic-sounding name, much like Family Computer.

[Arkhan]

It's good that they got some use out of the lame name "PC Engine." YES, let's make a system name that will obviously be confused overseas with the acronym for Personal Computer!

Anyway, Bonk / Genjin is pretty cool, but I've not spent any time with the shooters.

its no lamer than Famicom being a smashed together Family Computer sorta deal. :)

PCE is sweet, dont hate!

[tomaitheous]

It's good that they got some use out of the lame name "PC Engine." YES, let's make a system name that will obviously be confused overseas with the acronym for Personal Computer!


You make baby Jesus cry :(

The internal/dev name is HES (Hudson Entertainment System). NEC gave it the name PC Engine, which I think is awesome.

[csgx1]

Bonk. One of the reasons why I bought a Turbo Grafx long ago.

The Gameboy Bonks are pretty decent too.

[treismac]

If I had to choose, I'd go with Bonk 'cause Bonk is just a happy video game series. I do love Zonk, however, both as a game and a mascot. Yeah, yeah... he was definitely an attempt to give The TG-16 an edgier image, but he was a lovable enough character despite ulterior marketing motives.

[isufje]

What else could they have named him for the US release? BC-kid?

http://flyers.arcade-museum.com/flyers_video/kaneko/121000301.jpg

[BlastProcessing402]

The fact that, after the Turbo went kaput, Bonk went on to have a few games on other platforms and Zonk didn't, well, that speaks volumes.

[treismac]

The fact that, after the Turbo went kaput, Bonk went on to have a few games on other platforms and Zonk didn't, well, that speaks volumes.

Mmm... just because a franchise never achieved much success financially or branched out to other systems doesn't mean that the game or its protagonist was lacking. There are many great games that never got proper recognition.

[MarioMania]

I didn't realize I posted on here already

[retroman]

Bonk all the way..I have all 3 Bonks and both Zonk's..All are fun, but i like Bonk's gameplay better.

[starsoldier1]

I love Bonk but after I got the world record for the first game in the series I gotta go with Zonk.

[tomaitheous]

The fact that, after the Turbo went kaput, Bonk went on to have a few games on other platforms and Zonk didn't, well, that speaks volumes.

Except you forget the fact that Zonk and Bonk were developed in Japan, for the Japanese PC-Engine. It had nothing to do with the success or failure of the US TG16.

isufje: Yeah? BC-Kid was the European localization name for the game, not the US. Note sure why the weird (and late) arcade spin-off (which isn't like any 'Bonk' game) uses that name, but the other home ports in Japan had different names as well (GB-Genjin, FC-Genjin, whatever-the-hell-the-superfami-one-is-called).

[BlastProcessing402]

Except you forget the fact that Zonk and Bonk were developed in Japan, for the Japanese PC-Engine. It had nothing to do with the success or failure of the US TG16.

Except you forget the question had nothing to do with the success or failure of the tg16 either. It was about which character was the better mascot.



Given the two "mascots" and their respective games, who do you prefer? Who is the most iconic and badass???

I merely submit that the relative longevity of Bonk makes him the more iconic and better mascot.

[Retronick]

I like Zonk personally, but to tell you the truth, the fact that it was a shoot em up confused me back in the day. I know Zonk was only released because Bonk was lacking the attitude that Sonic the Hedgehog was succeeding with, but I always thought he was pretty cool. Air Zonk is probably my favorite game on the console... Super Air Zonk can suck it.

Bonk will always be more fondly remembered. He is the embodiment of a more hopeful time for the PC-Engine's success in America, and less of a desperate cry for attention.

[retro junkie]

Even though I am an avid fan of the shooter genre, Bonk's Revenge is my favorite. Zonk is only a guilty pleasure.

[Parodius Duh!]

PC Genjin and PC Engine were not created to rhyme with each other. It just so happens that the way you pronounce it is similar. "Personal Computer Engine" makes sense. "Personal Computer Primitive" is basically what PC Genjin translates into. I highly doubt they were creating the character to rhyme with PC Engine. What other word for Caveman or primitive is there in Katakana or Kanji? pretty sure nothing...


And correct me if Im wrong, isnt Zonk just Bonk from the future? or hes somehow related to Bonk Im almost positive....

[tomaitheous]

PC Genjin and PC Engine were not created to rhyme with each other. It just so happens that the way you pronounce it is similar. "Personal Computer Engine" makes sense. "Personal Computer Primitive" is basically what PC Genjin translates into. I highly doubt they were creating the character to rhyme with PC Engine. What other word for Caveman or primitive is there in Katakana or Kanji? pretty sure nothing...

No, there weren't created at the same time to rhyme with each other. They are at least two years part. But PC-Genjin *is* a pun on the name PC-Engine. And the PC in PC-Genjin stands for Pithecanthropus Computerurus, not Personal Computer (but a pun on PC itself). PC-Genjin started out as a mini comic/strip/whatever promotional thing for the PC-Engine. People got confused and thought it was actually a new game in development for the system - so they developed it as a game due to the popularity of the event. Matter of fact, I remember reading it in some Hudson or PC-Genjin (atlus or red or such) interview. Hudson owned the rights to PC-Genjin, hired Red to produce the game, which in turn hired Atlus to develop(code) the game. Hudson, the guys that made the PC-Engine and licensed it to NEC.



And correct me if Im wrong, isnt Zonk just Bonk from the future? or hes somehow related to Bonk Im almost positive....

You mean Bonk in the future? Zonk is a robot (doesn't look like a cyborg from the cut away pics), so I assume he's not human at all. Other than that, I have no clue exactly how the story or connection goes. And I doubt they even thought that much into it. TTi claimed he was a descendant of Bonk, but that's just the US branch so no idea how credible that is.