Reviews Archive
               
  Bonk's Adventure/BC Kid  
   
     
  Graphics  
               
      PC Engine Amiga      
               
           
       
               
           
       
               
           
       
               
           
       
               
  Detail  
 

TG-16 - A pretty good amount of detail with simple backgrounds and nice textures, there's also a little bit of parallax on some levels (the moon and a tower) but it's not really that impressive as sometimes it can move a little unnaturally. The most impressive aspect detail wise has to be the artwork of the main character and enemy sprites which are drawn with a lot of skill and contain a lot of charm, though truth be told I'm not a big fan of the original Bonk sprite as it looks a little bit too much like a monkey.

Amiga - For the most part the actual base detail here is pretty close to the same, though there are a few notable exceptions. The main character sprite is much better quality here than in the original (I think they're actually using a sprite from one of the later sequels), some of the textures have had a noticible improvement (check the 3rd picture down's wood texture as an example), and on occasion extra background details have been added. The parallax is now gone but I don't think that this has too much of an effect on the graphics.

 
   
  Winner Is: Amiga  
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  Colour  
 

TG-16 - The colour use here ranges from adequate to a little poor, it still looks fine for a 16-bit game but I feel that a better job could've been done with some aspects

Amiga - The colour use here is a vast improvement over the original, the first thing you can easily notice is the fantastic, colourful copper effect backgrounds which often look phenominal as the colours chosen for them usually fit the levels extremely well. Apart from this everything has been re-coloured with better quality, from the trees and bark to the floor and sprites. The improved colour really helps to make the overall graphics a lot better.

 
   
  Winner Is: Amiga  
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  Animation  
 

TG-16 - Everything is well animated, there's not a huge amount of frames for most things but it's drawn so well that the overall animation looks pretty good

Amiga - For the most part the Amiga version is very close to the original, tha main difference being that the main character uses the updated animations, everything else though such as the enemies are pretty much the same as before.

 
   
  Winner Is: Amiga  
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  Scrolling  
 

Both versions scroll equally well.

 
   
  Winner Is: Draw  
     
  Sound  
     
  Music  
 

TG-16 - The music is catchy and does a good job of setting the scene, the quality is not massively high but it still does a good job.

Amiga - The music here has been completely replaced with new songs which bear pretty much no similarity to the originals, it has more of a Xylophone sound to it and feels more jungle themed (if that makes sense). Seeing as the songs are completely different it becomes hard to compare them, in some instances I personally prefer the originalls but in others the new songs win out. Although I do feel that the new music style has a very noticible effect on the game's atmosphere and works very well in this repect, as well as this the actual quality of the sound is much better.

 
   
  Winner Is: Amiga  
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  Sound FX  
 

TG-16 - Pretty good all around sound effects

Amiga - The sound effects seem to be better in this version, the thud when you head butt the ground, and sound effects for when you pick up items sound noticibly higher quality.

 
   
  Winner Is: Amiga  
     
Gameplay

TG-16 - Bonk's Adventure doesn't stray too far from the classic platformer formula, it has you jumping over hazards, killing enemies, fighting level bosses and even throws in some swimming stages here and there, Your main form of attack is a headbutt which can be used whilst on the ground, as a downward "hop and bop" style attack, or, more originally from below whilst jumping up. One thing the game does do extremely well is add a lot of charm and comedy to the proceedings, instead of climbing walls with his hands Bonk clamps on and climbs with his teeth, collecting spicy meat sends him into an invincible crazy fervour with gases shooting out of his ears and arms flailing around, only to leave him looking like he's experiencing the hang-over from hell after it wears off.

Amiga - The gameplay has been translated very impressively here, with an obvious attempt to recreate even the smallest of details, enemies, power-ups and level layouts are all very accurate to the original. One problem I feel worth mentioning though is that the main character moves slightly more sluggish than before (certainly not prominent enough to have too serious an effect on gameplay.

Winner Is: TG-16
 
Presentation

TG-16 - Bonk's Adventure has a very high level of presentation, apart from the aforementioned graphics style and animation there are little scenes with the bosses after they're defeated where they talk to you.

Pretty much everything from the original has been retained.

Winner Is: Draw
 
  Misc  
 

Amiga - This version obviously has load times, they are relatively fast and not too much of a bother.

Amiga - You get the option of using "up" for jump or using a second button.

 
   
     
  Conclusion  
 

The later Amiga version has loads of improvements both graphically and sonically making it look and sound much better than the original, the slightly more sluggish controls only have a minor effect on gameplay and in no way offset the number of improvements in other areas.

 
  Overrall Winner Is: Amiga  
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