Necro's game clears and mindless musings

[Black Tiger]

The biggest problem with Revenge is that I only rented Adventure once while it was current and bought Revenge when it came out. Playing Revenge to death kept it my favorite for years, but it's made it harder to enjoy now in recent years.

[esteban]

I'm curious to hear your thought as to where Revenge stumbles, even if it's only recollection.

We have a few threads over the years that explores this topic.

I played Adventure to death when it was released. I considered it a decent game, but nothing groundbreaking. It was enjoyable, but countless NES games gave it a run for the money, IMHO. Many NES games were superior.

When Revenge was released, I felt it was SOOOOOO MUCH BETTER than Adventure.  Lots of fun, even though the spinning mechanics were slightly different.

At that time, I would have said: "Revenge is superior in every way, except perhaps for the music (Adventure had nice tunes that held up well)."

Now, my mind got stuck on "Revenge is superior." For years.

But as I revisited these games many times over the past 20+ years, I realized I had been overly harsh on the original game—for example, I kept going back to Adventure to replay (Revenge seems a bit of a chore to play through...Adventure less so).

I wish both games were more challenging. I felt this way when they were released. I feel the same now. 

Also, I have not found the SNES Bonk games to be as strong as the PCE titles.

---------

OVERALL: I have come to a similar conclusion as Black Tiger.

But, to expand on things, I have realized that I was really harsh, back in the late 80's/early 90's, in judging all the games I played. I just assumed that "better games" existed ...and it would only be a matter of time before I eventually played them. However, as I played tons of arcade/Genesis/SNES/NES/SMS I slowly came to the realization that many of the games I had heavily criticized were actually pretty good, relative to all the other games.

Later, when I was able to play "import" games on Japanese 8-bit/16-bit consoles...it was clear that a lot of mediocre games (which I still enjoy) were released. This shattered my naive expectations (that an unlimited number of AAA titles I had been eluding me for my entire life).

[Necromancer]

Clear #67 - Bonk's Revenge



Almost everything good from Bonk's Adventure made even better. 

The Good: the graphics are much improved, with better variety, more detail, and more vibrant coloring throughout; it's less linear and has more stage exploration; lots of fun bonus rounds; a cool bonus elevator / train ride between stages; and crab Bonk!

The Bad: the tunes are good, but many of 'em are recycled from Bonk's Adventure; spinning is slower and you can't juggle enemies for points any more; and the bonus train forces you to skip a level if you collect too many smileys.

The Ugly: NA

[Black Tiger]

I really don't like the in-game use of the Turbo marketing Bonk artwork. Really stuck out bitd.

[Necromancer]

Clear #68 - Bonk 3: Bonk's Big Adventure



All the goodness of Bonk's Revenge and a bit more!

The Good:  colorful, cartoony backgrounds and enemies; all new jaunty tunes; eatin' candy to grow/shrink; two player mode; larger levels and hidden passages for more exploring; getting eaten and pooped out of a giant lipped fish thingy; and they brought back enemy juggling and fixed the spin jumping.

The Bad:  certainly the easiest of the three Bonks, especially the bosses; the candy isn't used to great effect; and the two player mode can get tedious when the other player can't keep up on tricky jumps.

The Ugly:  NA


Clear #68.5 - Bonk 3 CD



There's very little different between the two versions.  All of the huey's comments apply, so these are specific to the CD:

The Good:  nice redbook tunes and an added vs. mode in each stage for short, simple battles between two players.

The Bad:  a few animation frames were dropped to fit the confines of Super CD ram.

The Ugly:  a couple stages have overly loud, repetitive environmental sounds overlaying the otherwise lovely redbook tunes.

[Mathius]

I just can't get excited about Bonk III though I've tried many many times. For me the magic ended with Revenge. And for sheer atmosphere Adventure is tops.

[seieienbu]

I didn't have 3 as a kid.  The first time I played the game all the way through was after getting the Tobias repro so I'm looking at the game without quite as much nostalgia.  I thought it was pretty enjoyable but it didn't have the same magic to me that the first two had but that's probably due to my not playing it as a kid.

[NightWolve]

I just can't get excited about Bonk III though I've tried many many times. For me the magic ended with Revenge. And for sheer atmosphere Adventure is tops.

Yeah, I found it boring (Bonk III: Bonk's Big Boring Adventure), mainly due to the music... Bonk super-sprited to take up most of the screen was cool though akin to China Warrior, and it allowed for 2 simultaneous players.

[ParanoiaDragon]

The soundtrack has a few decent tunes, but I always hated that it was a different sound engine.  I've always wondered how it would sound with the original sound engine used in the first 2.  I've probably mentioned it before, but I have thought about redoing the tunes(for CD) to have a more Bonk 1 & 2 style.  I've already done other Bonk tunes, & I feel like they really capture the sound of the first 2 games, while being updated redbook style. I did about 8 songs thus far of my other Bonk project, I'll get back to it one of these days, THIS, I COMMAND!

[esteban]

The soundtrack has a few decent tunes, but I always hated that it was a different sound engine.  I've always wondered how it would sound with the original sound engine used in the first 2.  I've probably mentioned it before, but I have thought about redoing the tunes(for CD) to have a more Bonk 1 & 2 style.  I've already done other Bonk tunes, & I feel like they really capture the sound of the first 2 games, while being updated redbook style. I did about 8 songs thus far of my other Bonk project, I'll get back to it one of these days, THIS, I COMMAND!

You will drop all other projects and finish the Bonk remakes.

THIS, I COMMAND!

[NightWolve]

I've probably mentioned it before, but I have thought about redoing the tunes(for CD) to have a more Bonk 1 & 2 style.

Ah, that's true, it'd be easy to produce an alternative soundtrack for the CD version, rip the game to ISO/WAV/CUE, swap wave files around, and if needed, use TOC Fixer if the LBA offsets of audio tracks are hardcoded. Some games like Ys IV dynamically fetch the starting LBA of audio tracks from the TOC, so replacement is as easy as copying a new wave file, but games like Dracula X will require you to use my TOC Fixer app or they'll crash. But yeah, a good soundtrack would improve the experience for that game by quite a lot!

[Necromancer]

I forgot to mention one of my favorite aspects of the CD version: it uses Godzilla roars and battle music for the final showdown with King Drool. 

How're the atmospheric shit sounds done?  I assume they're ADPCM played over the redbook tunes, as they'll sometimes keep playing at stage end even though the music has stopped.  I'd be okay with the tunes as is, if those noises could be made to play way less often or even deleted entirely.

[Necromancer]

Clear #69 - Basted



I wasn't expecting much based on reviews, so I ended up being pleasantly surprised that it's not as short and empty as they make it sound.  It's light on action and long on cut scenes and story, making it more of an action based digi-comic than a full fledged action rpg like Ys or Magicoal, but I had fun playing it..... and it seemed fitting for clear #69. 

The Good:  two cute characters to choose between; good tunes; an interesting battle system with quite a few attack options unique to each character; charming overworld/town sprites, almost like those common in Falcom games; 'tis quite humorous at times, though I'm sure it'd be even better if I understood what they were saying; tons of full screen, colorful, and detailed cut scenes; and tittehs!

The Bad:  simple, repetitive scenery; no two player option; annoying engrish yells for fully charged attacks; and the cut scenes are mostly static, often showing nothing but moving mouths.

The Ugly:  a couple blinky, seizure inducing cut scenes.

[Mathius]

I've always been curious about Basted. Wish I had a copy but eBay killed that idea.

[Necromancer]

Yeah, it's kinda spendy for a somewhat mediocre title.  It's not a game often talked about or recommended as a must have, so I assume its price is due to it being a later game presumably produced in relatively small quantities.

But it's worth a quick play through.  Burn it, man!