Bonk

Bonk, known as PC-Genjin in Japan and BC Kid in Europe, started life as a comic series in a magazine promoting Hudson Soft's TurboGrafx-16 (alias TurboGrafx-16). Many people liked the comic so much, Hudson decided to make a game based off it and even made Bonk the mascot for the system. The games follow the story of a big headed caveman named Bonk as he protects his land from the evil King Drool.

Bonk's Adventure was released in 1990, and is one of the most well known TurboGrafx games. In the U.S. Bonk was marketed as a Mascot with Attitude against Mario, one year before Sega released Sonic the Hedgehog.

It was followed by Bonk's Revenge in 1991. It was a general improvement of every aspect of the previous game.

Bonk 3: Bonk's Big Adventure came out in 1993, and introduced the concept of size-changing candies that would let Bonk take multiple pathways.

The next major title of the series came on the Super NES. Called Super Bonk (Chō Genjin in Japan, Super BC Kid in Europe), it followed Bonk's attempt to return to the past after King Drool sent him to the future.

Outside of a playable cameo in Saturn Bomberman, a remake of the first game for sixth-generation consoles, and re-releases on the Wii's Virtual Console service, Bonk has yet to re-appear anytime soon.

It also had a spin-off Cute'Em Up series called Air Zonk (PC Denjin in Japan).

This has nothing to do with the "catchphrase" of the Scout from Team Fortress 2.

The following tropes are common to many or all entries in the Bonk franchise.
For tropes specific to individual installments, visit their respective work pages.

American Kirby Is Hardcore: The U.S. box art for the first two Bonk games. An in-game example occurs in Bonk's Revenge, where a image of Bonk in the credits was altered to resemble how he looked in the U.S. artwork.
- Inverted with the 2003 remake of Bonk's Adventure that was released in Japan. Bonk always has a Slasher Smile, and everything else looks less cutesy then it was in the original.
Anachronism Stew: Various enemies use cars, flying pirate ships, and mechas, mostly prominent in Bonk 3. Inverted in Super Bonk, which takes place in modern times with elements from the prehistoric era.
Angry Eyebrows: Bonk every time he eats meat, especially his second transformations. He looks incredibly demented in this state in Super Bonk.
Bald of Awesome: Bonk, oh so much.
Big Bad: King Drool the Third, in both series (despite Air Zonk taking place in the future).
- Although at the end of Super Bonk, King Drool gets sent forward into the future, so it's possible that explains his presence in the Air Zonk games.
- Actually, the King Drool in the Zonk series is most likely a descendant of the one from the Bonk series.
Book Ends: Super Bonk begins with Bonk falling into a trap by King Drool and being sent into the future, the game also ends this way, only with King Drool in his own trap while Bonk watches him get teleported into the future.
Boss Rush: The last level in most of the Bonk games involve fighting all of the game's previous bosses before fighting King Drool.
Bowdlerise: In the sequels, Bonk's feminine form was replaced with his angry forms from the first game.
- It wasn't removed from Bonk's idle animations in Super Bonk though.
Brainwashed and Crazy: The bosses in Bonk's Adventure are in this state due to mind control eggshells on their heads.
- This applies to the Hatchets too, which actually are brainwashed little dinosaurs living in Bonk's world.
Captain Ersatz: Bonk resembles Krillin from the Dragon Ball series, especially in the 2003 remake. The mobile phone game and the cancelled Brink of Extinction redesigned Bonk, primarily his eyes, to lessen the similarities.
- It's unclear if this was the case with Brink of Extinction or if it was just Art Evolution. Leaked gameplay footage showed the original Bonk sprite was used as a save icon, in addition to a map icon.
Co-Op Multiplayer: Bonk 3 and the arcade game had another player play as a Palette Swap of Bonk.
Contemporary Caveman: Subverted in Super Bonk, where King Drool uses a time machine to send Bonk into the future. Although he visits a city and a space station, they also have some structures made out of bone frames. This might be because the Hatchets have pretty much taken over the world.
Deface of the Moon: King Drool takes over the moon and splits it in two. While Bonk liberates the half still in space, he has to retrieve the other half in Bonk's Revenge and Bonk 3.
Degraded Boss: Smaller versions of the bosses from Bonk's Revenge reappear in Bonk 3 as enemies in the sixth stage.
Freeware Game: The Amiga port of B.C. Kid, developed by Factor 5, is available for download at the company's website. It requires an Amiga Emulator however.
Gender Bender: Eating meat in the sequels turns Bonk into a girl, complete with big eyes and prancing. This was bowdlerized in the U.S. and PAL releases, though.
Getting Crap Past the Radar: In Super Bonk, a series of levels take place inside a dinosaur. After going through the stomach, brain, and heart, you fight the boss in an area labeled "Blue Balls".
Giant Space Flea From Nowhere: Most of the bizarre bosses in Super Bonk appear without any explanation.
Interspecies Romance: A weird case involving Bonk and Princess Za. The latter is a non-anthropomorphic plesiosaur.
- In the 2003 remake, Princess Za has been given a complete redesign, now she's anthropomorphic and wears a royal dress. YMMV on this being an improvement or not.
Misbegotten Multiplayer Mode: Bonk 3 has co-op multi-player that makes the game Nintendo Hard. Both players share the same health bar and lives, and when one person gets hit, the other does not get Mercy Invincibility, which can result in players dying twice as fast. Also, while bonking another player doesn't hurt them, it does stun them, either leaving them open to an enemy or knocking them below the screen. Should a player get knocked out of view, the other player can't progress further without either going down and rejoining the off-screen player, or have the off-screen player teleport back to the other one, at the cost of some health.
Mook: The Hatchets, small dinosaurs that wear eggshells as helmets.
Mythology Gag: In Super Bonk, some of Bonk's idle animations are all of his transformations from the previous games.
Naka Teleeli: He did Let's Plays for all the major Bonk games, including Super Bonk 2, the 2003 Japanese remake of the first game, and even one of the Game Boy titles.
Power-Up Food: Meat which seems to increase Bonk's rage/make him irritated by the spiciness of the meat, and candy which affects his size from the third game onwards.
- In Chō Genjin 2, Bonk finds quite many things to eat: an egg which transforms him into a bird with the angry eyebrows, a pink meat which again lets him turn into a girl with a tutu and very strong feet, weird green glasses that turn him into a pseudo-frog and a shovel which oddly enough gives him a DRILL on his head!
Punny Name: Bonk's Japanese name, PC Genjin (which is referred to as PC Kid by Japan's translation), is supposed to sound like PC Engine, the name of the system where the series began.
- This was played with in the ports, with his name becoming FC Genjin on the Famicom, and GB Genjin on the Game Boy.
Purposefully Overpowered: After eating two pieces of meat or one huge chunk, Bonk gains brief invincibility, can do twice as much damage, and headbutting the ground damages all enemies on screen, including bosses! Would be a Game Breaker if the power-up wasn't timed, lasting only 30 seconds at best.
Put on a Bus: Princess Za hasn't been seen in any game after Bonk's Revenge.
Quirky Miniboss Squad: The Hatchet bosses in Chō Genjin 2 are this.
Recycled Soundtrack: About 1/3 of the music in Bonk's Revenge is reused music from Bonk's Adventure.
Reformulated Game: The Game Boy and Arcade versions of Bonk's Adventure are not ports of the original game, but are in fact completely different games with unique levels and bosses.
Schmuck Bait: Many of the red Floras (those flower things) are usually Venus Bonktraps, enemies that try to bounce on Bonk after he smacks them in their disguises. Another telltale sign is that the Bonktrap disguised as a Flora doesn't move, unlike the real ones.
Sizeshifter: Beginning with Bonk 3, eating candy will either make Bonk huge or make him tiny.
- It though was quite a confusing and sometimes frustrating mechanic which made the game even harder and could've made you get stuck in some parts by picking up the wrong kind of candy. Luckily Super Bonk fixes this by placing candy in more convenient places.
Updated Rerelease: A remake of the first game was released for the Game Cube ans PlayStation 2 in 2003. In addition to an Art Shift, the levels are overall shorter, the bosses are completely different, and the fruit have been made collectables, in addition to the new golden wheels.
Villain Decay: King Drool started out as a rather dark and monstrous foe, but beginning with Bonk 3 he was portrayed as a smaller, more cartoony villain who relied on machines to attack Bonk.
We Will Meet Again: King Drool says "I'll be back!" at the end of each game, and every time he is defeated in Bonk 3. It more or less become his Catch Phrase.
What Happened to the Mouse?: Princess Za never appeared after the two first games, save for her appearances in Air Zonk.
With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Bonk's meat-induced transformations come off as this.
Your Size May Vary: King Drool is about four times as big as Bonk in the first game, and slightly smaller in Bonk's Revenge. In Bonk 3 and Super Bonk, he frequently changes size, going from the size of a fly to an incredibly gigantic form in the final boss fight in the former and being large in-game yet small in the intro and ending in the latter. In the Super Bonk 2, he's barely as big as Bonk himself.