''Air Zonk'', known in Japan as , is a horizontally scrolling shooter released for

TurboGrafx-16 The TurboGrafx-16, known as the outside North America, is a home video game console designed by Hudson Soft and sold by NEC, NEC Home Electronics. It was the first console marketed in the fourth generation of video game consoles, fourth genera ...

in 1992. ''Air Zonk'' was an attempt to update the company's image via a modern, punkish character called Zonk, who bears a purposeful resemblance to the TurboGrafx-16's

caveman The caveman is a stock character representative of primitive humans in the Paleolithic. The popularization of the type dates to the early 20th century, when Neanderthals were influentially described as " simian" or "ape-like" by Marcellin ...

mascot,

Bonk Bonk may refer to: People * Bonk (surname) Arts and entertainment * ''Bonk'' (video game series), a caveman character and video game series *Bonk!, a soft drink company in the first-person shooting game ''Team Fortress 2'' * ''Bonk'' (alb ...

. The game was developed by

Red Company is a video game developer and publisher based in Japan. Originally founded in 1976 as (though it did not begin doing business until 1985), it was reorganized and succeeded by a new company on December 4, 2000, under its current moniker of Red ...

, the original creators of the Bonk series, also known for their ''

Gate of Thunder is a 1992 scrolling shooter video game developed by Red Company and published by Hudson Soft for the TurboGrafx-CD. It was the first game released in North America to support the Super CD-ROM² format and served as one of the pack-in games for ...

'' series. ''Air Zonk'' features King Drool, antagonist of the

series, along with many other enemies from the series. It was followed by a sequel in 1993 called '' Super Air Zonk: Rockabilly-Paradise'' for the

TurboDuo The TurboDuo is a fourth-generation video game console developed by NEC Home Electronics and Hudson Soft for the North American market. The TurboDuo was test-marketed in Los Angeles in October 1992, before a nationwide rollout in May 1993. It is ...

, and has been released on the

Wii The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America and in December 2006 for most other Regional lockout, regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major ho ...

Virtual Console A virtual console (VC) – also known as a virtual terminal (VT) – is a conceptual combination of the keyboard and display for a computer user interface. It is a feature of some Unix-like operating systems such as Linux, BSD, illumos, Unix ...

Gameplay

''Air Zonk'' is a re-imagination of the

video game series as a

scrolling shooter In computer displays, filmmaking, television production, and other kinetic displays, scrolling is sliding text, images or video across a monitor or display, vertically or horizontally. "Scrolling," as such, does not change the layout of the text ...

set in the future. Artistically the game is lighthearted, featuring humorous designs of the environment and the characters. During each of the five levels, the gameplay centers around the effective use of shooting and bombing to complete a stage. At the start, the player may pick a companion character to team up with, such as anthropomorphic gumball machine or mummy with a drill attached to its head, in order to boost the Bonk's powers. The players can choose to limit the use of the designated companion characters for each level, or opt out of using companion characters altogether. Each companion character, or friend, can only be used once. Air Zonk takes on the distinct visual style that is sometimes called a "cute 'em up". There are three difficulty settings: sweet, spicy, and bitter. Zonk can charge his shots, which allows him to fire a more powerful attack. Charging longer causes Zonk to drop a bomb, which damages all enemies on the screen. Zonk can also acquire seven types of

power-up In video games, a power-up is an object that adds temporary benefits or extra abilities to the player character as a game mechanic. This is in contrast to an item, which may or may not have a permanent benefit that can be used at any time chosen ...

s, each of which can also be charged for a unique special attack. As usual for scrolling shooters, whenever Zonk acquires a new power-up, he loses the current one. If Zonk is hit while he has a power-up, he loses the power-up but does not die, except in the case of the Mini-Zonk power-up. The Mini-Zonk power-up also differs from the other power-ups in that it cannot be charged, and can be found in both florets and random enemy drops (other power-ups can only be found in florets). Zonk starts each stage alone and with no power-ups. He must collect eight smiley faces, the eighth of which will appear in giant form with sunglasses, in order to get his friend to join him. The friend initially acts as a ''

Gradius is a series of shooter video games, introduced in 1985, developed and published by Konami for a variety of portable, console and arcade platforms. In many games in the series, the player controls a ship known as the Vic Viper. Games *''Scr ...

''-style support which follows Zonk around shooting projectiles. If the player collects another eight smiley faces, Zonk and the friend will merge into a hybrid form, granting a new attack and 20 seconds of invulnerability. This new attack cannot be charged, and Zonk cannot drop bombs while in hybrid form. Once invincibility expires, if Zonk is hit he will revert to normal form and his friend will leave, though he retains whatever power-up he had before changing to hybrid form.

Reception

''Air Zonk'' was awarded Best TurboGrafx Game of 1992 by ''

Electronic Gaming Monthly ''Electronic Gaming Monthly'' (often abbreviated to ''EGM'') is a monthly American video game magazine. It offers video game news, coverage of industry events, interviews with gaming figures, editorial content and product reviews. History The m ...

''. The game retrospectively has gained a cult following. Air Zonk is often considered by many game critics to be one of the best games released for the TurboGrafx-16.

Legacy

''Air Zonk'' received a

sequel A sequel is a work of literature, film, theatre, television, music or video game that continues the story of, or expands upon, some earlier work. In the common context of a narrative work of fiction, a sequel portrays events set in the same ...

in 1993 named '' Super Air Zonk: Rockabilly-Paradise'' (also known as ''CD Denjin Rockabilly''), which was released in the SuperCD format and requires the Super System Card to play on first-generation TurboGrafx-CD consoles. As its name would imply, the game has a

CD audio Compact Disc Digital Audio (CDDA or CD-DA), also known as Digital Audio Compact Disc or simply as Audio CD, is the standard format for audio compact discs. The standard is defined in the ''Red Book'', one of a series of Rainbow Books (named fo ...

soundtrack consisting of

rockabilly Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music. It dates back to the early 1950s in the United States, especially the Southern United States, South. As a genre it blends the sound of Western music (North America), Western music ...

music. The game contains all-new levels, assistants, and enemies. Air Zonk was released in 2007 on the

in May in Japan, July in America, and on July 13 in Europe. It has gained an E rating from the ESRB. It was also released on the

Wii U The Wii U ( ) is a home video game console developed by Nintendo as the successor to the Wii. Released in late 2012, it is the first eighth-generation video game console and competed with Microsoft's Xbox One and Sony's PlayStation 4. The W ...

's Virtual Console in Japan on June 19, 2014, in America on July 27, 2017, and in Europe on August 3, 2017.

References

External links

The Bonk Compendium
(Covering all games and references to Bonk and Air Zonk)

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20070927202026/http://www.1up.com/do/feature?pager.offset=1&cId=3147303 ''Air Zonk'' featured in 1-up's "Stchick 'em up" article
Information on Super Air Zonk
{{Bonk series 1992 video games Horizontally scrolling shooters TurboGrafx-16 games Video games developed in Japan Virtual Console games Virtual Console games for Wii U Fictional cyborgs Hudson Soft games Video game spin-offs Single-player video games