Air Zonk

About Air Zonk

Air Zonk (1992) is Red Company's TurboGrafx-16 shoot 'em up that reimagines the Bonk series in a punkish future, starring the sunglasses-wearing Zonk and a cast of absurd companions, and EGM's TurboGrafx-16 game of the year.

Air Zonk in Depth

Air Zonk recasts the Bonk series as a scrolling shooter set in the future, with lighthearted, humorous designs for its environments and characters in the style sometimes called a "cute 'em up". Across five levels, play centres on shooting and bombing. Zonk can charge his shots for a more powerful attack, and a longer charge drops a bomb that damages every enemy on screen. Seven types of power-up can be collected, each with its own charged special attack; as in most shooters, picking up a new one replaces the current one, and if Zonk is hit while holding a power-up he loses it rather than his life, except with the Mini-Zonk, which cannot be charged and also drops from random enemies rather than only from florets.

Before play, the player chooses a companion, such as an anthropomorphic gumball machine or a mummy with a drill on its head, and can limit which friends are used on each level or play without them; each can only be used once. Zonk starts every stage alone and must collect eight smiley faces, the last appearing in giant form with sunglasses, to summon his friend, who first follows him like a Gradius-style option. Eight more smiley faces merge the two into a hybrid form with a new attack and 20 seconds of invulnerability. When it expires, a hit reverts Zonk to normal and the friend leaves, though he keeps any power-up he held before.

Making Air Zonk

Red Company, the original creators of the Bonk series and also known for Gate of Thunder, developed Air Zonk with assistance from Naxat Soft, and Hudson Soft published it for the TurboGrafx-16 in 1992. The game was an attempt to modernise the company's image with a punkish new character who deliberately echoed its established mascot. It was well received: it holds 76.25% on GameRankings from four reviews, and Electronic Gaming Monthly named it TurboGrafx-16 Game of the Year in its 1992 awards. The sequel, Super Air Zonk: Rockabilly-Paradise, known in Japan as CD Denjin Rockabilly, followed in 1993 in the Super CD format for the TurboDuo, requiring the Super System Card on first-generation TurboGrafx-CD units, with all-new levels, assistants and enemies. Air Zonk came to the Wii Virtual Console in Japan in May 2007 and in North America and Europe that July, and to the Wii U Virtual Console in Japan in June 2014 and in the West in 2017.