It's time for the third game in the PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16 trilogy, and in this one, King Drool III has taken part of the moon for himself...again. It's up to Bonk to get it back.
Unlike the first two games, this game has a simultaneous two-player mode, and the Player 2 Bonk is a darker shade to tell both Bonks apart. Both players share lives but have independent score totals.
Round 1-1
Left and Right let you move, Button I lets you jump and Button II lets you attack in form of a tough caveman headbutt. If you headbutt in the air, Bonk will dive head-first into the ground to headbutt enemies from above. If you keep mashing II in mid-air, you can glide.
The butterflies and fruits will give you points, so collect as many as you can. You'll get your first extra life at 20,000 points.
For some reason when you start, the first boss from the first game comes back in a hypnotized state, telling you that something is very wrong very early in the game.
The blue candies will make Bonk large in size, while the red candies will make him small. To return to regular size, just take damage from an enemy. Thankfully, that doesn't take away from your health.
Your health is in the upper-left corner, while your current number of lives and points is in the lower-left corner.
By hitting certain power-up plants, you can get certain pick-ups. The yellow ones act as springboards that can take you places, and if you press the jump button just before you go up, you'll bounce higher. The pink flowers can turn into life-filling fruit or evil flower enemies that leap at you. The orange ones give you meat which act as extra hits that protect your health meter and make you invincible when you eat three piece of meat quickly enough. The blue ones give you cool stuff like extra lives, health extensions and even a full health restore in the form of a big heart. The green ones will have the candies inside of them.
While mad from eating meat, you can shoot stars that stun enemies out of your head in addition to having extra hits, and if you eat three in quick succession, you can become invincible and spit fire instead of headbutting. The levels of meat madness last for a short time or until you get hit by an enemy.
The flowers with the smiley faces take you to bonus areas. There are eight bonus area in the game. "Catch The Butterflies" has you grabbing as many butterflies as you can, and the more you get, the more smileys and points you get.
The seed with the face gives you a flower that allows you to fly. Just hold Up on the D-Pad to keep flying. You can sometimes find cool things this way, such as extra lives! If you get hit or fall into the
There are guys with egg helmets sleeping around here, and you can headbutt them in mid-air to kill them.
The rock floors can be destroyed with mid-air headbutts.
Watch out on the bridge near the end, the parts of the bridge will tip downwards and drop you. Headbutt the piranhas so they don't bite you and sap away at your health. If they do, mash the D-Pad and buttons until you get free.
Sometimes, you can latch onto a wall with Bonk's teeth. If that happens, you can keep pressing the jump button to keep climbing upwards. You'll jump back up eventually, but you can re-connect to the wall and keep climbing until you reach the top. If you do nothing for a while, you'll drop back down.
Round 1-2
Watch out for the lava! The bone platforms will sink into it if you stand on them long enough.
Be sure to explore all of the level that you can.
The green flowers contain the candies. You won't know which one you'll get until you jump on one.
Pressing Up and Jump while jumping in front of a waterfall to latch on, then keep jumping to climb up the waterfall. Stop climbing at anytime to slide and eventually drop off.
If you get caught on the spider web, keep mashing Button 2 to break free. The web will sap your health away if you don't get out of it.
If you get crushed, Bonk will turn into a crab. Pressing Button I allows you to attack upwards at a short range. If you get hit, you won't lose health, but you will return to your regular form.
The red candies can let you go through narrow passages you could not normally enter.
"Smash The Building" has you destroying a building fully before time runs out. If you can do that, you'll get 10,000 points and ten smilies. You'll need the smilies to play the bonus games after completing a round.
The gray square blocks will split when you stand on them.
You can latch on the palm tree platforms from underneath. Hold Up and jump to vault yourself upwards. You can also latch onto some from the side. Left and Right let you switch sides, while Up and Down let you climb. You can jump off with the jump button.
If a pink flower is not moving, it's an enemy.
The big meat will give you invincibility immediately, while a big heart will refill quite a bit of life.
Round 1-3
The guys on scooters take one hit to kill, as do the seagulls.
The fishing enemies make for a fun way to get out of the water, but you'll have to jump off and hit the guy once you reach the top.
The schools of fish give you points if you grab them.
When underwater, watch out for jellyfish and crab arms. The crab arms shoot bubbles at you, and the bubbles will home in on you.
The "Springy Flower" area is a good place to get smilies and health-replenishing food if you know how to jump off the moving flowers and glide through the air to get everything.
Eventually, you'll have to get into the ship by turning small or into a crab with the crusher as far down and to the left as you can. As you go through the ship, you can break the crates with your attacks. Watch out for water droplets, as they will hurt to the touch.
You'll eventually find an elevator that leads to the first boss. Wait to the left at the start, then let the boss crush you so you turn into a crab. Get under the boss' mouth and keep attacking. Just stay on the move so you don't get stomped on, and you'll take out the boss in no time.
At the end of every round, you'll head to the bonus stage screen. Here, you can choose between one of eight different mini-games which you can randomly play throughout the game at the cost of sixteen smilies. If you're good, you can get the maximum of ten smilies as well as 10,000 points, and if you're good at a couple of bonus game attempts in a row, you can earn yourself some bonus chances. You'll run out of smilies eventually, though. Here are the mini-games:
Jet Roller Pipe: This is a pipe maze where you have to walk into pipes to go through them and find a way through the exit. To go down the pipe, stand in the middle of it. If Bonk goes down it, he will go through it to the other end automatically. If you can collect all the items and get to the exit in time, you'll get the maximum reward.
Building Smash: This is the building smash mini-game that we've seen before where we need to break a building with our head before time runs out. For best results, position yourself between two tiles to break more of the building in less time. I find this one the easiest to play and I play it all the time for extra points and lives as a result. Unlike most of the mini-games, this one is all or nothing.
Flower Copter: This is the one where you have to collect all the butterflies before they disappear (which we've seen before. The more you collect, the better the reward.
Head Banging: Head Banging has you banging off your heads off walls in order to wall bounce your way to the top before time runs out. This is another "all or nothing" bonus area.
Miracle Maze: This is a maze in a pyramid. You'll have to change sizes with the red and blue candies in order to get through it in time. This is another "all or nothing" bonus area.
Spin Climb: In this mini-game, you spin around tree branches and take out all the enemies with your spinning momentum as you make your way to the top. If you take out all the enemies and get to the end before time runs out, you'll get the maximum reward.
Springy Flower: This is one we've seen before. You're racing against the clock as you bounce off yellow flowers that move back and forth in mid-air to collect everything. If you collect everything before time runs out, you'll get the max reward. This is one of two mini-games where you can heal yourself if you need to.
Sky Diving: It's the mini-game from the first two games where you jump off the top of a tower and repeatedly press the attack button to glide while grabbing as many pick-ups as possible. The more things you get, the better the rewards. This is the other of two mini-games where you can heal yourself if you need to.
Round 2-1
If you're still in crab form, grab a candy to turn human again.
If you haven't played the pipe maze mini-game from earlier, just walk onto the center of a pipe. If Bonk goes down it, he will head to the other side of it automatically.
Be careful against the scorpions; their tails can hurt. Thankfully, you can headbutt the front of them to hurt them.
If you pause the game at any time, you can see how many smilies you have.
The big creature in the water with the big lips will eat you, and you'll have to explore the inside of its body and find a way out, which is a rather short affair. Be careful in the digestive juices; they will sap your health away.
You'll eventually be in the sewers. You'll have to make your way upwards to get out, but if you get to the right of the pipes that bring you down here, you can get your hands on a blue heart. This is a health extension that increases your maximum health by one. The maximum amount of hearts you can have is six.
The woman with the long nails is very large, but is easily defeated.
Round 2-2
There is a giant fish in the aquarium where you start; you can headbutt it from underneath to defeat it.
If you can keep an enemy in the air long enough, you'll get 200 points per hits for a while before you eventually stop getting points.
If you can get your hands on a flower, you can use it to go to places you couldn't normally get to and find things you could have missed, such as some smilies and a few extra lives.
Don't fall into the coffee cup; you'll get hurt. You'll have to be small to get the flower pick-up above the handle of the cup; this will help get a few lives. When you're inside the yellow cake, you can get your health refilled briefly.
The green guy carrying what looks like a fork will slowly approach you before running straight into you. You can
The giant baby can be easily defeated much like the giant fish from earlier.
The yellow and brown striped pterodactyls will fly around before diving at you, so watch them when they are nearby.
Round 2-3
Be careful in the beginning; unless you defeat the purple guys at the beginning with anything other than an aerial headbutt, they will keep multiplying.
The hooks can be used to slide down the zip lines. You can also walk on the ziplines, too. Also, the way Bonk hangs onto the hooks with his teeth looks really painful.
The guys with the helicopter heads can be easily defeated with an aerial headbutt.
Yes, those are eggshell heads with towels on their head in hot tubs throwing microphones at you.
Some of the elevators are fake and just fly into the air like a space rocket when you approach them. The one at the very end is the only one that does not do this.
The blue triceratops takes two aerial headbutts to defeat. Just don't hit the horns.
The boss here is a giant stone statue. You'll need to hit the crown repeatedly with multiple aerial headbutts, and unless you're dead center on the crown, you'll keep taking damage. If you lose all your health, press Button 1 to revive yourself when you fall to the ground.
Round 3-1
Here, we're in the jungle where plants will want to eat us. We've seen them before in Round 2-1, and you'll see one again here. Again, try not to get eaten.
The guys with the spears move back and forth. Hit them from above.
You'll also be doing a lot of climbing around on trees here. Take your time and look around to find everything that you can.
Round 3-2
During this round, the sky will go from day to night. During the first night transition, you'll see the moon split apart and reveal King Drool III's underground moon fortress underneath the top half, which flies away. Yep, King Drool has part of the moon again, and we've gotta get it back.
The pterodactyls and their babies are back in this round.
The stag beetle blocking the underground path is invincible. Just open the path leading underground and stay away from him.
Getting big and going all the way to the left after going all the way down leads to a 1-Up.
Round 3-3
Watch out for the rocks. You'll need to ride on top of one to avoid some spikes.
The sand dollar-looking enemies just jump up and down. An aerial headbutt will take care of them.
Be sure to look around near the end of this section; you'll find two bonus areas this way.
The mummy dinosaurs can be killed off, but the zombie dinosaurs keep coming bac no matter how hard you try.
The boss is a big orange pterodactyl robot. You'll need to repeatedly hit the head with aerial headbutt without hitting the horn on the back of the head itself to take it down.
Round 4-1
In this area, there will be quite a few volcanoes around here. Be ready to jump from platform to platform and also ride on rock platforms just above the lava that rocket upwards to take you to higher areas.
Watch out for the lava waterfalls; lava will fall from them at regular intervals, and they will hurt if you touch any of it. Watch out for the droplets, too.
Round 4-2
In this stage, you'll be jumping your way up a mountain. When you reach the more blue parts of the area, you'll be sliding around due to the ice physics, and you'll also have to deal with enemies that throw snowballs at you and take two hits to kill.
Round 4-3
And the ice physics continue!
Once again, the fish that eats you and forces you to go through its body appears again here.
There are multiple paths through here, and you'll want to take them all in order to get everything. You may have to either turn tiny or get squished and turned into the crab form in order to go through the more narrow areas.
If you can get the flower that allows you to fly and take it all the way back above the start of the stage, you can get four smilies and two extra lives.
None of the red flowers near the end contain anything; they all turn into enemies when jumped on.
The boss is a mollusk. It will advance just enough if you are close enough to it while in mid-air so you can hit it with an aerial headbutt. There are spikes on the right side, but if you're patient and you know how to move around, they won't be much of a problem.
Round 5-1
This is a rather fun area. While you could just walk around at ground level, you can also walk on the roofs of the buildings (which will convince you that YOU LOVE BONK 3) and you can also drop down where the subway stations are to enter the subway tunnels (just hold Down on the grey platforms above the pits). Jumping on the subway car will make it move around. You can also hit the sewer pipes with an aerial headbutt to enter the sewers, where you can swim around for some secrets. Wherever you go, you can find a ton of secrets and a ton of useful items. Make sure you explore this area thoroughly, even if that means having to time your jumps on the springy flowers in the sky above.
Have I ever mentioned that I love this level? Because I kinda do.
Round 5-2
Here, you'll be on a lot of gray platforms that make up the many bridges of this level while the volcanoes in the background erupt. If there is a thicker border of dark gray on any parts of the bridges, those parts of the bridges will act as trap doors if you stand on them for a second. Keep that in mind while moving around to grab all the pick-ups that you can.
There is plenty of meat that you can grab in this level to stay invincible as you explore this place and grab everything that you can. Just watch out for the lava at the bottom and you'll be fine.
Round 5-3
The extra life at the beginning of this level is the hardest one to get in the game, as you have to leap onto the flowers and then get past the block that splits in two when you stand on it. Still worth getting, too.
After climbing on trees on top of bones that act as spikes, you'll see a bunch of waterfalls. Watch out for the dragonflies as well as the rolling enemies that they drop.
The boss is a turtle tank. It will send enemies at you, then it will expose its head - which you have tp hit - as it moves back and forth for a little while before hiding its head and sending enemies at you again.
The jellyfish just follow you, but the crabs stay to the ground and jump at you. The squids will float downwards and jump at you, while the octopi will home in on you.
Round 6-1
For some reason, some of the bosses from Bonk's Revenge show up here as normal enemies who are a fraction of their original size. This includes the Round 2 boss (with its petrifying beams), the Round 4 boss (the ice skating enemy) and the final round mini-boss (the gold armored guy with the giant rocket fists).
There is a health extension in this level. While you can explore and find a way to jump from tree too tree to get to it, the ability to fly in one of the underground tunnels here makes it easier.
Round 6-2
Not only is this a maze, but a maze full of ice physics. This means that you'll have the usual problems of losing control on ice slopes, sliding upwards and unable to control yourself until you go back down and face the opposite direction. Also, the snowball-throwing enemies will be as annoying as ever.
If you know where to look, you can find a health extension. You'll have to be tiny to get it, but it is worth it.
Round 6-3
You'll be going in all sorts of directions with this level, as there are plenty of those green guys who will steal your smilies and those pterodactyl enemies flying around everywhere. Also, there are plenty of cloud platforms to bounce on that have plenty of candies and smilies.
Just below the beginning of the level, you can find a health extension and a flight flower. This flight flower will make it easier to get to the exit.
The red dinosaurs with the big heads are back, and they take two aerial headbutts to kill.
The boss here is a giant mechanical crab. You'll need to keep hitting the center of the robot crab with aerial headbutts, and you'll want to land dead center on it to avoid taking damage. If you land on the floor, get off of it; it is quicksand and the spikes below hurt. Once you beat this boss, it's on to King Drool III's undersea fortress for the final level.
Boss Rush
There is a Springy Flower bonus area in the lower-right corner of the stage. There is also a pipe that you need to break to get to the elevators, as well as a big heart in the top center. The big heart and the bonus flower replenish with every boss that you fight.
As for the elevators, they all lead to one of the first four bosses in the game. I save the first one, which leads to the first and easiest boss and is located in the lower-left corner, for last. Same strategies apply.
Final - 1
Once you beat the fourth boss, you'll be platforming in one big castle hallway while avoiding lava and lava waterfalls. There is a top path and a bottom path, and both path are worth exploring to find everything.
Final - 2
This area starts out with an icy floor, but as you go through, you'll be going through what looks like a giant sized house. There are several rooms here, such as a kitchen (with balls of lava jumping in and out of the stove), a bathroom (with dangerous water droplets coming from the shower head) and a bedroom, and some large enemies such as the giant baby and the purple dinosaur woman with the large fingernails return. There are two flowers in this level that will allow you to fly. You'll be in the sewers near the end; once you swim through this section, you'll be in the final level.
Final - 3
Once you dig your way down from the start, you can grab a hidden blue candy to make your way up. From here, you can climb on the yellow columns, or you can use the flight flower to keep going up and to the right to avoid much of the enemies in this stage. While you can climb the walls to make your way to the upper-right, the flight flower is the best way to do it, as it can help you get a few extra lives and one last health extension if you need it.
When you make it to the elevator in the upper-right, you'll face King Drool III. For the first part, you'll need to hit the center of his crown with aerial attacks, and you'll want to be dead center while doing this. King Drool will eventually shrink and fly back and forth. Hit him with aerial headbutts as he moves back and forth, and be careful that you hit him dead center so you don't take damage.
When King Drool gets super tiny, you'll have to be on the mark to hit him with an aerial headbutt. After a few aerial headbutts, King Drool will get giant. Hit him dead center in the crown with aerial headbutts until he turns to normal size. This starts the attack process over, and you'll have to go through it a second time. Once you do that, though, you'll beat King Drool III again and return one-half of the mon to where it belongs. You've beaten Bonk III!
