The
Turbografix-16 was fading fast in the early 1990s and
NEC/
Hudson needed a guarenteed 100% sure-fire hit to save the system from demise. Churning out a new
Bonk game every year wasn't working out anymore, and the spin-off to the caveman character,
Air Zonk, failed to set the industry on fire. What to do? How about taking
Bonk and fashioning an
RPG around him?
The Bonk RPG was fast-tracked in 1993 as Hudson and NEC turned all their attention to the project. Electronic Gaming Monthly got the scoop on the game and ran exclusive pictures and a detailed preview of the game that depicted Bonk teaming up with new unnamed characters and a few old enemies to battle King Drool once again. Screenshots of the game showed Bonk and friends traveling on the map screen as well as some character art. Interestingly enough, screenshots of an RPG failed to show pictures of any kind of battle scenes.
So where'd the game go, and why haven't you probably heard of it until now? The game was 20% complete when NEC pulled the plug on the TG16 in the USA and began a last-ditch effort to save the system in Japan. Seeing as how Bonk was more popular in America than Japan, the Bonk RPG was put on hold indefinitely. It never resurfaced and was banished to video game lore.
As for Bonk himself, Hudson took him and developed ports of Bonk's Adventure and Bonk's Revenge for the NES, Super NES (Super Bonk and Super Bonk 2) and Game Boy in 1994.
References:
Electronic Gaming Monthly circa 1993
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