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Company Hudson Soft ESRB Rating E for Everyone Release Date US - July 9, 2007 Controllers Wii Remote Classic Controller Gamecube Controller Wii Points 600 Review by: Corbie Dillard ©2008 Virtual-Turbo

Sometimes it's the strangest ideas that turn out to be the best ones. One such strange ideas can be attributed to the success of Air Zonk as well. The game basically creates a cyborg version of Hudson's caveman mascot Bonk and throws him head first into a shooting game. Sounds like a crazy premise when you first hear it, but once you dive into Air Zonk it won't take long until you realize just how well the idea works. Not only does Air Zonk feature a mascot that would become a staple for the Turbo systems from then on, but it also went on to become one of the most beloved TurboGrafx-16 games ever made. Now with the release of Air Zonk on the Wii Virtual Console, gamers across the world will finally get to experience one of the best video games ever created and one that never really got the attention that it deserved the first time around. At its core, Air Zonk is basically a fairly standard horizontal shooter. You pilot Zonk through level after level, shooting every enemy that King Drool throws your way. Along the way you'll come up against a mid-level boss as well as an enormous end-level boss complete with a psychedelic backdrop for effect. The bosses in the game are very pattern-oriented so beating them normally only means figuring out their attack patterns and exploiting them. You will defeat certain enemies that will drop varying power-ups that can do everything from change your type of firepower to shrink you down in size in order to avoid enemy fire more easily. Enemies will also drop small smily faces that you can collect throughout each level. Once you acquire enough small smily faces, a giant smily face will appear that when collected will call on one friends from Team Cool to help you out. There are several different friends that can be called upon and you can select which friends you want at the beginning of the game. You can select "auto" which will allow the game to choose your friend for you, or you can select "manual" which will allow you to choose which friend you want to help you out in each level. It's little things like this that really add to the unique charm found in Air Zonk. The play control in Air Zonk is just spot on and makes playing the game a real joy. The play system is also simple enough that you can concentrate on playing and enjoying the game instead of learning on overly complicated control system.  Sometimes less is more and Air Zonk's control system is a prime example of that. The visuals in Air Zonk might not be as detailed as some of the later shooters on the system, but they more than make up for this slight shortcoming with their charm and personality. A wide assortment of colors and several layers of parallax scrolling make the surroundings in each area a real sight to behold. The game uses an over-the-top silly theme to perfection. Even the bosses in the game are enormous and all feature this zany character styling that makes them fit right in with everything else in the game's visual arsenal. Air Zonk himself is one cool-looking dude and his many animations, as well as those of his friendly helpers, are also top notch. One particular visual highlight is the swirling psychedelic background effect used when entering into an end-level boss fight. While it might sound like a small feature, it really adds a nice effect to the boss fight itself. Air Zonk features some of the coolest visuals of any TurboGrafx-16 title out there and is still impressive even all these years later. It's almost impossible to accurately describe the music in Air Zonk. It's easily as eccentric as the visuals and perfectly compliments the odd theme the game implements. As solid as many of the Hucard soundtracks are, it would be difficult to find one better than the music in Air Zonk. Every level features a new track, and there's not a bad musical piece in the entire game. Even the intro and ending tunes are outstanding. As if this beautifully done musical effort wasn't enough, the developers still managed to insert some very fine sound effects to further compliment the background tunes. Even the different types of firepower feature unique sound effects of their own. The only minor flaw I can even come up with is that it might have been nice to have the bosses give off some type of sound effects as most of these sounds are rehashed from some other area of the game. It's so minor it's really hardly worth mentioning at all. Air Zonk is a testament to just how powerful the sound chip inside of the Turbografx-16 system really was. You can sit here and read through this review, but if you love and appreciate a great video game, then you absolutely must own Air Zonk. It's one of the best games ever made and a very unique spin on the traditional shooter genre. Who would have thought that a cyborg version of Bonk thrown into a shooter could ever work, let alone be such a fantastic gaming experience. The Turbografx-16 section of the Virtual Console has already featured some great games but none as outstanding as Air Zonk. This game would be a bargain at twice the price. Get this one immediately!