RF Generation Message Board

Historically, there has been some crossover between platforming games and shoot-em-ups, particularly in the 8 & 16-bit eras, when there were a number of multi-genre games, as developers began to experiment somewhat, and stretch themselves. Sometimes it was a shmup level or two in a platformer, like Xexyz on the NES, or Batman on the Game Boy, or more integrated into the game, such as in The Guardian Legend. What was less common was when a game from one genre had a sequel or related game in the other genre. It's not unprecedented, but certainly uncommon. Air Zonk is one such example, with the previous "Bonk" games being of the platforming style, and Air Zonk being a related character, but switching things up to be a shooter instead.

On April 4, 2999, the evil scientist Count King Tamago Sandrovich performed a remodeling operation on Genhead in order to act as a trump card for the ZZ project (Earth Evil Deterioration Plan), modeling him after the strongest rival Bonk who afflicted his ancestor King Drool. Thus, he was named Zonk. Recognizing the Count's ZZ plan, Zonk escapes from the laboratory, forms a family of electricians (Punkic Cyborgs) with his friends, and confronts the count's cyber robot army. Join the RF Generation Community in January 2022, as we play Air Zonk!

Participants:
MetalFRO
Addicted
MiniConsoleMan
Golem
Corkman
FauxMacho

Just a reminder, this is on the TurboGrafx Mini, so it's more accessible that way! I know this game is a bit expensive these days, but that system is a great value for the money, and well worth picking up.

I'm in and that's exactly how I'll be playing it!

Excellent! Welcome aboard to kick off 2022!

Air Zonk runs counter to my skills. I recall it being fast and busy, a bit like Thunder Force IV. So, I expect to get frustrated. :b But I'm still giving it a shot!

Excellent! Always good to try and expand our horizons, so glad to see you jump in.

  
Alright, the holidays are over and work deadlines are more manageable now. I'm itching to play some shmups. Great pick this month!

I'll be playing on the TG Mini. I've been plugging in the TG Mini so often since I got it. So glad I picked it up. I think I'll just connect to the TV right now!!

Happy New Year everyone and happy blasting in 2022! :guncannon:

It will be interesting to hear everyone's experiences of playing on the TG Mini. I'll spend some time with it there, but I think I might primarily play via OG hardware, assuming I can get the console hooked up through my RetroTINK okay.

Nice, I'm in.
My TurboGrafx experience is very light. I think I've only played Castlevania: Rondo of Blood and Ys Book I on the Wii Virtual Console. It'll be Raspberry Pi for me for this one.

The internet archive has a scan of the manual: https://archive.org/details/Air_Zonk_1992_Hudson_US/mode/2up
Quite helpful for clearing up my questions after jumping in blind for a few runs.

 
   I've been playing some runs of this the past few days. Got to stage 4 on Spicy mode.
   
   I've played this somewhat in the past and finished it on Sweet then so I hope to do it on Spicy this month.

Thank you for linking the manual scan, FauxMacho! I'll have to check that out, as I don't have the full game either, just on the TG Mini, flashcart, MiSTer, etc.

@Corkman - stage 4 on Spicy is impressive for an early run. As you saw last night on stream, with that chunky hit box, there's some stuff that can be hard to avoid.

I'm chugging along, and things are getting a little easier. For instance, I found that the electric weapon (the skinny, short range electric staff) helps on the stsge 4 midboss because it chews through the midboss' growths. And the lightning bolt shot is a radial pattern that eats bullets, so it's great for the second half of stage 4, although it creates a ton of flicker.

Also, one interesting note is that you get a powerup reset every level. The only other STG I can think of with a powerup reset is Gradius: Interstellar Assault.

As for the TG Mini, seems good to me. I've played through several titles on it so far, and I haven't had any trouble with its performance.

EDIT: Hey, do you get the big smiley after every 7th small smiley? Does that count as "medalling"?

So I got my first clear of the game today on Sweet Mode. I did well enough during the early stages to build up some extra lives to prepare me for Stage 5. I'm not sure if I had much of a strategy other than always making sure I had a power-up, to allow for an extra hit. Also I tried to make good use of the bombs. This was especially helpful in the stage 5 Boss-rush prior to the final boss.  In order to take the final boss down I kind of abused the bombs and extra lives that I had as I got hit a lot.

  Nice job Zoydo!

  I played on Sweet mode today and got to Stage 5 at the boss rush. Which was further than I was getting on Spicy mode (Stage 4 boss there). I'm not sure that's there too much difference between Sweet and Spicy other than the enemies and definitely the bosses take more hits.

  I think I'll play on Sweet mode the rest of the month just to see if I can clear it on one credit. I remember finishing it on Sweet before but had to continue on Stage 5 a few times.

I've managed to reach the final boss on Sweet a couple times, but I keep losing all my extra lives at that point. I need to figure out how to better approach that boss.

 
   Yeah, I hear that. I think I'm going to practice using a Stage 5 save state on the PC Engine Mini.

On Spicy, the game seemingly gives you enough points from the penultimate boss that you always have 9 lives going into the final boss. It's a little nuts.

On the final boss itself, I've found that regular charge shots work best. If you time it just right, it can shoot down the missile volley. And the act of charging seems to shed the green spinny things that latch onto Zonk.

Tonight, I got my first clear of stage 5 on its own (using a state at the stage 5 title card). Took me something like 3 hours of practice across multiple sessions. Now onto stage 4!

EDIT: It's the next day now. Here's my Spicy 1CC:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMHyIGLG6Pw

After clearing, my thoughts would be:
-Boxing glove and lightning are great because they eat bullets.
-The screen-clearing bomb is great because it eats bullets.
-Spike Ree seems to be the most powerful friend because its green fish projectiles sit on enemies and do successive damage.
-It's weird that the final boss literally maxes out your lives.
-Probably the best implementation of the rear fire thing from Image Fight that I've seen in a shmup.
-You can cause slowdown with busy effects (screen bomb) or lots of projectiles (the card weapon), but this comes at the cost of flicker, which makes it harder to track projectiles and enemies. Kind of an interesting tradeoff.
-I have a hard time coming up with any thoughts on this game. Optimistically, this means that I don't get the game. Cynically, this means its positive reputation is owing to its production value.
-Using save states, this took me about 8 hours of practice.

Would you rather play Air Stonk or Air Zork?

Good thoughts, and congrats on the Spicy 1CC! I got my Sweet 1CC on stream a few days ago, I just need to push the Twitch Highlight to my YT channel so I can post it. Regarding your thoughts:

- Bullet eating is a big strategy, and that's one reason why copious use of the charge attacks is practically mandatory. Because the smiley faces show up based on the number of targets you eliminate, bullets appear to factor into that, so any of the weapons or charge attacks that you can use to exploit that are helpful, as is dropping bombs. Even the default shot's charge can clear bullets, so if you die, you're not stuck w/o some ability to clear bullets.
- The bomb is OP in some ways, though I've found that its bullet clearing is sometimes inconsistent. There have been a couple times I dropped a bomb and still got picked off.
- Spike Ree is powerful, yes. He cuts through the 1st stage boss like a hot knife through butter. I haven't tried him on later stages, because I'm following the pairings suggested by Ed from Studio Mudprints, but it might be interesting to see how he fares against other bosses.
- Yes, this is very weird, and it makes me think that either they designed it that way because they knew the final boss fight was kind of unfair, so it was a "late in development" way of compensating, rather than balancing the difficulty better. That's my supposition, anyway.
- The damage from the rocket boots is a GREAT feature that definitely makes the game more strategic than you might think upon initially playing it. I noted on the very first podcast episode that there was a bit of that with the original Gradius, where the Vic Viper's flame out the rear of the craft could damage enemies, but it's really well implemented here, as you said.
- I actually like the slowdown aspect, and have used that to my advantage a few times, but you're absolutely right - the flicker can make things difficult, so it's definitely a balance.
- I think I kind of understand what you mean. I feel like the reputation is partially deserved, because it is fun, and has a lot going for it, but I feel like maybe the hype is greater than the game itself. But then I don't have nostalgia for it, and I feel like the console had better shooters, even around the time of its release and prior.
- You certainly have an easier time adapting to these games than I do! I think my Sweet clear probably took me 10-12 hours, some of that time spent playing Spicy, then moving down to Sweet just to try and get the clear.

Air Stonk vs Air Zork? I'm not sure I quite get the context here :slick:

 
  Here's my last attempt on Spicy below. 842620 pts at the Stage 4 boss.

  I found myself not liking this game the more I played for a Spicy 1CC. The big hit box, the power up reset each stage and the bullet sponge enemies on Spicy all led to some frustrating deaths.

  But, I'll definitely come back to it again because I love the general gameplay and how nonsensical and wacky it is.

 

 

Very nice! Any other final thoughts on this game?

Just some goofy wordplay. :b I also totally forgot about the jet thruster damage in Gradius!


I wasn't too keen on the gameplay. I think there's too much bullet eating going on, which kind of blurs what the challenge is. There's also a ton of powerups and lots of friends, and in general variety kind of irks me. I would prefer it if it was catered to a few specific powerups. For instance, the cards and missiles overlap as spread weapons, and the boxing glove and electric staff overlap as slim, powerful weapons. But I think that's a matter of taste.

On the other hand, I like the powerup reset. It helps make each stage easier to learn. It gives you a fixed state for beginning each level. When you credit feed R-Type stage 7, it can be pretty rough starting without a force pod. In Air Zonk, though, credit feeding works the same as beginning the level from scratch. This lends the game a certain amount of fairness or ease of learning. It's like the antidote to Gradius syndrome.

I ended up not having much time for Air Zonk this month. I did get to about the end of the 2nd to last level or beginning of the final level on a credit on Sweet. I never got a great feel for my hit box, and pairing that with the claustrophobia of many of the tougher boss battles made it hard for me to learn the game, to learn from my 'mistakes'. I often saw my metallic skeleton carcass arcing off screen before I ever noticed a bullet coming at me. I did enjoy on a surface level the many weapons and matchups with allies.