Development and Release History
The Japanese name for the original game for the PC-Engine is PC-Genjin (PC-原人, literally, PC-barbarian). In Japanese, PC-Genjin sounds like PC-Engine, and the PC stands for Pithecanthropus Computerus, a pun on Pithecanthropus Erectus. It is generally called PC-Kid in English, as he was meant to be NEC's mascot at the time. Later, when the game was ported (or given different versions) for other platforms, it was renamed accordingly, like FC-Kid (after Family Computer, the original Japanese name for the NES, and the FC stood for Freakthoropus Computerus), GB-Kid (after the Game Boy), or the more generic name BC-Kid in some other versions, including Amiga. In North America, this was scrapped, as the game name is always Bonk's Adventure or something similar.
In 2003 Hudson Soft included a 3D remake of Bonk's Adventure in their Hudson Selection series of games released exclusively in Japan for the PlayStation 2 and GameCube consoles.
In the mid-1990s, at the height of the PC-Engine/TG-16's popularity, Bonk's character was used to market the brand in Europe and North America, similar to the way that Mario was (is) the face of the Nintendo franchise, and Sonic the Hedgehog was the face of the Sega franchise.
Factor 5, developers of the Amiga port, have made BC-Kid available for free through their company website but it requires an emulator to play.
The TurboGrafx-16 version was released for Wii's Virtual Console on November 21, 2006, and according to informal surveys it has been one of the most purchased games.
Hudson was developing a reboot of the franchise entitled "Bonk: Brink of Extinction" for WiiWare and PlayStation Network. With the closure of Hudson the status and future of this title is uncertain.
Read more about this topic: Bonk's Adventure
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