Drawing some clear inspiration from the Ghost n’ Goblins series, Taito’s Bonze Adventure is an arcade platformer that draws from Buddhism and Japanese lore. King Emma, the Japanese Buddhist lord of hell, has gone crazy and unleashed a horde of youkai, and it’s up to a Buddhist monk named Bonze Kackremboh (along with Tosenboh, in two-player mode) to defeat them. The cultural touchpoints are numerous throughout, making Bonze Adventure more than just another arcade platformer.
Our hero attacks with mala prayer beads, which are tossed at a long arc. The beads grow in size as you collect power ups of the same color until they are larger than Kackremboh himself. They ricochet off any surface they hit, just a single time before finding an enemy to damage or disappearing. When at full power, holding down and pressing the fire button will trigger a super move that varies depending on the color of the bead. A green bead creates a circle of smaller green projectiles that fire out from the center. The large red bead breaks into eight flames, firing four to the right and four to the left, destroying everything in its path. The purple bead is the strongest, creating a shot of lightning and eliminating all enemies on screen. You can find a few power-ups like extra prayer beads so you can fire multiple shots at once, and magatama beads to increase the number of times they can bounce. You can only take a single hit before dying, though you can find statues to absorb a single hit, while a series of burning candles acts as a timer.
The early stages are beautifully designed, full of creative monsters like walking gravestones and flaming foxes, with the levels sometimes offering branching paths. The game starts in a dilapidated cemetery, then moves to the Sanzu River, the Japanese equivalent to the River Styx that separates the earthly realm from the afterlife. Then you descend further and further into hell, through levels of fie and ice. The fourth stage, Bloody Pond, is particularly creative as you are chased through hell by a grey haired fish with lazy eyes (hardly the weirdest creature you will see during your adventures), jumping across platforms made of arms and eyes that retract and extend into a river of blood. Bloody Pond is the only stage to feature no music, used to great effect. The only sounds being that of platforms squishing through wet blood. It’s effective, beautifully drawn and easily the best stage in the game. There are only two bosses, the first appearing in the third stage and the last (King Emma himself) taking two unique forms in the final battle.
And then suddenly, the game runs out of steam. After four diverse stages of manageable, yet fun challenge, the difficulty spikes and the enemies become repetitive and uninspired, and remains that way for the remaining three levels, The final boss, King Emma is another challenge altogether, and could cause even a proficient player to withdraw a bank loan in quarters to clear.
Bonze Adventure came out within a few years of a few other games that leaned into Japanese and Buddhist mythology, including Namco’s Youkai Douchuuki and The Genji and the Heike Clans, and Taito’s own Kiki Kaikai. The real appeal lies in the setting and the enemies, though as far as action arcade games go, it’s otherwise pretty average.
The game received a home port in 1990 for the PC Engine. For the most part, it’s a solid conversion, though it ditches the two-player mode and removes the timer. One major change lies with its continues – the arcade version featured revival checkpoints but they were relatively generous, even allowing you to respawn after continuing. However, the PC Engine version limits your credits and restarts you at the beginning of the stage when you continue. The arcade version appears on the Taito Legends 2 for the PlayStation 2, and is also available on Hamster’s Arcade Archives.
The Japanese title, Jigoku Meguri, means “Hell Explorer”, which certainly sounds much cooler than the English title. The game was directed by Arkanoid creator, Yasumasa Sasabe, along with Tsutomu Yoshikawa (credited as “Crazy Yoshikawa”) and Tetsushi Abe (Credited as “Creamy Tetsu”). Both Crazy Yoshikawa and Creamy Tetsu would go on to create a few more games, neither careers extending far beyond the early 1990s. Yoshikawa would continue to credit himself creatively in future games going by “Stooge Tom” in Sword Master (1992) and “Crazy Tom” in Cacoma Knight in Bizyland (1993). This game also served as the first game for Kenji Kaido, credited as a designer on the project. He would go on to establish himself at Sony, producing Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, and Ape Escape.
Screenshot Comparisons
Arcade
PC Engine
