''Bonze Adventure'', known in

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

as , is a

platform game A platformer (also called a platform game, and sometimes a jump 'n' run game) is a subgenre of action game in which the core objective is to move the player character between points in an environment. Platform games are characterized by levels wi ...

developed by

Taito is a Japanese company that specializes in video games, Toy, toys, arcade cabinets, and game centers, based in Shinjuku, Tokyo. The company was founded by Michael Kogan in 1953 as the importing vodka, Vending machine, vending machines, and Juk ...

and released in arcades in 1988. A

PC Engine The TurboGrafx-16, known in Japan as the , is a home video game console developed by Hudson Soft and manufactured by NEC. It was released in Japan in 1987 and in North America in 1989. The first console of the fourth generation, it launched ...

port was published in 1990.

Plot

Emma the King has lost his senses, causing him to lose order of his

Underworld The underworld, also known as the netherworld or hell, is the supernatural world of the dead in various religious traditions and myths, located below the world of the living. Chthonic is the technical adjective for things of the underworld. ...

domain – enabling

evil Evil, as a concept, is usually defined as profoundly immoral behavior, and it is related to acts that cause unnecessary pain and suffering to others. Evil is commonly seen as the opposite, or sometimes absence, of good. It can be an extreme ...

entities to roam freely. The player controls

Bonze A ''bhikkhu'' (, ) is an ordained male in Buddhist monasticism. Male, and female monastics (''bhikkhunī''), are members of the Sangha (Buddhist community). The lives of all Buddhist monastics are governed by a set of rules called the prātimo ...

Kackremboh, a

Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...

who is son of the Divine Dragon. Kackremboh must now go on a journey to find and confront Emma. In order to find Emma, Bonze must survive against hordes of yokai, such as snakes, giant eyeballs, ghosts,

kitsune The , in popular Japanese tradition, are foxes or fox spirits that possess supernatural abilities such as shapeshifting, and capable of bewitching people. General overview , though literally a 'fox', becomes in folklore a ' fox spirit', o ...

, spiders, entities appearing to be

hitodama In Japanese folklore, hitodama ( Japanese ; meaning "human soul") are balls of fire that mainly float in the middle of the night.広辞苑第五版 p.2255 「人魂」 They are said to be "souls of the dead that have separated from their bodies", ...

will-o'-the-wisp In folklore, a will-o'-the-wisp, will-o'-wisp, or ; ), is an atmospheric ghost light seen by travellers at night, especially over bogs, swamps or marshes. The phenomenon is known in the United Kingdom by a variety of names, including jack-o'- ...

, as well as other evils.

Gameplay

The priest's weapons are

Buddhist prayer beads A japamala, , or simply Japay mala (; , meaning 'garland') is a loop of prayer beads commonly used in Indian religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism. It is used for counting recitations (''japa'') of mantras, prayers or other ...

, called "mala" beads, which can be powered up until they become almost as large as the priest himself. In times of difficulty, a

deva Deva may refer to: Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * Deva, List of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition monsters, an ''Advanced Dungeons & Dragons'' 2nd edition monster * Deva, in the 2023 Indian film ''Salaar: Part 1 – Ceasefir ...

often provides various

power-up In video games, a power-up is an object that adds temporary benefits or extra abilities to the player character as a Game mechanics, game mechanic. This is in contrast to an Item (game), item, which may or may not have a permanent benefit that ca ...

s to assist the priest's progress. In an unusual twist, the allotted time appears in the manner of melting

candles A candle is an ignitable candle wick, wick embedded in wax, or another flammable solid substance such as tallow, that provides light, and in some cases, a Aroma compound, fragrance. A candle can also provide heat or a method of keeping time. ...

, rather than a traditional timer. The game consists of several rounds: Dilapidated Backyard

Cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite, graveyard, or a green space called a memorial park or memorial garden, is a place where the remains of many death, dead people are burial, buried or otherwise entombed. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek ...

, The Dead-or-Alive River, Burning Inferno, Bloody Pond, Glacier Trap, Lose-Your-Way-Maze, and finally Emma's Lair.

Reception

In Japan, ''Game Machine'' listed ''Bonze Adventure'' on their July 15, 1988 issue as being the third most-successful table arcade unit of the month. Bonze Kackremboh later made an appearance in the ''

Let's! TV Play Classic Let's! TV Play Classic (Let's!TVプレイCLASSIC or レッツテレビプレイクラシック) is a series of Japan-only plug & play devices developed and distributed by Bandai programmed on '' XaviX'' software created by SSD Company Limited in ...

'' series in ''Kiki Kaikai Kackremboh''.

References

External links

* 1988 video games Side-scrolling platformers TurboGrafx-16 games Video games developed in Japan Virtual Console games Taito arcade games Video games based on Buddhist mythology Video games set in cemeteries Arcade Archives games Multiplayer and single-player video games {{platform-videogame-stub