About A Game: Gon - Baku Baku Baku Baku Adventure (3DS)
If you're somewhat versed in videogames, you've probably seen Gon before. The small orange dinosaur had a well-known appearance in a game outside of Japan. He was an unlockable character in Tekken 3, and a pretty good one too. But Gon actually has quite a bit of history in videogames as well as other media.
Gon originally appeared in his own manga, one which is kind of unconventional, because it features no language, no text at all. It's an episodic comedy where Gon is pretty much invincible, quick to enrage, and always on the lookout for food. There is also a newer anime series (from 2012) which is not an adaptation of the manga and has a whopping 50 episodes.
Still more widely known than the game I'd like to tell you about is the Super Famicom game, simply titled Gon. It closely follows the ideas of the manga and ends up being rather unconventional. It consists of six episodes in which Gon usually chases after some other animal that angered him. When he is hit, he does not take conventional damage, and instead gets angrier, until he is so angry that he jumps off-screen and rips the whole planet apart, which results in a game over. There is no UI at all, and also no typical game music, instead the background music is a sparse bongo drum beat, and other bongo sounds accompany Gon's actions like running or attacking. There is also no text, just like in the manga.
Gon destroys the world: https://youtu.be/To268l-A35Q
I was looking into the Gon SNES game when I noticed that there is actually another game with the Gon IP, on the Nintendo 3DS. When I found out about it, I quickly bought a copy from Japan on eBay, which luckily was fairly cheap.
Gon: Baku Baku Baku Baku Adventure (ゴン バクバクバクバクアドベンチャー) is a 2.5d platformer made by well-known action platformer devs Inti Creates and published by Namco Bandai. In it, Gon learns about the existence of the "Maboroshi no Tabemono" (the "fabled" or "mythical" food), and chases around his whole island in order to find it.
The big focus in this game is on eating, one of Gon's favorite activities. He is still kind of invincible, at least against enemies, but he has a "food meter" which constantly drains. When it becomes empty, it's game over for Gon. In order to keep that from happening, you'll have to gobble up the fruits strewn around every level. Gon can only keep a limited amount of food in his mouth, and you have to explicitly press a button to swallow the food and fill up your meter. There is some strategizing around how much to keep in your mouth and when to swallow, because swallowing with a full mouth, or swallowing only one type of food, gives more points (which can be exchanged for temporary upgrades). On the other hand, when Gon takes a hit, he will drop all the food in his mouth. Every level features a small set of food types, which also work as collectibles. Eating at least one of every type is one of the optional completion goals for each level.
Every few stages, Gon encounters a boss. Staying with the common theme of the game, these boss fights are not won by combat, but by eating more than the other characters. These stages often require you to not just eat the food, but also to keep enemies from eating, or to make the food appear in the first place. There are also a number of hidden bonus stages, which must be found and successfully completed to reach the real end of the game. These bonus stages work in a similar fashion to the boss fights, as eating contests, except without enemies.
The game features a nice variety of stages. Going around the island leads Gon through all kinds of biomes, including forests, deserts, swamps, snowy mountains, and even underwater stages, often with their own gimmicks. The desert features a door maze based on Fata Morgana mirages, the swamp makes you ride tree logs on a river, and the snowy mountains bury you in avalanches if you don't reach the exit of a cave quickly enough.
The language barrier is fairly low. You're going to miss most of the story obviously, especially since the animals talk a lot in this game, unlike the SNES game. They also sometimes give instructions, but most of the time it's easy enough to bumble through without knowing exactly what to do. The desert stage with its door maze might be a bit more effort if you don't understand the hint given in a dialogue, but can still be brute-forced by trying all paths.
After going a whole circle around the island, and defeating all bosses, the game is not quite over yet. Gon still has not found his Maboroshi no Tabemono, and the game now asks you to find the hidden bonus stages, based on rumours that the fabled food might be found there. These bonus stages are usually reachable through a side branch of some stages, which sometimes needs special skills that Gon learns in his adventure. Thankfully the stages with these hidden paths are marked on the overworld, to guide you a little bit. Finishing all bonus stages with the required scores unlocks the final boss, and who knows, Gon might still find the fabled food he desired so much.
The game is thankfully very light on 3DS gimmicks. The 3D effect is never required, and the gyro is only used a little bit, for very specific short actions. Pressing the R button switches into first person view and lets you look into the background, where the gyro moves your view around. Looking at the background is required in some places, in order to interact with the background, or sometimes to see little hidden scenes of animals, which also act as a type of collectible. The game is confined to the upper screen, with the lower screen only used for tracking of score and collectibles. I played it both on a real 3DS as well as in emulation (for streaming), and can report that it emulates just fine. The worst offender when emulating is an optional flying stage, which is controlled with the gyro, but can be failed without consequences.
Gon: Baku Baku Baku Baku Adventure does not feel quite as remarkable as the Gon game on SNES, which goes out of its way to avoid platformer tropes and adapt the general ideas of the source material. That being said, it's still a very enjoyable, cute and fun platformer above the usual standard, with plenty of fun ideas of its own.
Here's my on-stream playthrough of the game, if you'd like to see more: