Congo Bongo - for Commodore 64
Congo Bongo is an isometric platformer released by Sega in 1983 for multiple systems. Imagine what would happen if Frogger, Qbert, and Donkey Kong all were mashed together....that's Congo Bongo.
The premise:
You are a safari hunter out to exact revenge on Bongo the gorilla. Why? One story I read suggests Bongo set your hut on fire. Another suggest that Bongo is just an annoyance to the hunter. Either way, revenge is the name of the game.
Gameplay
Congo Bongo is played in an isometric world (Q-bert) in which the goal is to reach a gorilla (Donkey Kong) and sometimes requires jumping over a river on top of various animals/objects (Frogger).
There are only 2 screens per stage. Once both are cleared, the stage number increases and you repeat both screens indefinitely.
- Screen 1 - Climb the cliffs to reach Bongo while avoiding his coconuts and monkey minions.
- The coconuts thrown by Bongo will kill you instantly. Monkeys will jump on your back to slow you down and throw you off the cliff in later levels.
- The intended route for climbing the cliff is to climb straight up the 1st step, then climb right the next 3 steps. Down across the bridge to slide down the slide. Jump across the gap. Climb up to the platform with the monkeys. Jump across the river. And lastly climb up to Bongo's level.
- Screen 2 - Hop across the river then climb the stairs to reach Bongo...then set him on fire for revenge. (PETA probably wouldn't like this game.)
Difficulty:
There is a slight difficulty curve of sorts through the first 5 stages.
- Screen 1 - Monkeys
- At stage 1 monkeys won't jump on you. Stages 2-3 two monkeys can latch on. Stage 4 onward - If two monkeys are hanging on, the third monkey will knock you off the clilf to your death.
- Screen 2 - Fish
- Stages 1-2 the fish don't bite you. Stages 3-4 only the two rightmost fish are dangerous. Stage 5 onward all the fish can bite.
TAS Notes
- BizHawk 1.13.0 used with default settings.
- Game is a cartridge version.
- Objective was fastest completion.
- Luck manipulation is used to alter coconut throws by Bongo.
- Out-of-bounds movement is used to climb the big cliff (that is otherwise unclimbable) and skip at least half of the first screen of each stage.
Is this a valid submission?
Though there is a difficulty curve over 5 stages, this submission only completes the first stage. However I feel this may still be a valid submission due to the use of the out-of-bounds glitch in the first of the two screens.
- As the out-of-bounds glitch allows the player to completely avoid the monkeys outright, the difficulty increase for the first screen is rendered moot regardless of how many stages are played.
- The difficulty increase regarding the snapping fish in the second screen does not affect route planning or timing (even when carried out through 5 stages) and is thus also rendered moot.
If whomever judges this run believes that the difficulty changes (even though rendered moot) qualify as new content and thus require multiple stages to be completed, I have completed a 5-stage run of the game as well (available
here) and will submit that run for consideration instead of the current. The only difference will basically be a 5 times longer video as the routes do not change for the various stages.
Fog: This is a bit of an interesting scenario for our usual rules of infinite looping games.
Normally, we require the game to play until the difficulty no longer increases. However, this submission essentially renders the difficulty changes moot because the same route can be used across all five stages. With relatively no new content across stage loops, a single stage loop is sufficient for completion.
Accepting for Vault.
