I recently bought Megabonk on Steam, and I’ve been having a terrific time bonking everything in sight. And also playing Megabonk!!!1!
Your appreciation of the staggering hilarity of that gag may well depend on whether you lived in a country where ‘bonk’ was a common euphemism for sex in the 1980s, which as far as I can gather was Britain and Australia (as opposed to the slightly later ‘boink’ variant). From my etymological investigations it seems ‘bonk’ in the ‘hit (especially on the head)’ sense is more recent than I imagined it might be, dating back to the 1930s rather than, say, being a Dickensian expression.
Anyway! Megabonk is, essentially, a 3D version of Vampire Survivors - pick a character, collect random weapons and power-ups, face off against an ever-increasing horde of monsters. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed Vampire Survivors, heading back in frequently with updates and DLC, and Megabonk captures that same essential simplicity of concept with depth of weapon and power variations, only now with jumping! The quest and unlock system is nicely designed to promote trying out different builds and weapons, the random elements can be frustrating but immensely satisfying when everything comes together. Well worth a look, if you like that sort of thing.
Also featuring a fair bit of bonking, or at least references thereto, is Earth Must Die, a new point and click adventure from Size Five games with a fantastic voice cast featuring Joel Fry, Don Warrington, Alex Horne, Martha Howe-Douglas, Mike Wozniak, Matthew Holness, Stevie Martin, Sophie Duker and Alasdair Beckett-King, amongst others. There's a demo available which is rather fun; I haven't played an adventure game for ages, Discworld Noir might have been the last, so there's a nice blast of nostalgia. I'm not sure I'll be plunging back into a complete adventure-fest, the pace is a bit slow and I need to be in the right frame of mind, but it's good to mix things up now and again.
