Play Congo Bongo Online

Summary

Congo Bongo, called Tip Top in Europe, is an isometric platform arcade game that Sega presented as a three‑dimensional answer to Donkey Kong. You play a red‑nosed safari hunter chasing the ape Bongo across bright jungle screens.

The arcade consists of four single‑screen stages. The first is a cliff climb where you shake off three monkeys and dodge Bongo’s rolling coconuts. The second is a swamp maze guarded by hippos, snakes and scorpions. On Rhino Ridge you dive into mole holes to avoid charging rhinos while a headdressed figure fills the pits. The final lagoon mixes lily pads, floating fish and charging rhinos before the showdown.

The hardware bears the Tip Top label on its sound board and even includes a sync‑polarity switch, which makes the cabinet draw a lot of current. Congo Bongo was ported to the Apple II, Commodore 64, Atari 2600 and many other systems; some ports, like the ColecoVision version, drop the Snake Lake level.

Although early U.S. reports called it a flop, the game later sold well and earned audio‑visual awards for its Atari, Intellivision and ColecoVision ports. It resurfaced as an unlockable in the Sega Genesis Collection and received a PS2 remake under the Sega Ages label, preserving its quirky jungle chase.

Storyline

Congo Bongo opens with a short animation in which the mischievous ape Bongo sneaks up on a sleeping hunter and gives him a “hotfoot”. The player assumes the role of that hunter – a red‑nosed safari explorer whose tent has been set ablaze by the ape. Vowing revenge, the explorer sets out across the jungle to track down Bongo. The game’s four distinct screens each start in the lower‑left corner and require the player to race toward the ape, who appears on the right or upper‑right side of the screen. When the hunter finally reaches Bongo perched on a chair beside a fire, he returns the prank by delivering a hotfoot of his own. After this showdown the level restarts with a higher difficulty setting, demanding quicker jumps and tighter timing. The loop repeats until the player can no longer keep up with the increasingly fast pace.