Monkey King: Hero Is Back

Overall, I like this adaptation of the Chinese story of the Monkey King. It plays smoothly and without any type of lag that I saw. Combat flowed smoothly, and the combat system was simple enough for even a young kid to learn. For $39.99 USD you get a good story which is important for games. We don’t get enough games with a good story nowadays, and I am glad this is one of them.

I was looking forward to playing Monkey King: Hero is Back for a multitude of reasons. First of all, it looked like a charming 3D mascot platformer, and anyone who has met me knows this is my favorite genre of gaming. There is also the fact that this game is actually a movie tie-in, being based on a Chinese animated picture released a few years ago. Finally, I wanted to see if China would manage to pull off another great game this generation, after releasing the excellent ICEY a few years ago...

For what feels like a game from the PS2 era given a lick of current-gen paint, Monkey King: Hero is Back isn’t half bad. It’s a bit simple, so it’s never going to excite in the same way that God of War or Devil May Cry V does, but that doesn’t mean some won’t get a decent amount of enjoyment out of it. The fact that Monkey King: Hero is Back is so inoffensive on every front means that even though it doesn’t do anything special it’s perfectly playable. Pick it up at full price and you might be a little disappointed, but with a bit of a discount, it’s a pretty decent palette-cleanser.

There’s something exciting about playing a game from China. I’ve gone through several smaller games from Chinese developers that have released in the United States, such as ICEY or Poi, and I always found them to be a weird match of ideas not quite put together in a way that other countries do. I’ve grown to almost love it; even at their worst, at least they always felt unique. Monkey King: Hero is Back is a AAA console game coming out of China, and I’m almost worried that some of that charm will be lost. So I dove in. Is the hero truly back, or is this just an imposter?

Though it definitely rises above its movie tie-in status, Monkey King: Hero is Back happily strives for adequacy and nothing more.

Monkey King: Hero Is Back is rough around the edges. That said, it is fun to pick up and play, and not every “good” game accomplishes so much. When you inevitably find this game in a bargain bin somewhere, purchase with confidence--it’ll provide you with a few hours of old-time video game fun.

We want to emphasize that 5 will always be the “average” number, not 7. So by far, it’s 50% great and it’s also 50% bad.