Welcome to our review of the surprisingly fun Monkey King: Hero is back, a new game based on Chinese Monkey King lore.
A new, never-before-seen chapter in the Chinese legend of Journey to the West is about to unfold! Based on the 2015 Chinese box office record-shattering CG animated film Monkey King: Hero is back, this adaptation pits the Great Sage himself, Sun Wukong, newly freed after 500 years of imprisonment, with Liuer, a young boy who looks up to the Monkey King in a journey that brings them close together. Featuring new episodes not portrayed in the original film, this game combines epic, larger than life Chinese mythology with flashy and funny kung fu action for a delightful, pulse-pounding action adventure! 
I have watched quite a bit of Asian movies in my time, my love for the Hong Kong cinema is well known among my real-life friends and the Monkey King has come up in a few. Whether it is a Stephen Chow movie or another amazing actor, the legends of the Monkey King are very well known in Chinese culture.
When I heard a game was being made for the PlayStation, I was thinking I had to play it. Following several Hong Kong-based gameshops on Facebook, I saw that it had a physical release in Asia and days later, it was coming to Europe as well. Having received the review code, I was able to play the game early as my budget did not allow me to pick up the game this month.
The review code allowed me to play this magnificent game at least 2 weeks sooner than originally planned and I have been loving every single second playing this game. The Action-adventure genre is well packed nowadays with great games and Monkey King: Hero is back did find its own spot in the library.
First, I will talk about the one bad side of the game I encountered so far. The camera needs some polishing as it was not as smooth as I had hoped it to be, it sometimes needs a little too long to catch up on the fast action that is to be had. I am nitpicking, I know, we are talking slight delays…
Graphically, this game is what is to be expected of a CG movie turned game, it looks quite well and during the fighting, you will notice the big and incredibly funny counters. Like when an enemy tries to hit you and you time it right, you break his attack by performing this overly awesome counterattack and they look so cool.
I found the battle system quite intense at first, but that was mostly due to having only a few attacks at my disposal. Once I got through a few levels, I had ample power-ups at my disposal all of a sudden and they meant more attack patterns. I was becoming more and more of a badass fighter.
Fights are also a little more technical than the majority of the games in this genre. It hovers somewhere in between fighting and the Musou genre. At times you will have more than a handful of enemies coming at you, forcing you to pick whether or not to go for the big powerful yet very slow attacks or the quick and nimble attacks that do very little damage.
There is quite a bit of depth to the fighting because of this and while the hordes of fodder can sometimes come across as button bashing for some, I was mostly amused that I was able to further hone my skills and become the best fighter I could be.
Monkey King: Hero is Back, does its best to really drag you into the story and while the beginning is a highly impressive CG movie of the origin and then you suddenly follow around a little kid, the jump forward might feel a little weird but things will become clear when playing.
What really hit me, is how much fun I had playing this game. Not once was I bored and even the sometimes harder boss fights ended up being a proper challenge and I just thought “Challenge accepted!”. I felt like I became entranced with this game and I have become a real fan of this game.
In conclusion, Monkey King: Hero is Back, is a great game in its genre! I would instantly recommend it when asked. That first time you hit a counter… Priceless! That first time you pick up a bench and use it to fight… Priceless! Overall this game really hits the sweet spot for me.
