Monkey King: Master of the Clouds, the Western version of the classic Japanese arcade game Chuka Taisen, will be heading to PC and consoles this summer according to a press release from Retroism.
Chuka Taisen was a shoot-em-up game that was a huge hit in Japanese arcades in the late '80s featuring the iconic imagery of a monkey flying through levels on a magical cloud. (Believe me, this stuff makes sense when you know a little about classic Asian mythology - Son Goku isn't exactly an original character.) It was later ported to the NES, SFC, and PC Engine. Now the game will be getting a bit of polish in a new updated version making its way to modern systems. Take a look at the game's trailer to get a feel for what this classic will look like on today's gaming systems:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcnrl6bq5k4
You know, a smart man would have phoned up Akira Toriyama, done some spite swaps, and licensed this as a Dragonball title. They would have made fat stacks.
Monkey King: Master of the Clouds will feature full 16:9 support, although this will mostly be through a 4:3 screen nested in a larger window as shown in the above trailer. While the gameplay action is firmly within the center screen, the important UI bits have been shuffled off into the extra screen real estate afforded by the wider modern format. The game will be playable solo or in co-op with a friend in local multiplayer. True blue shmup addicts can try their best at climbing the online leaderboards as they play through the game's five stages using either a controller or keyboard & mouse.You'll be able to get your hands on Monkey King sometime in the summer of 2018 for the PC, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch. In the meantime, you can swing on by the game's official website to keep up with all of the latest news about this title.
What do you think of Monkey King: Master of the Clouds? Do you think an obscure shmup will be enjoyed by modern audiences or will this only appeal to hardcore fans of the genre? Let us know in the comments below!
