9 Monkeys of Shaolin

Genre: Arcade Brawler

Players: 1-2 Co-Op (Local / Online)

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Review:

9 Monkeys of Shaolin, released on multiple platforms in 2020 including Nintendo Switch, is an Arcade Brawler set in a world inspired by classic kung fu films, where players take the role of a villager whose village is destroyed by bandits, with him recovering and setting off to seek revenge.

The presentation here is decent but not especially impressive, doing a good job of evoking the classic martial arts films of old, but not really doing anything noteworthy with that imagery. Everything is voice acted well enough, and the Eastern-inspired music fits well enough, but there’s something… generic… about all of it.

At the very least, the gameplay isn’t generic, with players given three attacks (a standard attack, a heavy attack, and a distance attack), the ability to charge each, as well as a dodge and a deflect maneuver. It is perhaps the deflect that will make or break your experience with the combat engine – players need to time their use of it, and the timing is a bit tricky. Enemies give off a gleam when you need to use it, but apparently you’re not supposed to use it right when the gleam goes off… it’s a bit frustrating trying to get the timing of this down.

There’s also the matter of how this game has players moving in a 3D space, as opposed to the way most games in this genre more or less have pseudo 3D movement. Here, players can freely turn in any direction… but the problem with this is that it is very easy to aim your character incorrectly, so your attacks whiff air. Again, frustrating.

In addition, each of the different attacks players have is intended for use against specific enemies, but too often the enemies look so alike that it’s hard to tell which attack to use on which enemy. Of course, this problem once again highlights how generic this game’s visuals feel, and how a little creativity could have worked to improve the gameplay as well.

I respect that 9 Monkeys of Shaolin is trying to do something a bit different in the genre with its approach to Arcade Brawler-style gameplay, but I feel like this unique gameplay could have used more refinement. As it is, this game is still decent, but it feels like it could have been something better with more polish, and with more work to make its kung fu setting more distinctive.

tl;dr – 9 Monkeys of Shaolin is an Arcade Brawler set in a world inspired by classic kung fu films, and it does some interesting things with its gameplay, but these gameplay elements lack polish, and the game suffers due to its world feeling too generic. It’s not a bad entry in the genre, but it fails to make the best use of its elements to deliver a memorable experience.

Grade: C

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