Videogames of the co-op brawler genre and martial arts are two things in life that I enjoy, so it was a no-brainer that I had to get my mitts on 9 Monkeys of Shaolin, developed by Sobaka Studios and published by Buka Entertainment. This 2.5D side scrolling brawler/beat’em up casts players as Wei Cheng, a humble fisherman who is out to avenge the death of his friends and family who were ruthlessly killed by invading pirates. In the opening prologue mission, players are introduced the Wei and some of the gameplay, but ultimately we find Wei on the brink of death when he is found by wandering Shaolin monks.
The story continues with Wei and the Shaolin temple joining forces to repel the pirate forces and their Japanese backers. Many brawlers, especially those from the golden age of the genre in the late 80s and 90s, understandably put the story in the backseat to the action, especially seeing as how most of those were arcade games. 9 Monkeys, though, does a fine job of presenting a compelling, evolving story with several NPCs, both on Wei’s side and not. Comicbook-like cutscenes in between chapters with Wei’s voiceover add to the intrigue. This effort is commendable and a plus to the experience, but it’s the gameplay that is of the greater concern. Fortunately, Sobaka have done a great job with that component as well.
Wei (and Doshan, the optional second player character) are both skilled fighters that can kick, thrust, slash, evade, and block/deflect. Players carry a staff like weapon — be it literally a bo staff, or a kwan do, or similar type of long range melee weapon. Utilizing the control stick and the face buttons, you fight a variety of, and often a high number of, enemies at one time. Ranged enemies are best (and sometimes only) defeated with a well-timed press of the L1 button to deflect their dart or bullet that they shoot at you right back at them, while armored enemies are often best handled with a thrust attack. Multidirectional combos are easy to pull off and essential for victory, and I loved the sense of being a kung fu warrior that the game gives the players as they dart around the screen, doing all kinds of fantastic attacks. You really feel like Wong Fei Hung or other popular kung fu movie characters, and that’s a fun state to be in as you whip around, dealing with a variety of enemy types.
The action takes place across multiple chapters and over twenty-five levels that see you kicking ass in locales such as villages, ruins, aboard a ship, along forested paths, and even mansions. In between missions, players are at the temple, and there are NPCs to talk to with various options such as replaying a missions or changing your appearance, shoes, necklace, and weapon. Different equipment have different modifiers, such as increased speed, or the enemy gets stunned on a critical hit, or you regen a sliver of health when you use Qi. On that note, Qi is the second meter seen in the HUD, below the health meter. Qi is developed by attacking enemies, and with it you can utilize the two other fighting systems by pressing L2 and R2. These sub-systems give you access to more powerful attacks, and are known as the Southern Elements and Ground Attacks if memory serves. These significantly change the flow of combat and are introduced to the game at the right time, giving you a lot more options to deal with a greater number of tougher foes.
For each mission within a chapter, players can also earn several tokens that can be used to upgrade these three fighting styles. There are a lot of upgrades — speed, distance, recovery time, chance of critical hit, and so on. Honestly, I was pleasantly surprised at the number of and variety of upgrades available to unlock. You can also replay previously completed missions to earn more tokens, although less than the original amount. For example, if the first run of the mission awarded you six tokens for completion, your second run is capped at three tokens. Furthermore, not all missions in a chapter are required in order to progress the story, but it’s worth playing the other side missions to expand upon the lore, earn more tokens, and you know, have more fun.
I enjoyed the setting, story, characters, and gameplay of 9 Monkeys of Shaolin whether I was playing in single or co-op play. I would recommend playing co-op, which you can do locally or online. I mostly played single player so far, but in testing co-op play it worked great and like any good brawler game, it’s best played with a friend. I appreciate that Sobaka made a separate character, Doshan, for the second player, rather than just having a silent clone of Wei Cheng for player two. Doshan has his own voice-acting and lines, too, so co-op play was clearly not an after thought. Oh, online multiplayer support is available, but I actually did not try this out thus far. At the end of a level, various stats are displayed to reveal who had a better round between players.
Speaking of the levels, I appreciated that most of them were under fifteen minutes long. The Achilles heel of brawlers is repetition, so keeping levels fairly short helps combat fatigue, not just mentally but also your hands might ache at times if you’re in single player and taking on dozens of foes. It’s fun, don’t get me wrong, but I think the developers were wise to keep the length of the levels in check. Also, should you die during a level, the checkpoint system is smart. Not only are load times instant, but you are never placed far back from where you last were, and defeated enemies do not respawn. Personally, I appreciated the nod to the value of my time; keeping me moving forward rather than re-treading the same ground and same enemies over and over is a better use of my time than some games make, and that’s important to me.
As far as presentation quality goes, 9 Monkeys won’t blow you away, but it’s competent and well done. This isn’t a AAA production, but it is skillfully put together and I thought the in-game graphics were fine. I liked some of the visual hit effects, the slow motion that happens when you finish off the last enemy of a section, and the sounds of the hits is pleasing, too.
In sum, 9 Monkeys of Shaolin is a fun, accessible, and deeper-than-you’d-expect brawler that is perfect to co-op through with a buddy. Happy to recommend to anyone looking for a good experience in the genre or anyone that likes brawlers/beat’em ups.
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