The Journey to the West

As followers (thats both of you) of the Genki Blog will well know, it doesn't take much to send Genki off the deep end about the fabulous NHK Monkey series which aired in the 80's in the UK. And Saiyuki World 2 captures the raw essence of our beloved cheeky chimp to a T. I mean who could be failed to be charmed by a simian god who gets caught taking a pee on the Buddha's fingers (if that isn't sacrilege...) And has to constantly battle the demons within to resist the urge to bosh everyone in close proximity over the head with an extendible staff stashed behind his ear...? Luckily Trippitaka knows a Koan or two to put paid to his irrepressible nature... The game is firmly based on the Monkey legend or Journey to the West as famed by the classical book or the afore mentioned NHK series. The representation of Monkey is spot on and the cloud is present to help with tricky platform sections. The Buddhist hell bosses make for intriguing battles, especially for gamers more accustomed to the Occidental end of game bad guys. Natsukashii...

Monkey Magic!

Reviewing the Famicom Disk Saiyuki games got us thinking about the spirit of Monkey: irrepressible and full of high jinx. This spirit comes across well in the games which graced the PC Engine and Famicom. And no finer tribute (or more accessible to Western gamers) comes in the compact form of Cloud Master (or Gokuraku Chuka Taisen.) Being based on the wondrous Monkey series from NHK and being a fine shooter in it's own right raises Cloud Master to Mount Fuji like heights in the Genki office. Buddhist related hi-jinx with our beloved, cotton wool cloud riding monkey god.
So good in fact the spirit was bottled and rekindled for the Nintendo Wii with side scrolling shooting update of the8Bit Chinese classic that'll bring a smile to retro heads and fans of the mischievous monkey yet stands tall as a spiffing example of the shooting genre. Four play modes with gorgeous backdrops of traditional Chinese settings including the Great Wall that look like they have been taken straight from a wall scroll. But thankfully the games distinct humour remains firmly intact as bazooka wielding angry pigs fire at your cloud as bowls of noodles whiz by and jade turtles plod obliviously along - meaning we can forgive renaming Goku the Monkey. Subtitled Michael and Mei Meis Adventure.
Monkey, Pigsy, Tripitaka, Sandy, the horse who was a Dragon, the naughty gambling oni who never made it to UK TV Screens: we salute you!

Famicom Mukashi Hanashi Series

We recently came across the Famicom Mukashi Hanashi Series (or Famicom tales of old times Series) for the little known Famicom Disk System. Some beautiful sound and graphics give plenty of encouragement to scholars of Japanese to persure them further with the simpler Hiragana script. Being big Monkey men we couldn't resist Saiyuki. Based on the Chinese classic A Journey to the West, here we join Monkey on his first five chapters travelling to India. The usual suspects of the priest, Pigsy and Sandy all pop up and both text and graphics are used to depict the action as players use basic commands to progress such as talk, take or look. Learning a little each day (and its often a little in the case of Pigsy and Monkey.) Lovingly drawn with soothing chip tunes.
Here is the fine advert for it that aired in Japan:



We excitedly await the next installment in the series in Shin Onigashima arriving. Only twenty odd years too late....