9 Monkeys Of Shaolin Review (Steam)
The true rebirth of iconic beat ’em up genre in vein of old-school video games! As a simple Chinese fisherman Wei Cheng you have to avenge the death of your friends and family slaughtered in a pirate raid at your peaceful village.
Pros:
- Decent graphics.
- Download size.
- Steam achievements.
- Controller support.
- Graphics-fullscreen, resolution, v-sync, anti-aliasing, shadows, motion blur, post-processing quality and graphics presets.
- Four difficulties-novice, Warrior, master, and legend.
- Can rebind controls.
- Can skip the cutscenes.
- Opening tutorial pop-ups.
- Action fighting gameplay.
- Co-op mode-local or online. You can turn friendly fire on or off.
- Combo counter.
- Combat feels heavy and meaty. You can do quick, slow, hard attacks, dodge attacks, and fly into enemies to start an attack or block to deflect.
- The main hub for level select, weapons, and gear along with setting up Co-op play.
- End of the level breakdown on performance.
- Skill tree-kick/slash and thrust trees to unlock new attacks and buffs. You will eventually unlock new trees for new attack styles.
- World map level select.
- Can sometimes choose which missions to take.
- Weapons-they give buffs and/or buffs and each one is unique and can be freely equipped.
- Skill points are handed out as rewards and used for the skill trees.
- Some really nice locations.
- Secret Collectibles to find which in turn unlock secrets/cheats for the game like big head mode, new costumes, etc.
- Green tea-used to heal. Press once for a one time use or hold to fill up all the way.
- Enemies give a tell when shooting or doing a heavy attack.
- Breakable objects in the world like crates or chopping down trees.
- Big boss fights.
- Fast loading times.
Cons:
- Rebind only shows the keyboard but does recognize the controller.
- The mouse cursor stays on the screen when using the controller.
- How to play is just a picture of the controller layout.
- Slow starter.
- Combat can get tedious when dealing with multiple enemies.
- Can be hard to judge deflecting shots.
- Green tea pickups don’t carry over from level to level.
- Slow animation for drinking green tea.
- Bullet sponge boss fights.
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Graphics - 8/108/10
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Sound - 7/107/10
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Accessibility - 8/108/10
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Length - 7/107/10
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Fun Factor - 8/108/10
Summary
So 9 Monkeys Of Shaolin is a beat em up game that definitely uses the same energy as the fighting games of yesteryear like Streets of Rage or Final Fight in that you have a limited 3d play area and go around beating up dudes and smashing boxes for food. It’s also a game that excels in the combat space as it has some very interesting ideas from player customisation of attacks to how fluid and smooth it all performs. I’m not a huge fan of the actual game as it’s very one-note, go here beat up dudes then walk a bit then fight then walk than fight then end. It’s an experience not that alien but just repetitive and kinda dull. I stayed with the game though as I wanted to carry on creating my character, it took a bit of learning it must be said bit the combat is very slick, Its an action film with style and is generally worth checking out.
