9 Monkeys of Shaolin is a side-scrolling beat 'em up / brawler, similar to genre entries like Streets of Rage, Double Dragon, Final Fight and TMNT: Turtles in Time. It's developed by Sobaka Studio and published by ESDigital Games.
The gameplay is standard for a side-scrolling brawler, your character runs from left to right on the screen, enemies appear and you need to beat 'em up in order to progress. Your playing a shaolin monk equipped with a staff, you have a standard attack (
), a thrust attack (
), a kick attack (
) and a dodge (
). Additionally you can parry attacks (
), use special attacks (
+ an attack button) and magic seals (
+ an attack button) which have a certain affect on the enemies. Special attacks and seals use up Qi energy which you fill up again with successful attacks. Those who have played similar games in the genre will feel at home. At the beginning the game feels a bit stiff and uninspired but the unlockable special attacks, seals, character upgrades and equipment make the game more complex and fun. Towards the end your character can become a strong shaolin monk handing out devastating flying kicks.
Like any good classic brawler 9 Monkeys of Shaolin also offers coop gameplay. Both local coop and online coop are supported and the difficulty increases with the addition of another player.
The game's story is somewhat forgettable. Set in 16th century China, you play as a fisherman named Wei Cheng, who's village is attacked by a group called Wokou and is saved by some shaolin monks after he is left back wounded. He joins the monks and goes on missions to fight the Wokou and find out what they are looking for.
The game's visual and audio presentation are inspired by kung-fu movies from the 70s. Wei Cheng's journey takes you from rural villages, to ancient temples, rice fields, bamboo forests, dark caves, etc. The soundtrack consists of traditional Chinese instruments with heavy drums. Performance wise the game is fairly smooth, I play it both on the Xbox One and Xbox Series X, but compared to the Series X the game looks quite blurry and low-res on the Xbox One.
With around 7 hours of playtime the game doesn't overstay it's welcome. There are several difficulty levels, personally I played it on the 2nd one called "Warrior" which was the right balance for me between challenging and fun. For those looking for a quick completion, there is a trick by connecting a keyboard via USB and skipping levels with the "N" key which helps tremendously getting all achievements (
thanks to N0TH THA G0D).
In summary the game is a fairly ordinary & decent side-scrolling brawler. While it will not gain the cult-following of the classic entries in this genre, it's still a good time.
3.5