9 Monkeys of Shaolin
In 9 Monkeys of Shaolin on Nintendo Switch, you‘ll play as the Chinese fisherman Wei Cheng who wants to avenge the death of his friends and family. Get your battle staff ready for a challenging adventure in Medieval China and merciless fights with hordes of various enemies.
After starting the game, the graphics stood out to me. It feels like a 70’s kung-fu movie, with the music, look and story to match. The story is the only part that lets it down, as it feels very barebones.
I love the use of voice acting in this game, which you don’t realise you miss till you hear it. All the actors do a great job and seal in that feeling of an old kung-fu game.
I love the variety of looks you get when playing through the stages. They have vibrant greens, stone walls look great and dark caves look spooky. I found myself looking forward to the next stage to see which landscape I was going to get.
As good as the level design is, the character designs feel let down. I am not a fan of the 2.5D look and would have loved a standard 2D platformer design. I found the fighting gameplay to be a tad lacking, especially when I compare it to Streets of Rage 4. This makes the fights less exciting and a little underwhelming.
There are three staff attacks you can do, while further along, you can unlock Qi moves to enhance your attacks. The issue is these are slow attacks, with a slow-moving character. This along with the enemies that can get a couple of hits in, makes the game feel dull. Any fight boils down to attack, attack, attack and then counter. You then rinse and repeat this until you have killed him.
A big problem for me is skill trees with no visual upgrades. You are just bumping your stats, I’d love to see my staff change colour or my attacks look different. I want to feel my character getting stronger, this just doesn’t do it for me.
Overall, 9 Monkeys of Shaolin on Nintendo Switch has the right look and feel but lacks in other departments. Finally, check out our site for other reviews. Also, don’t forget to connect with the Jabba Reviews team on Facebook or Twitter.
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