Original Journey to the West: Super Monkey Adventure
Released by VAP for the Famicom in 1986, this Journey to the West themed title is infamous among Japanese players as a quintessential early 'kusoge' for its baffling difficulty and obscurity.
Ganso Saiyūki: Super Monkey Daibōken (元祖西遊記 スーパーモンキー大冒険) is an action role-playing game released by the Japanese company VAP on November 21, 1986, for the Nintendo Family Computer. It marked the company's debut in the console gaming industry and was among the earliest Famicom titles to be based on Journey to the West. The game's plot follows the main storyline of Tang Sanzang and his disciples' pilgrimage to the West to retrieve the scriptures. Players control Sun Wukong, trekking across a vast open map, battling demons, searching for pages of the Buddhist scriptures, and recruiting Zhu Bajie, Sha Wujing, and Bai Longma to reach the final destination. With approximately 300,000 cartridges sold, its performance was not poor for a Japan-exclusive Famicom title. However, due to its obscure hint system, a lack of guidance in its exploration structure, stiff controls, and a plot design that is nearly impossible to advance, Japanese players have dubbed it one of the most incomprehensible Famicom games. It stands as a landmark example of the "Kusoge" (crap game) culture in 1980s Japan and has long topped lists of the "Hardest Video Games in Japanese History," giving it a peculiar place in the early history of Journey to the West themed games.