Monkey Hero
Released by Take-Two in 1999 for the PS1, this action-adventure RPG reimagines the tale of Journey to the West as a Zelda-style 3D adventure with a top-down perspective.
Monkey Hero (released in Europe as The Adventures of Monkey Hero) is an action-adventure RPG developed by the British studio Blam! Entertainment and published by Take-Two Interactive. It launched for the PlayStation in North America on February 26, 1999, followed by a European release later that year and a Japanese release in May 2000. The game clearly draws inspiration from the top-down exploration, combat, and puzzle-solving structure of The Legend of Zelda and The Legend of the Mystical Realm, but employs a "cartoon ink" art style that blends Japanese anime-style 2D characters with 3D environments. It is explicitly based on the Chinese folk tale Journey to the West: players take on the role of Sun Wukong, traveling through the "Real World," the "Dream Realm," and the "Nightmare Realm" under the guidance of a mentor, the "Sage Master," to battle the Nightmare King and collect scattered fragments of the Magic Storybook. The game features sprawling mazes, boss battles, and a system for collecting weapons and magical treasures, with the character's health represented by "peaches," reflecting the colors of Eastern mythology. Media reviews were predominantly negative—with a composite GameRankings score of only 47%—citing clunky controls, flawed camera angles, and pacing issues. Nevertheless, it remains one of the few 3D action-adventure titles based on Journey to the West for mainstream Western consoles in the late 1990s, documenting an early attempt by the Western gaming industry to interpret the image of Sun Wukong.