Monkey Magic (1999 PS Game)
A 1999 side-scrolling action platformer for the PlayStation 1, adapted from the British animated series and the classic novel Journey to the West.
Monkey Magic is a side-scrolling action platformer for the PlayStation, published by Sunsoft and developed by Mpen Studio. It was first released in North America on November 27, 1999, followed by the Japanese version on July 13, 2000. The game is based on the 1998 British-Japanese co-produced 3D CGI animated series of the same name, which in turn was adapted from Wu Cheng'en's Journey to the West and the 1978 Japanese television series Journey to the West. Players control Sun Wukong as he traverses multi-layered, stereoscopic scrolling levels. The game's signature mechanic is the "foreground-midground-background" three-layer scene transition, allowing players to jump between different depths to evade traps or attack enemies. Wukong can utilize four types of magic—Fire, Ice, Shrinking, and Blooming—which can be used for offensive projectiles or to counter enemy spells. As players accumulate experience points throughout their adventure, the game incorporates light RPG growth elements. The single-player storyline follows the master and disciples on their journey to subdue demons, positioning it as an entry-level action game aimed at younger players. As a cross-media IP title tailored by Sunsoft for the Western market in the late 1990s, while it did not achieve massive commercial success, it remains one of the few early works on Western consoles to fully recreate the main character ensemble of Journey to the West, making it valuable for the study of version history.