Best Games Inspired By Journey To The West, Ranked

Part history, part fantasy, part comedy, and part religious treatise, Wu Cheng’en’s Journey to the West is an iconic piece of Chinese literature. Based loosely on the priest Xuanzeng’s real pilgrimage to India, it spiced up proceedings by giving the monk Sanzang three divine protectors in the river ogre Sha Wujing, the pig demon Zhu Bajie, and the magic monkey Sun Wukong.

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It has inspired a wide range of media, from books, shows, and movies to comics and video games — though some games are closer to the legend than others. Whether they let players control Wukong and co. Themselves, or pit them against Sanzang’s guardians, these are the best games inspired by Journey to the West.

8 SonSon

Journey To The East Side Of The Screen

One of the oldest examples is Capcom’s SonSon, a side-scrolling arcade platformer like SNK’s later effort Psycho Soldier. Players control SonSon (Wukong) and/or TonTon (Bajie) across a continuous range of platforms with gaps they can stroll over or move up or down a level on. Their goal is to reach the Buddha statue at the end and blast any enemy away with magic.

It’s simple to pick up, though tricky to master, as those lanes can get crowded — even when they get special fruit power-ups to turn the tide. The game has been re-released through many Capcom compilations, like the Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium, and has been referenced in many more, like SonSon’s granddaughter appearing as a playable character in Marvel Vs Capcom 2.

7 Mega Man: The Wily Wars

The Blue Bomber Takes On The Novel's Heroes

Wait, wasn’t Mega Man: The Wily Wars just a Genesis remake of the first 3 NES games? Well, yes. However, that was only part of the story. After beating all 3 remade games, it would unlock a new section called ‘The Wily Tower,’ where Mega Man could choose any of the weapons from MM’s 1-3 to tackle its stages.

They had to choose wisely, as at the end of its stages, they’d face a boss based on Journey to the West’s heroes. The aquabot Mega Water.S, based on Sha Wujing, would dive and blast Mega Man with water jets. Hyper Storm.H uses his bulk to barge into Mega Man, though he's just as dim as his book counterpart, Zhu Bajie. Then, Buster Rod.G swings his rod and clones himself like Wukong.

6 Saiyuki: Journey West

A Tactical Approach To The Story

• Developer: Koei
• Platforms: PlayStation
• Release: August 2001

SonSon and Mega Man: The Wily Wars are good for references, but what if players wanted to experience the actual novel in a video game format? Later games managed this with some artistic license, though some old school games did try to cram the novel into an NES cartridge or an arcade board, to varying degrees of success.

One standout was Saiyuki: Journey West, a tactical RPG akin to Final Fantasy Tactics, where Wukong, Bajie, and Wujing could use their transformations in battle, with Sanzang as the healer. It didn’t set the world on fire back in the day, being a PS1 game released nearly a year after the PS2's launch. Still, Gamespot liked it enough to nominate it for their ‘Best Game No One Played’ prize at their 2001 awards.

5 Dragon Ball: Origins

How Sun Wukong Created Son Goku

Nowadays, most people may know Journey to the West for inspiring the Dragon Ball series. Its main hero even uses Wukong’s Japanese name, Son Goku. That said, most Dragon Ball fans outside Japan got into the series with the explosive sagas of Dragon Ball Z, where the Journey to the West influences got turned down and other influences, like Superman, got turned up.

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But, if players wanted to see those influences more overtly, one of the best ways outside the show itself would be Dragon Ball: Origins. The DS Zelda- like saw Goku’s first meetings with his friends, some closer to the book than others — Oolong’s introduction is almost 1:1 to Bajie’s debut in the novel, while others take more artistic license, like Erlang Shen inspiring Tien, or Wujing's ugly river ogre becoming the desert-dwelling Yamcha.

4 Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate

The Novel's Priest Fights For Herself

The Warriors Orochi series are basically Dynasty Warriors Vs Samurai Warriors, with some Sino-Japanese history and mythology thrown in. Sun Wukong turned up in Warriors Orochi 2 as a playable bad guy since the main villain, Taira Kiyomori, freed him from serving Sanzang and Nezha. Sanzang turned up in the PSP update, though it took Warriors Orochi 3 and its Ultimate update to go deeper.

To unlock Sanzang in WO3, players follow the monkey-ish Hideyoshi Toyotomi and pig-like buffoon, Goemon, as they search for treasure. Instead, they get Sanzang, who aids them against the demonic hordes. Their arguing and clumsy scheming even reminds her of her old adventures with Bajie and Wukong. Nezha also makes his playable debut, though he originally came from an older story before turning up in Journey to the West.

3 Enslaved: Odyssey To The West

A Pilgrimage To The Post-Apocalyptic Future

Sanzang is supposed to be a male monk, but because of the Japanese translation’s ambiguous use of gender, he’s often turned up in their media as a woman, be it as Dragon Ball’s Bulma, Warriors Orochi 3’s Sanzang, or in the 1978 Monkey series. This show actually made it abroad to the West, where Ninja Theory continued the trend for Enslaved: Odyssey to the West.

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It’s a post-apocalyptic, futuristic take on the tale, where, after Monkey forces their ship to crash, Trip (Sanzang) uses a special headband to make him escort her home safely as recompense. The game played well, despite some frame rate hiccups, and earned multiple awards, particularly for Andy Serkis’ performance as Monkey. Unfortunately, that didn’t translate into sales, leaving it as one of Ninja Theory's most underrated games.

2 Unruly Heroes

Multiplayer Madness In This Action-Adventure Beat 'Em Up

• Developer: Magic Design Studios.
• Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, Android, iOS.
• Release: January 2019.

Enslaved had stunning, vibrant graphics for its time, though its story was a relatively moody affair. The original Journey to the West novel, while not always sunshine and rainbows with its murder and monsters, had plenty of comedy in it (usually through Bajie and Monkey’s bickering childishness). Unruly Heroes plays up the novel’s lighter aspects by taking it in a more cartoony, fun-filled direction.

It turns the story into a Donkey Kong Country-esque platformer with Prince of Persia puzzle-solving, where players can switch between Sanzang, Wukong, Kihong (Bajie), and Sandmonk (Wujing) on the fly. That way, they can switch between their different skills and abilities (gliding, double jumping, etc.) To navigate various obstacles. It’s a fun little game that fell under the radar for many, but it delivers a strong showing through its deep ties to Journey to the West.

1 Black Myth: Wukong

The Monkey Returns In This Stylish Action-Adventure RPG

The most recent Journey to the West video game adaptation as of this writing is Black Myth: Wukong, which provides an alternate epilogue to the tale. Here, Wukong rejects the offer of immortality after his pilgrimage and is punished by Heaven for doing so by being sealed in stone. Since then, monkeys from Mount Huaguo have ventured out to try to revive him by collecting the 6 Relics he divided his spirit into. The latest one, armed with a staff like Wukong, is known only as The Destined One.

The game is filled with characters from the novel who either help the Destined One on his journey, like Bajie, or fight him, like Red Boy and Erlang Shen. Made by Chinese developers Game Science, it’s arguably the best and most authentic game based on the novel. It aims to be the first of many Black Myth games based on Chinese mythology. Since the game has already hit 10 million sales within the first three days, players should have little doubt about seeing more Black Myth games in the future.

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