Sun Wukong VS Robot review for PS5/4, Xbox Series X/One, Switch

Platform: PS5
Also on: PC, PS4, Xbox One, Switch, Xbox Series X
Publisher: Ratalaika Games
Developer: Bitca/indienova
Medium: Digital
Players: 1
Online: No
ESRB: E10+

Your feelings towards Sun Wukong VS Robot will likely depend on the context in which you first experience it. If, for example, you?re playing it as a free web game (that, I?ll note, has been around since 2019), then it will probably seem completely fine. I mean…it?s free. Not only that, it works, so it feels like anything more than that is just a bonus.

Now, if you?re paying actual money for it — as you would be on consoles, which is how I?ve first experienced it — then the value proposition is significantly diminished. It still works just fine, if we?re being fair, but beyond that, there?s not much about it that sets it apart. It?s an incredibly generic metroidvania platformer that doesn?t have anything in the way of a personality.

This is both surprising and disappointing, since the Sun Wukong from Chinese mythology — AKA the Monkey King — would probably make for an amazing video game character, and his story seems tailor-made for a game. Like, take a moment just to read the intro to the linked Wikipedia article: Sun Wukong is basically super-powered, with insane strength and speed, and he was imprisoned under a mountain for trying to overthrow heaven. If that?s not the recipe for Chinese version of God of War, I don?t know what is.

Instead, in Sun Wukong VS Robot, the titular hero is ridiculously underpowered, with barely any abilities and not much in the way of a health bar. He?s on a mission to take out four robots for reasons that are never really explained or explored, and the whole game unfolds without ever once being interesting.

Just about the only reason you might want to play Sun Wukong VS Robot would be if you?ve played literally every other metroidvania you can get your hands on, and you?ve reached a stage where you?ll play anything as long as it?s functional. (Even then, though, you can still play this for free.) For everyone else, you can skip this one pretty safely.

Ratalaika Games provided us with a Sun Wukong VS Robot PS4/PS5 code for review purposes.

Grade: C+