The Crown of Wu Reviews

Wukong in space. A somewhat sci-fi take on the classical legend. Wu is a monkey hero who was tricked by a pig hero, who stole his crown and threw him in prison. Break out of prison, regain mastery of the 4 elements, and defeat your rival to reclaim your crown. The gameplay is a mix of souls-inspired stamina-based combat, and PS2-era platforming and puzzling. The game is level-based, with a loose story connecting them all. The quality is pretty uneven. Graphical presentation is also all over the place. The main character looks incredibly dated, but some elements of level design are pretty ornate and quite pretty- the game has some lovely skyboxes with imposing architecture. There's a limited range of enemy types, and a few bosses. Some of the levels are quite large, and feel more like puzzle dungeons, which is a neat throwback. As a negative, I have to mention inability to remap controls in-game. Encounter design is all over the place, and the ending feels rushed- you gain the final elemental power literally right before encountering the final boss, so the power to spawn earth pillars as extra platforms is only used once. Overall, the game is a curio. Probably not worth the full asking price, but if you're looking for 8-10 hours of platforming and puzzling, and don't mind dated looking graphics, it's not a bad game. There's a whole bunch of collectibles to look for, even you want to get some more time out of it, and get all the lore associated with the game.