Monkey See, Monkey Do

This list is predominantly focused on Monkey Kings, but Andira could more accurately be described as a Monkey Queen. That being said, she meets all the requirements for this countdown. The young girl flies around on a cloud, she’s armed with a magical staff, and her golden head band looks an awfully lot like Sun Wukong’s slave crown. As one of the Twelve Heavenly Generals, Andira is a protective deity who draws inspiration from Buddhist beliefs. Her story also takes cues from Journey to the West, of course, and it’s implied that she’s a descendent of the Monkey King. (This explains why members of her tribe all have strange ears and furry tails.) Andira is largely defined by her unwavering resolve, and she’s surprisingly blunt. Her adventurous spirit is apparent to all, and she secretly dreams of embarking on her own westward adventure someday.

In Journey to the West, Sun Wukong is led to believe that he’ll be given an honorable position in the heavens. When he realizes that he’s being used as a glorified stable boy, he returns to his own kingdom and declares himself Qitian Dasheng – meaning “The Great Sage, Heaven’s Equal.” This title is also used by a Final Fantasy XIV boss. Several Final Fantasy games have featured a weapon called the Gokuu Pole as a reference to the Monkey King, but Qitian Dasheng is anything but subtle. The massive monkey wears a golden headband, he arms himself with a telescoping staff, and he rides into battle on a cloud. He can also create clones of himself, but that probably goes without saying at this point. Being the trickster that he is, Qitian Dasheng casually leaves the fight after summoning his decoys.

Dozens of Megami Tensei games feature iterations of Sun Wukong. Some games call him Qutian Dasheng to indicate that he’s on equal footing to the gods, while others use the Japanese translation, Seiten Taisei. Although his name changes from one game to the next, Seiten Taisei is seldom seen without his flying cloud and gold-banded staff. Some liberties are taken with his mythos, however. In Shin Megami Tensei III, Seiten Taisei can be evolved from Hanuman. (It has been suggested that Sun Wukong’s creation was directly inspired by the Hindu monkey god, so this evolution path is not without logic.) In Persona 5, Seiten Taisei emerges as a physical manifestation of Ryuji Sakamoto’s inner psyche. Ryuji is a hot-headed teenager who makes reckless decisions, and the parallels between him and the impulsive Monkey King are hard to miss.

Although most of the characters in SMITE are literal gods, the Monkey King is a perfect fit for the roster since he was reluctantly acknowledged as Heaven’s Equal. The SMITE version of Sun Wukong is a physical melee warrior who takes direct inspiration from Journey to the West. His spiked cudgel can increase in length, for instance, and Wukong can swing it around in a circular pattern or slam it down like a felled tree. He also has shape-shifting abilities, and he can take the form of an eagle, a tiger, or an ox. If things get too dicey, he can take a breather on his flying cloud while a decoy fights in his stay. He’s a reasonable facsimile of his namesake, and the developers also found a way to acknowledge the Monkey King’s most famous expy. Sun Wukong is voiced by Sean Schemmel, who also provided the voice of Son Goku in the Dragon Ball anime series.

This countdown could have been comprised entirely of MOBA games, and seemingly every game in the genre features their own version of Sun Wukong. Monkey King was added to Heroes of Newerth in the same month as Wukong was added to League of Legends, and I vastly preferred the HoN implementation. The melee hero can deal massive damage while constantly moving around the battlefield. His flying nimbus gives him a significant speed boost, and he can vault over his opponents with his trusty staff. His elusive dash allows him to attack his enemies head-on, and he can even perform a second dash by creating a copy of himself. Heroes of Newerth was officially closed down in 2022, but Monkey King would never let a little thing like death slow him down.

Monkey King was the first hero added to Dota 2 that wasn’t previously featured in Defense of the Ancients. Although he’s categorized as an agility hero, he’s deceptively powerful. The trickster dances on treetops and ambushes his opponents from above. His Ruyi Jingu Bang is said to weigh seventeen thousand pounds, so Monkey King can either attack his foes directly or stun them by slamming the magic staff into the ground. The staff has a ridiculous range, as it can extend to Wukong’s will. Monkey King’s repertoire also includes some of the lesser-known abilities from Journey to the West. As one example, he can pluck hairs from his body and create an army of clones. He can also transform into seventy-two different shapes. Depending on the situation, he can take the form of everything from trees to healing potions! What a scamp!

Like the literary figure he’s based on, the Warriors Orochi version of Sun Wukong is tasked with protecting his master, Sanzang. Sanzang is depicted as a female in this series, however, which is relatively common in Japanese media. Although Sanzang occasionally treats his traveling companion like a pet, the Monkey King sets the record straight by describing himself as “the great, supreme, wonderful and illustrious Lord Sun Wukong the magnificent.” His inflated ego is not entirely misplaced. His staff-twirling antics are amazing to watch, and nobody on this list is better at chaining together combo attacks. He also uses his staff as a makeshift pole vault, and he can overwhelm his opponents by dancing alongside his after-images. He’s an absolute menace on the battlefield, and he runs almost as fast as the horses do!

The original SonSon was the star of a self-titled arcade game from 1984. Although his game was successful enough to warrant a sequel, he faded into obscurity while his never-before-seen granddaughter somehow earned a spot on the Marvel vs. Capcom 2 roster. Although the female SonSon inherited her magical staff from her grandpa, she’s much more proficient with it than he ever was. She uses it to set up various combos, and it can increase in size exponentially. The Wukong references don’t end there. SonSon uses a flying cloud when she performs an air dash, she creates diminutive clones from plucked strands of hair, and she has the uncanny ability to turn into a giant ape. She gets bonus points for being the most visually striking individual on this countdown, and I’m taken aback by the brilliant hand-drawn spritework and animation.

Enslaved: Odyssey to the West puts a hi-tech spin on the classic novel that inspired it. After the Earth is ravaged by global warfare, the last remnants of humanity are plagued by killer robots. Monkey is a lone wolf who tries to evade the machines, but his journey takes a sudden turn when a young woman forces him into compliance via the use of a slave headband. This device has obvious parallels to Sun Wukong’s slave crown, and the similarities don’t end there. Monkey arms himself with a collapsible staff (not unlike Wukong’s Ruyi Jingu Bang), and his weapon has the added benefits of producing plasma blasts. He also has a cool hover board that could be likened to Wukong’s cloud. Monkey showcases incredible strength and athleticism, but this doesn’t mean he’s a mindless brute. He’s quite sympathetic, in fact, and Andy Serkis delivered a great performance.

Most of the games on this list feature characters that are loosely based on Journey to the West, but Black Myth: Wukong is presented as a proper continuation of the story. In this outing, Wukong’s soul has been split into six relics, and the focus is placed on a newly introduced monkey from Sun Wukong’s kingdom. The Destined One has many of the same abilities as Wukong, and many characters actually mistake him for the Monkey King. The confusion is understandable. After all, he travels around on a cloud, he keeps a magical staff in his ear, and he’s able to change his form at will. Although this list is focused on Wukong, it’s heavily implied that the Destined One is a vessel for the Monkey King. Wukong is effectively a soulless husk, but the Destined One could be viewed as his reincarnation. In essence, Wukong lives on through him.