SonSon review

Game: SonSon
Platform: Arcade
Genre: Unknown
Developer: Unknown

Reader review by goldenvortex

September 14, 2004

SonSon is a shooter inspired by the Chinese folktale “Journey to the West”, where cult shows like “Dragonball” and “Monkey Magic” got their ideas from. Basically it followed the adventures of Gokuu, a Monkey God with an array of magical abilities who went on a pilgrimage to India to collect scriptures from Buddha. Capcom used this legend as the backbone for this game, placing Gokuu, renamed SonSon along with his fellow pilgrim Pigsy in a running shooter game that was highly stressful and very repetitive.

As you run forth you’ll notice there are seven platforms, which you can jump down from or up to. SonSon will run like a train and you cannot stop him from running but you can slow him down and speed him up and you can also use your staff to shoot enemies, even though Gokuu’s staff was meant to extend/shrink rather than fire projectiles, whatever. The sprinting simian will charge through the game without stopping, shooting all moving things, ranging from stone monsters to psycho farmers. Most enemies will die in a hit but certain characters may take a lot more to finish off, especially the cloud flying demons that take phenomenally long to defeat.

The game is essentially one long sprint, which is divided into twenty-five different sections, each section is packed with loads and loads of enemies waiting to kill you instantly. The challenge is immense and since the game is so fast paced you’ll have next to no time to shoot down enemies and avoid another group of monsters coming behind you. Boss encounters are infrequent yet the bosses are dull and amazingly difficult. After firing shot after shot on bosses the damage it does is sub-sufficient and when that boss swipes up and kills you instantly then you’ll be peeved to say the least.

SonSon is long, repetitive and amazingly hard and playing the game is too strenuous for it’s own good to be honest. Although expert shooter fans may enjoy it but it seems that fans of the legend will be a little peeved that it wasn’t completely accurate. It’s not really worth the stress to be honest and one detailed play through of this game will make you immensely stressed to say the least, mainly because the action is a little too intense and unbearable after ten minutes of play. If you’re a hardcore shooter fan then I would recommend it but for those who enjoy games with a little more to them then don’t bother.

Rating: 4/10

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