Monkey King: Hero is Back for PS4 lands on Oct 17

• Price will range from US$40.30 to US$66.53
• Developed in collaboration with October Media

SONY Interactive Entertainment Singapore Private Limited (SIES) announced recently that the upcoming Monkey King: Hero is Back video game will be released on Oct 17, 2019 in Malaysia.

The suggested retail price (SRP) of the physical copy (on Blu-ray) and the Standard Digital Edition will be at US$40.30 (RM169), while the Digital Deluxe Edition and Digital Ultimate Edition – each with their respective bonuses and perks – will be priced at US$29.84 (RM209) and US$66.53 (RM279) respectively.

The game is an adaptation of the 2015 Chinese CG animated movie based on Journey to the West. The movie was produced domestically in China and was immensely successful during its initial run, garnering around US$136 million (956 million yuan) at the box office, making it the most successful Chinese animated movie at the time.

The game is being developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment in collaboration with October Media, the company who created the movie. It will be adapting the plot of the movie, in which a boy called Jiang Liuer coincidentally releases the titular Monkey King from a cave in which he has been sealed for 500 years, as punishment for wreaking havoc.

The game will follow the exploits of Monkey King, Jang Liuer and (annoying comic relief) and Zhu Bajie on their travels. Players will directly control the Monkey King to defeat enemies using his superhuman strength and abilities. The game will also contain new story and plot beats which did not appear in the movie, meant to flesh out the characters and their relationships better than the limited runtime of the movie.

Adapting a four-year-old movie into a full-fledged action-adventure game is a fascinating decision. But if it gets China through the door of console games market, perhaps we’ll see more in the near future.

Pre-order bonuses

Digital pre-order for the game at PlayStation Store starts now, with some perks thrown in. Those who pre-order the digital and disc version will receive bonuses that include a Monkey King PlayStation 4 Theme, an in-game customer (Dasheng Doll Outfit, the Paradise Mode and Desperation Mode game modes.

The Digital Deluxe Edition includes the full game plus a slew of digital bonuses, including the Tuxedo Outfit in-game customer and in-game items. The Digital Ultimate Edition adds two downloadable “episodes” on top of the perks given in the Digital Deluxe Edition.