January's normally a quiet time of the year for video games, with few reveals, even fewer releases, and most of us content to hunker down and catch up with the winners from the previous year's awards season as studios muster themselves for the year ahead. But January 2021 was different, as a trailer for an unknown game from an unknown studio blazed across the internet like a swift swing from a combat staff. This game was Black Myth: Wukong, a new, dark take on the classic Chinese story Journey to the West.
The viral trailer started with the comforting crackle of a small fire, as a wizened voice spoke in Chinese of a "Victorious Fighting Buddha" and a mysterious figure who may be fictional, may be dead, but whose story we were about to hear. Following this intro, a golden cicada weaved its way through a lushly overgrown temple environment before transforming into the Monkey King Wukong. Over the next 10 minutes, the staff-wielding hero engaged in some gorgeous high-intensity duels, culminating in a boss battle against a vicious silver-furred beast.
