Super Monkey Daibouken

Super Monkey Daibouken (スーパーモンキー大冒険)¹⁾ is the Japanese action-adventure game that was developed by “Techno Quest”²⁾ and published by VAP on November 21, 1986 for the Famicom. The game is infamously bad since everything about it is cryptic.

Summary

The story follows Sun Wukong (Son Gokū), Sanzang (Genjo Sanzō), and a Jade Dragon who begin a long journey to Tianzhu (Tenjiku) to find the Buddhist sutras. In terms of gameplay, the group mainly wanders around, finds warps, and occasionally stops at houses for food and water. Along the way, the group is joined by Zhu Bajie (Cho Hakkai) and Sha Wujing (Sa Gojō).

You'll occasionally battle enemies as you wander around, but the main goal is to find landmarks in order to progress on your journey. Eventually, you'll fight the Silver and Gold Horned Kings, then hunt down the Rakshesha in order to extinguish the flaming mountain, which will allow you to pass through and fight the final boss, the Demon King of Confusion. After that, you just make a beeline to India.

Development

The death of Taito's founder Michael Kogan in 1984 put the company at risk, causing them to look at video game development as a new source of income. “Techno Quest” (テクノクエスト) was a subsidiary responsible for computer games like Rolling Blaster for the MSX and since that game did well, they got tasked with developing Super Monkey Daibouken for Nintendo's Family Computer.

Now, this new project was led by a newcomer named “Shunichi Takase” (高瀬俊一) with three designers and programmers, one being “Kaoru Nakajima” (中島薫).³⁾ Takase loved computer RPGs, so he based the idea around that. However, the world map ended up taking most of its memory and the team didn't have the skill to cut it down, so a lot of their ideas were scrapped and the team considered the project “dead” then.

Unfortunately, a total of 300,000 copies were made because of the Famicom Boom, but Takase does regret the game and said it should've been destroyed the moment it materialized.⁴⁾

World Map

^{Each pixel represents one 16×16 tile. Credit to Chapitan. All errors are as is.}

Y	X	Description
A	9	Warp	Warp to B-6.
	26	Phoenix	Refills life, food, and water.
	32	House (Empty)	Food and Water.
B	2	House (Boss 3)	“I'm a Rakshesha!” (Defeating her unlocks Flame Mountain at N-7.)
	6	Warp Destination	Warp from A-9.
	7	House (Empty)	Food and Water.
	11	Phoenix	Refills life, food, and water.
	13	Boss 2	Gold-Horned King: “Silver Horns' Revenge!”
	16	Haunted House	Ghosts x2.
	21	House (Village Girl)	Food and Water. “This is the Gobi Desert.”
	31	House (Empty)	Food and Water.
C	2	Cave	Warp to K-7.
	14	House (Old Man)	“If you defeat the Rakshesha…”
	23	Warp Destination	Warp from C-24.
	24	Warp	Warp to C-23.
	26	Sa Gojō (Sha Wujing)	Sa Gojō: “I'll join you!” White Archer x1. (Sa Gojō is an ally.)
D	27	City (Luòyáng)	“It's the city of Luoyang!” “A+B, A+B.” White Archer x1.
E	7	House (Village Girl)	“This is the Taklamakan Desert.” “A+B, A, A.” Food and Water.
	19	House (Old Man)	“Take your time.” Food.
	29	Warp Destination	Warp from Q-30.
F	6	Time Gate	Passable at night.
	13	House (Empty)	Food and Water.
	27	Cave	Warp to F-29.
	29	Warp Destination	Warp from F-27.
G	14	Haunted House	Ghosts x2.
	19	House (Village Girl)	“The flaming mountains are to the west.” Water.
	20	Boss 1	Silver-Horned King: “You shall not pass!”
	25	House (Old Man)	“Look for the immortal phoenix.” Food and Water.
H	18	City (Chángzhōu)⁵⁾	“It's the city of Lanzhou!” “A+B, A+B, A+B.” White Archer x1.
H	24	City (Cháng'ān)⁶⁾	“It's the city of Chang'an!” White Archer x1.
I	10	House (Old Man)	“Gold Horns is tough to deal with.” Food.
	24	Warp Destination	Warp from J-24.
	27	House (Empty)	Food.
J	15	House (Old Man)	“It's dangerous at night.” “A+B, A, A, A+B.” Food and Water.
	16	Time Gate	Passable at night.
	19	House (Empty)	Food and Water.
	24	Warp	Warp to I-24.
	29	House (Empty)	Water.
K	7	Warp Destination	Warp from C-2.
	11	House (Empty)	Food and Water.
	26	Cave	Warp to M-26.
	26	Warp Destination	Warp from M-26.
L	6	House (Village Girl)	“Tianzhu is on the other side of the flaming mountain.” “A+B, A, A+B, A+B.” Food and Water.
	8	House (Old Man)	“The desert's entrance is northwest.” Food and Water.
	29	House (Empty)	Food.
M	19	Haunted House	Ghosts x2.
	20	Cave	Warp to O-20.
	20	Warp Destination	Warp from O-20.
	26	Cave	Warp to K-26.
	26	Warp Destination	Warp from K-26.
N	7	Flame Mountain	Your water and strength decreases as you get closer.
	17	Phoenix	Refills life, food, and water.
	25	House (Village Girl)	“This is a rural area.” Water.
	26	Cho Hakkai (Zhu Bajie)	Hakkai: “Someone, help!” Green Crocodile x1. (Hakkai is an ally.)
O	7	Final Boss	Demon King of Confusion: “To come this far…”
	11	House (Empty)	Food and Water.
	14	Haunted House	Ghosts x2.
	17	City (Chéngdū)	“It's the city of Chengdu!” White Archer x1.
	20	Cave	Warp to M-20.
	20	Warp Destination	Warp from M-20.
P	20	House (Village Girl)	“Please do your best.” Food and Water.
P	28	House (Old Man)	“Gather friends.” Food and Water.
Q	30	Warp	Warp to E-29.
Q	31	Starting Point	“A long journey begins…”
R	6	House (Village Girl)	“Tianzhu is nearby.” Food and Water.
	28	Cave	Warp to S-31.
	28	Warp Destination	Warp from S-31.
S	13	Phoenix	Refills life, food, and water.
	22	Cave	Warp to W-23.
	31	Warp	Warp to R-28.
	31	Warp Destination	Warp from R-28.
T	8	Cave	Warp to T-6.
T	24	House (Old Man)	“Go ahead.” Food.
U	15	House (Empty)	Food and Water.
V	3	India (Tiānzhú)	Ending.
W	23	Warp Destination	Warp from S-22.
X	22	Warp	Warp to S-22.

Notes

At the time, Super Monkey Daibouken sold for 4,900 yen. This would be $29.90 USD at the time, about $70.00 USD when adjusted for inflation.
If you follow the GameCenter CX segment, the playthrough jumps after the first time gate to the second boss, then skips to the final boss.

External links

Ganso Saiyūki - Super Monkey Daibōken / Strategy Guide [JA]
Ganso Saiyūki - Super Monkey Daibōken on the Game Catalog @Wiki [JA]
Ganso Saiyūki - Super Monkey Daibōken on Wikipedia [EN]

¹⁾

“Ganzo Saiyūki - Super Monkey Daibōken” (元祖西遊記スーパーモンキー大冒険) is the full title. The real title is “Super Monkey Daibōken”, while “Ganzo Saiyūki” is a descriptor explaining that “Saiyūki” (西遊記, lit. “Journey to the West”) is the source content, so the full title is actually saying “Original: Journey to the West - Super Monkey Adventures” in English.

²⁾ , ⁴⁾

"【リレーブログ（クリエーター編）第2回】”スーパーモンキー大冒険”ｔｋｓ様" (May 19, 2018). BEEP.

³⁾

“Kaoru Nakajima” (中島薫) is infamous for a perverse message hidden in the game's code, which happens to be the only staff credit. Takase recalls laughing when he found out about this, then insists that he was a kind, harmless person with a natural perm, wears camoflauge clothes, and loves his black cat.

⁵⁾

“Chángzhōu” (長洲) is an odd, possibly fictitious location that allegedly exists south of the Gobi Desert and east of “Luòyáng” and “Xī'ān” (Cháng'ān), misplaced by the Yellow River. The GameFAQs guide omits the name, while SA-GCCX guesses “Chángzhōu”. However, the hanzi means “long island” and if I had to guess, I would assume that it's supposed to be “Lánzhōu” which did exist at the time.

⁶⁾

“Cháng'ān” or “Chōan” (長安) is the former name of “Xī'ān” (西安).

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