UFO Interviewed on their upcoming shooters

by JC Fletcher { Apr 14th 2008 at 9:45AM }

Siliconera interviewed UFO Interactive's Michael Yum about their two Wii shooters, Heavenly Guardian and The Monkey King: The Legend Begins. We recently nailed down the release date for Heavenly Guardian (April 22nd!) and Spencer Yip tried to do the same for the horizontal shooter The Monkey King. Unfortunately, the release date is still somewhat in the air (and maybe being fired at by patterns of glowing bullets), with Yum able to specify only Q2, with a probable $19.99 price. The awesome news is that the U.S. version will get a "reverse mode" and a new exclusive stage!

Yum discussed the recent change in boxart for The Monkey King, from the colorful anime-style piece seen above to a cover with a less cartoony interpretation of the title character. He explained that "The American audience was just not aware of the Monkey King character so we felt that releasing the game after a new movie which I cannot say, would help people recognize the character." Presumably, then, the art was changed to resemble a live-action movie (probably The Forbidden Kingdom) a bit more.

Gallery: Heavenly Guardian

Gallery: Monkey King

Tags: heavenly-guardian, monkey-king, shooter, starfish, ufo-interactive

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Author X @ Apr 14th 2008 10:11AM

I... I'm familiar with the Monkey King. Which is to say, Journey to the West, and its oh-so-many adaptations in every genre imaginable to Asia. Oh well, I guess I'm not really Joe Everygamer.
Still, though, the remade cover is pretty cool-looking, but... the people that buy it because of that are still going to (hopefully) eventually play the game, and see the cutesy, cartoony graphics within. Or maybe they don't care what the person expects after they've already payed for the game.
Meh, at $20, and being someone who has a fondness for shooters but doesn't play them enough (and, as I said, has a small fondness for Journey to the West despite being a westerner), I'll probably grab it quick-like regardless.