Title: JALECOlle Famicom Ver. Saiyuuki World
System: Nintendo Switch (eShop)
Price: $7.99
Release Date: 12/18/2024

Story

In our second Jalecolle review, we’re looking at NMK’s Saiyuuki World, an action platformer from the Famicom days. Unlike Magic John, this never got a western release back in the day, so everything in this game is translated for the first time ever via a subtitle overlay.

Inspired by the tale of Journey to the West and taking place after it, you take control of Son Goku, who must go on a journey to defeat the evil demon king and free a bunch of disciples captured by his minions. It also ends up being related to another familiar tale…

Presentation

Similar to the other Jalecolle release I covered, you start off with a simple game select, achievement list, and gallery to go through, backed by a music remix track inspired by the original OST. Of course, you only have the one game version this time around, and that’s a subtitled version of Sayuuki world. Similar to how Magic John did it, english subtitles overlay the Japanese text and cover it up, though you can change the in-game text back to the original Japanese if you so wish.

There’s the returning gallery, featuring the usual assortment of advertisements, box, cart and manual scans, although with no EN version from back in the day, the manual remains untranslated. This game didn’t have much extra to it, so there wasn’t much extra they could have added to this gallery to begin with, so City Connection did the best they could here. Likewise, you also have your returning display options of various screen sizes and filters. You can populate the borders of the screen with extra stats and information, including the very handy riddle each disciple gives you that ultimately pays off for the final stage’s maze.

The game itself looks pretty typical for the time, if a bit sloppy with some of the pixels on the UI. For some reason, the HUD looks like it was smoothed over in that aspect, even though it wasn’t, and always has looked that weird. Yet another case of a game being more made with CRTs in mind vs the pixel perfect options these handy ports offer us nowadays. The sound emulation is rock solid for the NES as well, and no complaints there, though the music itself is rather repetitive and annoying.

Gameplay

Starting out the game, Goku embarks on his quest, meeting some NPCs and stopping in an initial town to collect money and buy any equipment he’s able to. You get a basic weapon, can save your way up to a better one, and eventually work your way into a room where you fight a boss in order to drop a key. Clear the stage, it tallies your points up, and more points equal more health.

Wait a minute… This is very familiar, isn’t it? Especially looking at the screenshots or if you read certain other reviews on SFG. Yep, this is indeed NMK’s weird reskin/remix of Wonder Boy in Monster Land, being one of several home versions to come out that year alongside Bikkuriman World. However, unlike Hudson’s take, the reskinning here was done a lot more extensively, and one I found offered a nicer alternate take on the world VS the half-assed Bikkuriman version.

See, while Hudson’s version only really had the bosses and NPCs reskinned, in NMK’s version almost every enemy got a reskin to fit the Journey to the West theme, and said reskin works out pretty well. The NPCs who give you the secret items for that secret final boss counter item are Goku’s companions from the original story, the Kappa and Pig, and a bunch of the bosses/bigger enemies are classical foes from the folklore. It also helps that the game still controls pretty smoothly, and the game was also made much, much easier than the brutal Arcade/PCE versions, to the point that I barely needed to use rewind during combat at all, and that final maze was an absolute joke in comparison to Monster Land. Even the dreaded timer is here, but is almost a non-issue due to how slow it is.

Money also is pretty easy to come by if you jump around everywhere and defeat any enemy that catches your eye, so you’ll have no problem obtaining all the equipment/items/magic you need to complete the stages. Considering how frustrating those other versions can get with money or the lack of continues, a version that’s much easier from the start and less harsh on the player was pretty fun to go through. It also helps that the level design isn’t 1:1 to Monster Land, although it’s rather close. Some stages feel nearly identical, while others had minor tweaks that you’ll notice more if you play this back to back with Monster Land. All in all, this is a remarkably similar game, but one that doesn’t lose too much of that original polish, even if the music got a major downgrade in the porting process. The final boss doesn’t even have his own theme anymore!

Still, after spending roughly an hour with Saiyuuki World, I was able to clear it with much less of a hassle than any other prior version of Monster Land. I enjoy that original Arcade version, but the cruel difficulty did almost break me at times, so it was much nicer having a gentler version that maintained most of the fun and less of the frustrations. The SMS version of Monster Land was fun too, but still got tricky near the end with that maze, while here in Saiyuuki World the enemies in the maze itself are way less frustrating, and the extra QOL from those disciple hints help make that part of the game frustration-free, a very nice bonus alongside the usual save states/rewind.

Conclusion

Ultimately, Saiyuuki World might be a reskin of Monster Land, but it’s a darn fun one, tweaking a few things here and there while still keeping the fun factor. Unlike Bikkuriman World I don’t feel like I’m stepping on legos trying to beat the game, nor does the reskin feel half-done like in Hudson’s effort. The Journey to the West skin is pretty darn cool and it was overall a fun time replaying one of my favorite Westone titles with a new coat of paint, even if I do wish they could have added some extra stages or something more unique to help distinguish it more.

If you played Monster Land before, you’ll know how to get through Saiyuuki World pretty easily. And if you haven’t, then you’ll likely find this to be a pretty forgiving starting point with the game, and it was nice to see City Connection bring this interesting reskin out again and give it a nicely done translation. All in all, I’m still enjoying this reissue line and am eager to see what future action games they’ll port from the Famicom as a part of it.

I give JALECOlle Famicom Ver. Saiyuuki World a 7 out of 10.