SonSon (video game)
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Sonson is a video game by Capcom. It is loosely based on the Chinese classic Journey to the West. The player assumes the role of a monkey boy (who is patterned after Sun Wukong from the story) and fights their way from one side to another, eventually reaching the statue of Buddha. One battles bats, rats, and mad bombers along the way with his stout fighting rod that shoots balls of fire. The game was ported from the arcade to the Nintendo Famicom in Japan. A sequel, entitled Son Son II, was released for the NEC PC Engine.
It is possible to play the game co-operatively with partner who plays as TonTon (who is Zhu Wuneng in the original story).
The game is a 2-D sidescrolling platformer. The screen scrolls automatically, only stopping to fight major enemies. The screen features six continuous platforms that occasionally feature small gaps. Sonson and Tonton walk automatically across these platforms. Pressing up or down will cause them to jump up or down to the next platform. Pressing left causes them to move more slowly than the screen scrolls, essentially continuing to move forward but at a reduced pace. Pressing right does the opposite - Sonson and Tonton will move across the platforms faster than the screen scrolls. The duo have only one attack - the ability to fire energy blasts from their stalves. Touching an enemy or an unfriendly projectile causes the player to loose a life. If a player has any additional lives, they will return to the screen riding on a cloud that will give them temporary invincibility. If the player presses the control stick in any direction, the cloud will disappear and the character will resume its usual walking mode. The cloud will eventually disappear on its own if the control stick is not used.
Power-ups come in the form of various fruits which produce points (with enough points giving the player an extra life). Gathering certain fruit will cause all enemies currently on a screen to turn into point-bearing fruits. Walking across certain platforms will randomly cause a bamboo shoot to sprout, yielding many extra points.
[edit] Trivia
- Sonson in Marvel vs. Capcom 2 is the granddaughter of the original Sonson. She uses the staff and learns the teachings of her grandfather from the first game. Though her powers in this game are more based on the book than the game.
- Sonson and Tonton, along with other characters from this title, make cameo appearances in Pocket Fighter. They float across the top of the stages on clouds at random during fights. If a player attacks them, they will drop gems, food, or cause damage, depending upon which character is hit by the player.
- The Bamboo shoots and fruit from this game appear in several later Capcom titles, including 1943 and Black Tiger.
- The Yashichi makes the first of many cameo appearances in this game as an item that yields extra points.
