I have clicked through enough Nintendo eShop listings to know that curation is a lovely fantasy, but Wukong Sun: Black Legend still made me lean toward my monitor like a raccoon inspecting a shiny trap. It is a 2D platformer from Global Game Studio, due December 26, and its store description invites me to 'embark on an epic Journey to the West' as the immortal Wukong, battle monsters, explore Chinese mythology, and enjoy action-packed battles, stunning environments, and legendary foes. I read that paragraph twice, then checked whether my browser had autocorrected Black Myth: Wukong into a fever dream. It had not.

Let me be fair for one paragraph, because I am a gamer, not a judge with a gavel made of hot takes. Journey to the West is centuries old, public-domain, and has been adapted into everything from prestige TV to a 2010 Ninja Theory game called Enslaved: Odyssey to the West. That game follows a man named Monkey and his companion Tripitaka through a post-apocalyptic United States full of deadly robots. So the story alone does not prove copycat behavior. You can make a Monkey King game without asking permission from a hit action RPG. Chinese mythology is not a limited-edition sneaker.

But the cover art? That is where my eyebrows packed their bags and moved to my hairline. The promotional art features a monkey man with a hairstyle that looks suspiciously close to Black Myth's hero, and the title Wukong Sun: Black Legend is doing the kind of trademark-adjacent shuffle that makes lawyers reach for their reading glasses. Black Myth: Wukong won Player's Voice and Best Action Game at The Game Awards, so of course other studios want to surf that wave. In 2026, the copycat economy has only gotten more brazen. This game is a remora fish swimming beside a shark, hoping some attention krill drift its way. 🐟

Global Game Studio's catalog does not calm my nerves. The publisher has five games on the Nintendo store, all released this year since October, and they look like variations on other popular games. I scrolled through them and felt like I was browsing a streaming-service algorithm that had a fever dream and started publishing under a fake ID. That is not a crime, but it is a vibe. A very specific vibe. The kind of vibe that makes you check whether the screenshots have the same lighting as a stock photo.

Could Wukong Sun: Black Legend be a quick cash-in? Maybe. Could it have been in development for a while, with only the name and promotional materials changed? Also possible. Could it all be a giant coincidence? Sure, and I could win a marathon because I happened to be running to catch a bus. The timing is suspicious, but suspicion is not proof. I have not played the game. For all I know, it is a perfectly charming 2D platformer with tight jumps and a lovely soundtrack. The trailer did not fill me with confidence, though. 🍎

Over on Weibo, players were not amused. One person wrote, 'Hey everyone, have you heard? The stunning Black Myth: Wukong has actually been copied! This really makes you speechless.' Another said, 'Since Nintendo has removed pirated games from its shelves, this should also be removed.' I understand the anger. The eShop should be a curated storefront, not a yard sale where every stall sells a slightly melted version of the hottest toy. If a game is using a hit's silhouette to trick shoppers, that is not homage; that is a checkout button attached to a bad impersonation.

Here is the quick comparison I keep in my head:

Element	Wukong Sun: Black Legend	Black Myth: Wukong
Format	2D platformer	action RPG
Developer	Global Game Studio	Game Science
Story	Journey to the West	Journey to the West
Name	suspiciously similar	the original hit
Cover art	monkey with a familiar silhouette	monkey with a familiar silhouette
Awards	none yet	Player's Voice and Best Action Game

The irony is thick enough to spread on toast. When Black Myth: Wukong first showed trailers, plenty of people called it a Soulslike clone. Now it has imitators of its own. That is showbiz, baby. The original gets accused of copying, then becomes the template for a new wave of suspicious store pages. 🐒

My verdict as a random player with a keyboard and too much time: I am not against homages. I love public-domain Monkey King chaos. I want more games about staff-wielding monkeys causing problems for celestial bureaucrats. But there is a line between inspired-by and I-can't-believe-it's-not-Wukong. If Wukong Sun: Black Legend launches on December 26 and turns out to be good, I will happily eat my words with a side of humble pie. If it is just a store-page shell designed to catch confused shoppers, Nintendo should show it the door. In 2026, we have enough actual games to play. We do not need a photocopy of a passport photo, hoping the border guard has astigmatism. 🐒