If you were expecting to see a second glimpse of Game Science’s follow-up to 2024’s break-out hit Black Myth: Wukong, this isn’t that. However, this brilliant short still promises much for what we can expect from Black Myth: Zhong Kui. This six-minute short film, created entirely in-engine, depicts the most extraordinary…cooking you’ve ever seen. It’s to celebrate Chinese New Year, and it’s truly special.
Expecting to see new monsters being hit with giant sticks and swords, I really wasn’t prepared for this wild-ass cookery demonstration set in the game’s mythical ancient China. This clip shows a studio still in a position of peak confidence, not least because none of what’s shown here is even part of the forthcoming game, described as “non-canon” and “unrelated to the main storyline.” It’s just a work of stunning gorgeousness to celebrate the Year of the Horse.
The demise of the blinking slab of meat was perhaps the most striking moment for me, in a film packed with extraordinary details and ruthless knife work. It’s there early on, dangling in the background, eyes just staring, unlikely to be noticed the first time you watch. It’s definitely worth watching at least twice.
While this doesn’t show the game in any sense at all, it’s also the most remarkable tech demo. Just the squishiness of the fish, for goodness sakes. And while the particle effects of dust and chopped leaves are still the weakest aspect, they’re the best I’ve ever seen. And the liquids are crazy good. And that’s not even mentioning the creature design.
This isn’t the first time Game Science has done this. In fact, it’s the sixth! The first was for 2021’s Year of the Ox, and was far more of a game trailer for Black Myth: Wukong than short film. 2022’s was a whole other kettle of cats, with a 12-minute mockumentary about a fictional version of Game Science programming kittens into Wukong (completely with genuine motion capture footage!) to mark the Year of the Tiger. 2023’s Year of the Rabbit received a stop-motion animation of a bunny trying to get a PC version of a Game Science game working, while in 2024, for the Year of the Loong, the team put out a 13-minute live-action dramatic film complete with song. 2025 was also a live-action short for the Year of the Snake, but this time sneakily plugging a whole bunch of Black Myth merch to accompany its dramatic narrative rap.
So if anything, this year’s sixth New Year release is perhaps one of the more normal entries, given it’s made using the engine for the forthcoming Black Myth: Zhong Kui, and names the game itself. Although I must note a distinct lack of horses. If you want to see more of what that’s actually intended to look like, a teaser trailer was released last year:
