About

Aztec Rave Monkey is a psychedelic animation from the 2004 adventure game Yume Nikki featuring a multi-colored Aztec-style depiction of a monkey with electronic synth music playing in the background. Online, the sequence has spawned numerous music remixes and fan illustrations.

Origin

On June 26th, 2004, the game Yume Nikki was released by the indie Japanese developer Kikiyama. Made using the RPG Maker 2003 software, the game allows players to explore various dreams of the protagonist Madotsuki. In the grasslands area of the game, the player is shown a full-screen animation of an Aztec monkey rapidly changing colors while synth music playing in the background.

Spread

On January 16th, 2009, YouTuber 2dsunset uploaded a looped clip of the animation titled "Yume Nikki: Rave Box" (Shown below, left). On February 23rd, 2011, DeviantArtist Silphen uploaded an illustration titled "Aztec Rave Monkey," which gathered more than 1,800 views over the next six years (shown below, right).

On February 26th, a page titled "Aztec Rave Monkey" was created on the Yume Nikki Wiki.^[1] On August 11th, a ten-minute-long version of the sequence was uploaded as an MIT Scratch project page.^[2] On March 28, 2013, YouTuber DontBleedOnTheSuits uploaded an extended version of the song played in the game (shown below).

On September 25th, 2013, SoundCloud user752647517 uploaded a remix titled "Saturday Night Fever" (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References