Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX
By David Chapman,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Nostalgic monster raising limited by clunky play, controls.
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Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX
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What’s It About?
Celebrate 25 years of Monster Rancher adventures by returning to where it all began with MONSTER RANCHER 1 & 2 DX. Once more, players are in charge of their very own monster ranch, where they'll acquire unique monsters from a selection of over 400 different types, raising and training them in preparation for battle against other ranchers' monsters in grand tournaments. This DX package also includes a brand-new system for summoning and acquiring new monsters. Players no longer hunt down and swap out various CDs they might have lying around, but instead have access to a huge music database at their disposal. You'll simply search for your favorite albums and artists and use that information to bring forth new, rare, and possibly even one-of-a-kind creatures to add to your team. And if local competition doesn't prove strong enough for your team, take the battles online by downloading and fighting against monsters raised by other ranchers from around the globe.
Is It Any Good?
There's an ongoing trend in gaming of publishers dusting off some of their fan favorite franchises to tap into a wave of nostalgia with remakes, reboots, remasters, and more. Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX takes the path of a basic re-release of both games, with very little altered or enhanced to bring the series up to date. On the one hand, this absolutely fuels the feeling of nostalgia as a pixel perfect recreation of the original experience. On the other hand, these games are also more than two decades old and there's no denying that they haven't aged very well. The graphics and audio are far from high def, and the controls are clunky and rough. Still, the series always had a certain level of appeal, and this re-release just barely manages to hold onto that.
The biggest draw of the original Monster Rancher games was the way that disc swapping was built into the gameplay. To create new monsters, players would be prompted to swap out the game disc for a game or music CD from their own collections, which would then be scanned, and the data used to create a monster with uniquely generated stats. Unfortunately, that's not a viable option on modern systems. Instead, the game includes a huge database of music CDs that players can use to search for specific albums and artists, generating the monsters from the virtual CD data. While the database is a functional replacement for the original disc swapping, it's just not as fun or as robust. The problem here is that it relies on players' musical knowledge to find an exact match, and even then, there are plenty of holes in the database. It also skips over the multiple game CD that players were originally able to use to create new monsters. As a result, this mechanic isn't as fun or engaging as the original titles.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about violence in video games. Is the impact of the violence in Monster Rancher affected by the fact that the violence is between creatures? What sort of impact does it have when cartoonish fantasy creatures battle with flashy effects, versus more realistic portrayals of violence in other games with more blood and gore?
What are some of the ways that fantasy games like the Monster Rancher series can actually show kids the responsibility of caring for real world pets?
Game Details
- Platforms: Nintendo Switch , Windows
- Pricing structure: Paid
- Available online?: Available online
- Publisher: Koei Tecmo
- Release date: December 9, 2021
- Genre: Role-Playing
- Topics: Magic and Fantasy , Friendship , Monsters, Ghosts, and Vampires
- ESRB rating: T for Drug Reference, Fantasy Violence, Language, Suggestive Themes
- Last updated: December 8, 2021
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