Monster Rancher

"Who Would Have Thought Monster Farming Would Be So Fun?"

Monster Rancher is an amazing game that no one expected. I mean, who would have thought that raising a monster and battling it could be so fun. This could be the start of a new series, something different at that.

Graphics –
Considering these are on the Playstation, they are not half bad. The animations are smooth, and everything is rendered nicely. The effects in battle and everything that happens is portrayed nicely.
Rating – 8/10

Gameplay –
The basic premise behind Monster Rancher is to obtain a monster, raise it, and battle it until you have the strongest monster in the world. To obtain your monster, you can insert a CD into the Playstation, it will read it, and give you a certain monster based upon the CD. Or you can combine two previous monsters you have raised, or not raised, and create a new and stronger one. Once you have obtained your monster, it's off to the farm to raise and become strong. Once you reach the farm, you decide whether to train the monster, provide it with an item, force it to work, or even battle it against other monsters. Training increases the monster's stats, making it win battles more easily and climb the battle ranks. Items have various effects and can either hurt or harm your monster depending on the situation. Working is a way of obtaining money, and it also increases the stats of your monster. And battling is exactly what it says. A tournament of monsters duke it out, one on one, to see who is the strongest. Fighting requires you to choose certain moves and attack at certain times, until time runs out or someone is knocked out. This game is just so much fun to play; you will never want to put it down.
Rating – 10/10

Story –
Not much to it. You are a monster rancher, hoping to train the strongest monster. That's really it, so don't count on there being a deep story here.
Rating – 6/10

Sound –
With how much time you will be playing the game, the background music gets very repetitive. It's nice for the first bit of playing, but soon becomes tedious, and you will may eventually mute the tv so you don't have to hear it anymore. Each monster has its own noises that it makes depending upon certain situations and different noises for every circumstance in battle as well.
Rating – 8/10

Replayability –
You will never want to put this game down. Even once you have become the strongest monster rancher, you will want to raise another monster to become even stronger. There is no end to this game, so it literally goes on forever and ever. There is no reason to ever stop playing except maybe if you've raised all of the monsters, and there are a lot, or just get bored of the gameplay. Although, you'll probably come back a couple months later and redo everything again just because it's so much fun.
Rating – 10/10

Overall –
With mild graphics, amazing gameplay, a lacking storyline, repetitive sound, and infinite replayability provide Monster Rancher with a fun gaming experience that is sure to be loved my many.
Rating – 8 + 10 + 6 + 8 + 10 = 42/50 -> 8/10

Buy or rent –
If you are looking for something fun to play that will last you for a very long time, Monster Rancher is your game. However, it does fit as a perfect rental, just to play it for a little while incase you get bored of the gameplay. But with the cheap price you should be able to find this title for, why pass it up?

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 01/22/07, Updated 01/23/07