"Greatest Dragon Quest game ever"

Introduction:
Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker is the fourth installment of the Dragon Quest/Warrior Monsters games. This game has no relation to the other games, yet brings back fond memories for the people who have played Dragon Warrior Monsters, and will bring new, exciting gameplay for new players.

Graphics - 8/10
The graphics are very impressive, and done by none other than Akira Toriyama, who has worked on the Dragon Ball graphics, so if you've previously played any Dragon Ball games, these graphics will look familiar. You can easily make out key objects while ingame, and the scenery is unique in each location.

Gameplay - 9/10
For those people who are wondering if this game will be like Pokemon, fear not. This game is unique in its monster capturing ideas. Instead of trapping the monsters in little mechanical balls, your monsters try to show off their power to the opposing monster to convince it to join your team. You can have a total of three monsters out in battle at once, and 3 monsters in your substitute capsule. The monsters unfortunately can not be switched out during battle.

Then there's the option of making your monsters even more powerful through sysnthesis. Sysnthesis is kind of like breeding your monsters. You need different genders to breed things in other games, but DQM:J, the monsters have polarites. There are three polarities that they can have: Positive, neutral, and negative. You must synthesise two different polarities to get a new monster. Like the old saying, "opposites attract".

Multiplayer - 9/10
The reason why I did not give this a perfect score is that the only flaw in the multiplayer are hackers. These people use cheating devices to give themselves monsters that are normally too powerful. But enough about that. The multiplayer consists of two different kinds of fighting. Regional and Global. In turn, they both have normal Regional/Global and Regional/Global Special. The special versions have a special requirement of your monsters for you to participate. When you join in, you'll be thrown up against five teams. You'll get a prize for winning each round, which go from a rare monster to a lousy item.

Music - 7/10
You won't really notice the music much while playing. But if you take the time to just sit back and listen, you'll usually hear some nice music. The music really fits in with your surroundings, so it really sets the mood well.

Summary
This is a game that I would recommend to anybody that's a fan of monster catching games. This game can, and most likely will, take up many hours a day playing it.

Final Score: 9/10

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/18/08

Game Release: Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker (US, 11/06/07)