Monster Rancher Battle Card GB

"I want my money back!!!!!"

This game looked good to me, I loved the show!(I wished they stilled played it, but oh well). And the idea of collecting cards and making your deck stronger appealed to me!! Then I played it for the first time. It was awesome I was like COOL! Then I played a little more, and a little more. After words I just gave up about halfway through. A new temple opens up, in which you have to go through levels to find the boss. There is no story what so ever, and the only things it has in common with the show is Holly, and the monsters!

Gameplay: 2/10
You are a boy/girl trying to find monster disks at temples to help you get stronger. All you have to do is go through a temple to get access to another temple. Did I mention that the temples level changes every time so the only difference between temples is the sprite of the guardians? The card duels get so repetitive I find myself trying to avoid them, and then even if I enter one, I will run and loose a card just to move on. Very bad system indeed.

Sound: 4/10
The sound is ok, it is nothing to give an award too. However, unless the sound is really catchy I turn my volume all the way down to save batteries any ways.

Graphics: 5/10
The graphics are actually pretty decent for a gameboy. The movement is fluid, and the animation is pretty decent if you have the patience to watch it. It looks good, but like I said, when you use the card at least once every 3 duels. You will be seeing it 10 times within an hour!

Storyline: 1/10
Horrible! All you do is go to temples to get a monster disks so you can get a monster card, then you use attack cards that the monster has! I mean, sometimes you can sacrifice a little bit of story for better gameplay, but they sacrificed the whole storyline for a horrible game play.

Overall: As I pretty much summed up, they took a great show, and made a crappy game for it that does not have anything to do with the show at all. Had they re-did the storyline, I might of liked this game a lot more, but usually when you have no story at all, it is not a game many people will like!(Unless it is just plain awesome like Tetris!)

Rent or buy?: I would do neither!

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 12/16/03