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Monster Rancher Metropolis: The Cafe: Comparison Of All Monster Rancher Games (Buying Guide) By Lisa Shock on Wednesday, December 12, 2001 - 05:31 pm:
All Monster Rancher games are rated K-A (Kids to Adult) or E (Everyone) the annotation is "Animated Violence" or "Comic Mischief". Essentially, you raise cartoon monsters to do battle against other monsters. (Except in Hop-A-Bout, the card games & Explorer) In some games, monsters die either in battle or of old age.
The Monster Rancher games that are Ranching Sims (MR1,2,3, and MRA) all allow the person playing the game to raise monsters and make decisions about them on a week by week basis. No two adult monsters will ever be alike, because each person can make a wide variety of choices in how they are raised. The game "viewpoint" is true first-person, just like Sim City. It's you the player making all the decisions as yourself, there are no characters to control and no identities to assume. The games appeal to a wide audience. Many regulars who frequent this board are well over 30 years of age. The games tend to have a complexity level that seems to not attract many players under the age of 10. (Although, MR3 is quite playable and accessible to the 7-10 year old set.) None of the games are "twitch" games. Long term planning is an esential part of success in the games. Younger kids, who have enjoyed the television show, may enjoy the Hop-A-Bout game. Which is a simple hopping game accross a puzzle field, featuring the main TV show characters, Suezo, Hare, Golem and Mocchi. All the other games have very little to do with the TV show, because the show was produced independently from Tecmo. Will you like a Monster Rancher game? This is a tough call. People who like the games find challenges in raising new breeds, finding rares on CDs (MR1,2,3), and improving upon their prior work. They do involve attention to detail and patience. Those who do not like the games tend to find the Sim genre in general repetetive and unrewarding. If you can, try and rent a game and see for yourself! Monster Rancher:EVO is a completely different type of game. It's an RPG aimed at a pre-teen audience. It features mini-games that you must master for your character (just one no choices) to progress in the story about a young boy's life in the circus. Battles are special events, and there's not much real ranching either. Special Note: We do NOT recommend purchasing Monster Rancher Advance or MRA2, as a used game. The cartridges have an automatic save system built into hem, so they save the player's game each week. Some players try and beat this by turning their Game Boy Advance off and on again to replay the same week (before the cart has a chance to save). If they do this too often, especially during the wrong moment, they can corrupt the save file and ruin the cartridge. Carts that won't save at all are very common. So, be safe, and buy the game new! Review resources that we like: Monster Rancher (the very first one) Review from absolute-playstation.com Monster Rancher 4 Review by Gamecritics.com Monster Rancher Advance 2 Review by Dailygame.com Monster Rancher:Evo in-depth review at IGN |