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Games That Time Forgot: Monster Rancher

Archive — Sat, 31 Jan 2015 11:57:00 +0000

Growing up in the late 90s/early 2000s, a lot of my friends and I were engrossed in the monster raising craze, brought on by Pokémon and Digimon. For me and my family, there was a bizarre 3rd entry in that genre that none of my friends growing up had heard about. I'm talking about Monster Rancher, which took monster raising to a whole other level, that Pokémon has never been able to reach.

For those unfamiliar, Monster Rancher involved monster breeding with a twist: The game made you take the disc out, and you generated monster from other games, music CDs, and DVDs that you had lying around the house. It would generate different breeds, sub breeds, and stats, and it was enough to make me and my dad try every disc in the house and copy down what it made into a notebook, for future reference. Not all of them were random though; certain discs made special monsters, based on the game, album, or movie put into it. Most notably, putting the soundtrack for Terminator 2 made a metal jell, which looked like the liquid metal terminator that this entry was known for. Other future titles used words and drawings to generate monsters instead of replacing discs, but I feel like with our new generations of consoles, we could do so much more with them. After you've made your monster, it was time to train it.

For putting Metal Gear Solid disc 1 in Monster Rancher 2, you got a Gaboo with a headband and camouflage, being an obvious throwback to Solid Snake.

Training consisted of choosing an activity to enter your monster in to train a specific stat, resting, battling, or going on adventures that tired your monster out, but had a big stat payoff. The game runs on a weekly basis, and you choose what to train in for that week, for every four weeks, until you have to feed them again at the start of the next month. More often than not, your monsters would pass the training, but there are certain times where they'd go above and beyond expectations, cheat to pass, or just fail completely. During these times, you are given options to scold and praise your monster accordingly. It was always up to you to figure out when to scold or forgive, because letting them off the hook will only increase their cheating and failing ways. If you were too hard on your monster, however, they could run away. They could be gone anywhere from a mere week, up to a few months. Growing up, this weighed on me a lot, and I'd constantly check to make sure I wasn't accidentally pushing my monster away when I meant to hone their skills. Resting is lets your monster take a week off to recover from training or battling, to get them ready for another round. After months of training, you'd be ready to enter your monster in some battles.

Here you can see a Hopper at the ranch on Monster Rancher 2.

Feeding your monster gets pretty expensive after a while, so to fight off bankruptcy, you need to fight. Monsters would enter tournaments to compete for prizes, cash, and ranks. The game runs on a ranking system, going from E, D, C, B, A, to S. If your monster is knocking monsters out with ease, then it'd be time to enter the championship. In battles, you have a far, mid, and close range move, and you can switch these out as you need during battles. Each attack has a 'guts' cost, and if you'd just spam it, you could potentially leave yourself defenseless. You'd have to keep an eye out for your opponent, and see if there are any spots in their ranges where they couldn't hit you from and exploit it. Although skill is a factor, it mainly came down to stats, which would be raised during training. The match compares your stats with the enemy's right at the start, so you can see if you're leagues ahead of the competition, or if you should go back to the ranch and train some more. If your monster's stats were too high, some monsters would even quit to avoid a beating. Battles possessed a danger though, and if your monster gets KO'd by a devastating attack, they could be hospitalized, or even die. As a kid, this game transcended all other monster raising games, because although my Pokémon could faint, I never had to see a memorial service for them. The series had fun with it though, and even had a ghost monster you could only get after having one die on you, which just blew my mind at the time. If training wasn't enough, errantries and adventures could pass the time and get you some more items.

A battle taking place on Monster Rancher 2

If you needed lots of training for a tournament a few months away, errantries were the best route to take. They involved going to different exotic locations, and doing training exercises there to boost 2 stats, while slightly lowering 1 stat. These could result in injury if the monster fails certain trials too many times, and are rather risky at the start of a monster's life. If the monster does really well, however, they can learn new attacks to use in battles. Other than errantries, adventures led you and your monster to many different locations, searching for items to sell. Once you hit certain rank milestones, you could go there and look for items to make specific legendary monsters. If your monster didn't have very high intelligence, you could potentially waste a whole month, while your monster bumbles around and doesn't find anything. These are also risky to monsters, as they can be attacked by wild monsters while exploring. If your monster's life stat is too low, and you can't return to your campsite in time, they can also get lost for months. These were typically reserved for more elite monsters and breeders, but had too high of a payoff to just ignore.

A picture of an adventure, from Monster Rancher 2.

I could go on for hours about Monster Rancher, but despite being loved by most gamers who've played it, it's failed to stay relevant in the gaming market. Other than a DS game, it hasn't had a new entry in the series since the PS2! The gameplay is as solid as ever, and it still holds up to this day. I feel like the amount of similar games it had to compete with overshadowed it, but a game as unique as Monster Rancher might be what the current gen needs to break out of the monotony of FPSs and parkour games. As fond as my memories are of Monster Rancher, I want to see it thrive on modern consoles, rather than just stay a relic of the past. Maybe Tecmo Koei will one day remember this gem, and decide to revisit it.

If you played Monster Rancher in the past, leave a comment letting me know your thoughts on it.

Classic Games that Stood the Test of Time! Part One!

Archive — Wed, 10 Feb 2016 10:47:00 +0000

Video games come and go. Such is the way of life in a\r constantly shifting industry. Back in the day we had two-dimensional games\r where we shot things in the face for points, and now we've got\r three-dimensional games where we can fuck Japanese-Anime sluts for fuckpoints.\r Fortunately, we’re not really here to discuss how many sexy-score we can get\r for Onii-Chan’s Fuk Fuk Adventure although a later editorial may come in handy. \r

"Winkidy wink."

Some say that graphics make the game, others say story√¢‚Ç¨‚I am\r an advocate of the latter. While it’s great to see how defined Master Chief's\r ass is in the remastered Halo edition, I must say that the games that have\r stuck with me throughout my existence seemed to all have the makings of cult\r hits based on gameplay, story, music, and overall atmosphere as opposed to the\r ultimate aesthetics. So I decided that maybe it would be time to show some of\r my favorite games that I believe are as good today as they were when they were\r released eons ago before the fire nation attacked. \r

"Dem pixels doe."

This series will just focus on some of my favorite games,\r and the reasons to why I think they are as great now as they were back then. I love them and continue to play them all on\r account of their story, atmosphere, how well the game affected me, and even the\r gameplay itself. This editorial is what we like to call an opinionated piece, and whether or not you agree or disagree, may I\r inform you that tissues are cheap in this day and age, and if not, you can\r always wipe away your tears with a sleeve, or a sock, or whatever’s at hand. This is a personal editorial on some of the\r greatest games I believe have been made. Whether you agree or not, is\r completely your choice.
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RESIDENT EVIL 2

Fear comes around a second time, to fuck you in the ass.

When I was a baby boy, I remembered playing a pirated version of this on my chipped PlayStation 1. Being launched into the fiery abyss of a destroyed truck, to running through the choc-a-bloc streets of Raccoon City with zombies all around, you couldn’t help but just shit your pants as a child. The memories were just infinite; the music upon entering the R.C.P.D with those piano chimes, and the clicking cacophony of feet against the whistling wind of the dead city and the Licker jumping down from the ceiling√¢‚Ç¨‚OH JESUS.

Turn off. Unplug. Wind up power cable. Throw out window.\r Never play again.
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Resident Evil 2 was just one of those chart topping, survival horrors that was burned into my fears as a child. I remember it having the same effect as Dino Crisis, with its haunting score and diverse range of enemies; all scary, all shit-pantingly horrific in their execution against the map.

The game was just beautiful in so many ways too though, from the classic conspiracy story, the replay value, and the constant fear of things coming for you all the way to the entire atmosphere of the city to the underground Umbrella base. It was one of the first horror games I played, and one that haunted me for years to come. I always find myself going back and relaying it every couple of weeks or so. It was a classic, straight up in every way; except for that really bad cardboard voice-acting which I don’t miss so much.

"ADDDDDDDDDDAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA."

SUPER MARIO LAND

That fucking music.

Doo-doodoo-doo. Doo-doo-

GET OUT OF MY HEAD.

Super Mario Land was the first game I ever played on my original Game Boy way back in the summer of '98. My grandmother bought me it, and from that first level with that music ingrained into my brain so much I’m sure I can still hear it on quiet nights, I was hooked. The gameplay was the core dynamic of a Mario game, all the while being able to play it while in my mom’s car while I wore that flaming dragon shirt and sunglasses, counting how much pussy I was gonna get when I hit that Egyptian world.

"These brothers ain't the only thing with hammers, youknowwhatImean?"

We all knew it. The tiny screen, the hammer brothers fucking you up, and the impending doom as you watch your whole life-count slip away into nothingness. Super Mario Land is the definitive Mario game for me√¢‚Ç¨‚and I know I’m gonna hear some screams about how Super Mario Bros or Super Mario 64 is the ultimate game but to me, playing this at my nan’s house, getting all the way through to the end and dying in a fiery blaze of anger from that one hammer hitting me, well that’s just pure childhood right there.

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG

Gotta go faster.

The first console I ever owned was a Sega Mega-Drive (or Sega Genesis depending on where you got the shit but I don’t know, who cares, I don’t) and the first game I ever actually played was Sonic the Hedgehog. It’s safe to say that this was the game that launched my love of video games altogether. Cutting through Green Hill Zone to that beautiful, instant-childhood inducing music, and then Marble Zone, Casino and the others just always makes me happy. I loved Sonic growing up and I still love it now, with the help of emulators and improved technology it’s still a game I play on the go. It’s a classic to me and many others I know. Although I have rarely ever managed to complete it.

"I'm still a good gaymur, right?"

This game just gets mentions on the nostalgia factor. It’s always been a favourite and is still one of them.

BATMAN VENGEANCE

Arkham Beta 0.2

Before we were given the beauty of Rocksteady’s Arkham series, and that one game where Christian Bale actually did voice-work, Batman Vengeance was released on PlayStation 2. I remember getting this game for Christmas and wondering what the fuck was going on with it. After much excitement I played it, and was absolutely blown away by it. I was one of those 90's kids that grew up with the Batman Animated series, would wear Batman pyjamas, collect corpses of dead bats and hide them under my bed√¢‚Ç¨‚

Well, I loved Batman, that’s what was key. The story was an original, focusing on the good and juicy tidbits of the show with familiar faces like Mister Freeze, The Joker, Harley-Quinn and everybody’s favorite caped crusader; Brucey himself. The gameplay was like the original Arkham game, truly, in the fact it had stealth components, Hamill and Conroy as the bitter enemies, and plenty of cool levels, secrets, cheats, and an enthralling story involving Batman and the Joker in a tussle of moral crusades against Gotham. The music and cartoonish style was great. I still play this when I can on my old PS2. The style, story, and overall atmosphere was just like the TV show, except you could fly around and fuck shit up with batarangs way before Arkham’s series made it cool. Take that, mainstream douches.

"Yeah I like it, but you’ve probably never even heard of Vengeance anyway."

MANHUNT

Bagged for life!

I’m somewhat of a Rockstar fanboy. Take me outside, line me up, and pelt me with copies of San Andreas until I die, but that’s the truth. I think their early games were some of the greatest ever created, and none other stands to gain my approval more than the disturbing, gory, and beautifully atmospheric creation that was Manhunt. This game has been widely controversial and was even the focus of a large court case involving a murder which was said to have been implemented due to the games graphic content. The case was thrown out but come on! A game that makes this much controversy must be great. I mean, you can literally suffocate people with a Tesco bag.

“The second Karen turns, I’m going for a three-star kill.

The story centers on death row convict: James Earl Cash, who is sentenced to death, but is given a second chance by a grimy, fat snuff-film director called Starkweather who puts Cash through many trials in the decaying Carcer City for cheap thrills, footage, and monies. The game implemented stealth kills with pretty much anything, including plastic bags, glass shards, baseball bats, and even wires. The voice-acting from Brian Cox is absolutely fantastic, as well as Craig Conner’s score, the gameplay which is a mix of both stealth and all out brain-damaging gore, and the atmosphere pushed the boundaries of improvisation in terms of killing, and the feel of Carcer really puts you in a city that feels real, scary, and full of psychotic chumps waiting to hunt you down and cut you up!

It's got everything from a crazy, dark 80s-type score, a multitude of weapons, brilliant voice acting, degradation, fantasies of snuff, rape, violence, gore, and all for under $15. Bargain blood!

HITMAN 2: STEALTH ASSASSIN

Bald Strategy!

I loved the PS2 gaming era. I loved everything from Ico to Final Fantasy VII. I loved MGS, I loved so many games but Stealth Assassin was just one of those games I absolutely loved to play over and over and over and never got bored. You could be the hitman of your dreams. You could sneak in like a shadow, carefully dressed as the maid, delivering fresh pants upstairs and when your victim ain’t looking you could shiv him in the kidney or strangle the life out of him, dress in his clothes, and walk away like a king. OR you could do it my way and step in there with an MP5 and fucking obliterate all the witnesses; the kids, the dog, the God-damn maid, the bodyguards, that one little frog, the scarecrow, and even yourself if you felt like it with that little sticky bomb.

Stealth Assassin was just a brilliant game from start to finish, from each level showing diverse paths, a multitude of weapons, Jesper Kyd on the drums, and of course Agent 47 himself. I remember going to my dad’s and playing this for hours on end, never really faltering in my attention to detail in making sure every. Single. Person. Was dead. There would be no witnesses in the end. I was the reaper. Eight year old me had the makings of a homicidal, nay√¢‚Ç¨‚genocidal maniac, and we have Eidos to thank for that shit.

That’s it for part 1 but watch this space for other parts as\r we’re in for a sexy, bumpy ride. Do you agree with me, do you disagree with me? Comment and let me know if you think I'm an asshole or a nostalgia-whore. I promise to get back to you! Hopefully more to come in the future!
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