#Doodle monster rancher advance 2 plus

All the ‘mon games were on the cusp of global dominance, but before all of those, we had Tamagotchi, the insidious little “virtual pets” that were crying and (virtual) pooping “augmented reality” experiences before the term even existed. Yes, I’m pretty sure we were all at least dimly aware of Digimon, too. Yes, we all knew about incoming Pokémon at this point. At first, MR appeared to be another random monster raising game. Now who wants to listen to the Barenaked Ladies discography and play Mega Man X4? And, given this was also the first time in my life I had a disposable income (welcome to teenage employment!), I quickly amassed a glut of CDs of all shapes and sizes (okay, they were all the same shape and size, but their covers were different!).

In fact, since this was a time when Playstation titles were at an all-time low ($40 brand new across the board), buying a new CD of any kind, game or music, was roughly the same financial decision. From there on, I started collecting albums like I collected videogames. Ignoring a few “comedy albums” (technically, my first CD ever was a Simpsons soundtrack… I regret nothing), I still remember buying my first three “real” CDs: Squirrel Nut Zippers – Hot, Ben Folds Five – Whatever and Ever Amen, and Jethro Tull – Greatest Hits. It wasn’t until my sophomore year of high school that I started to listen to my own music. But I had Bomberman to keep me company, so I didn’t much mind. So, while I wound up with Amish Paradise, I passed on every last Gangsta’s Paradise or practically anything else that was supposed to be interesting to my generation. This belief had a brief hiccup in about fifth grade, when I discovered “Weird” Al Yankovic and proceeded to demand his every last tape. Or, to be more precise, I simply happily listened to my parents’ oldies stations, and I was fairly convinced The Beatles and The Traveling Wilburys were the be-all end-all of harmony. I was a gigantic videogame nerd as a child, but music wasn’t really my thing. Let’s rewind even further in this inevitably autobiographical article. Monster Rancher concealed all of its monsters in much more mundane locations… And where do you find these fantastic beasts? In Pokémon, they’re hiding in tall grass, but Monster Rancher was a little bit different.

#Doodle monster rancher advance 2 plus

Tiger plus Eyeball = Hairy Eyeball isn’t exactly as original as a Jigglypuff, but it still leads to a larger bestiary. The big difference here, though, is that Pokémon started with 151 fairly unique creatures (electrode and voltorb are objectively similar), while Monster Rancher mostly relied on less than a dozen “types”, and mixed and matched their attributes in a couple hundred different ways. They’re both games about loving and raising unusual creatures, and then forcing them to fight for your amusement/money.

And the comparisons between Monster Rancher and Pokémon are appropriate. To be clear on the timeline here, that would put MR’s release a solid year before Pokémon Red/Blue hit the states in 1998. Let’s start with the basics: Monster Rancher is a Playstation 1 game that was released in 1997. My player avatar has been a monster rancher for 62 years! Holly, the ever-present assistant monster rancher, should be in a retirement home! I can’t even remember my first monster!īut I’m getting ahead of myself.

How much is a lot? Well there are these stats:ħ20 Wins! And add that to the slight fact that that screencap was taken in the Monster Rancher year of 1062. Let’s start with the facts: I played Monster Rancher a lot. Monster Rancher might be the most personal game I own. You never know when some particular piece of media will strike you.