Monster Rancher Advance 2
Chances are that at sometime in the past you have played one of the monster rancher games. These games are based around the idea of you raising a powerful monster, training it to fight in tournaments and winning you lots of money. You play as a your, own character, leading your ranch to be the greatest in AGE. By properly training your monsters and making it stronger quicker and smarter than all others the goal of the game is to get your monsters to be the Great 4 trainers. Not exactly an easy game and with over 500 monsters I’m sure you’ll keep playing for days and days.
So throughout this game you have to concentrate on building your monsters stats. Including, power, accuracy, defence, intelligence, speed and life. This as well as competing in regular tournaments, playing with your monster and letting it rest is no easy task. The average life of each of these monsters is about 4 years. This may seem like a long time but trust me it isn’t and to get your monster into the Great 4 in this amount of time is no easy task.
Tecmo have out done themselves in this game. Adding new features like letting your old super monsters who are now retired train your new monsters lets you build up power in your monsters quicker than ever before. The new option of countering in this game is also a good feature, allowing you the chance to dodge an opponents attack and strike one of your own, however this is hard to do and should it fail you will be looking to receive about twice the normal damage. The adventure mode in this game is also very good. You have to explore round three different areas looking for items, and battling stray monsters to be given permission to unlock some of the greater, more powerful monsters in the game.
The massive range of monsters in this game allows you to continue playing until your hearts content. You wont feel like you have truly finished this game until reaching the Great 4 with all 500 monsters. Each type of monster in this game has different attributes, moves, admirations and hates. The monsters moves can range from fire breathing ( Dragon ) to light slaps of the tail ( Suezo, A giant floating eyeball ) and for each type of monster there is about 20 unlock able moves where you must train against much higher ranking instructors to get.
This game will be loved by all those of the cartoon series and will grab the attention of those that don’t, a bit like me ( I hate the cartoons ). Ok so this game may be the greatest graphical achievement ever but its still pretty damn good for the Game Boy Advance. I strongly recommend you try this game.
Game play: 8 – Gets you very involved with the characters and if youre sad enough you may even grow to love your monsters. awwwww.Graphics: 7 – As before, not great but good for a hand-held.
A.I - 7 – The fights against other monsters can be both hard and easy but its definitely not the smartest A.I ever.
Sound: 7 – Some of battle sounds are good and the soundtrack ain’t too shabby either..
Lifespan 10 – Will leave you coming back for more and more, at least unitl you’ve completed it with 10 different monsters. A very addictive game
Overall 8 – The best in the Monster Rancher series so far.