The battles I've fought have been pretty basic, but already I can see that there's a lot of opportunity for strategy. Players can move their monster forward and back on the field, and their proximity to the opponent determines which attack they use. The battles are one on one fights on a long rectangular field. Every few weeks there are battle tournaments that players can enter. Players can choose what things get trained, and there are some side mission mini-games that also build up stats, but most of it is just deciding whether to train a monster or let them rest each week. Players can watch their pet run around on the ranch in 3D on the top screen, and the touch screen operates as the menu for everything. The training modes are automatic, and the ranch feels more like a virtual pet game than an RPG. YES NO Once players have a monster they take it to the ranch and start training. Both ways let players try as many times as they want so they can get a monster they actually like. Even saying the same thing (or playing the same section of a song) it would come up with a different monster every time. The drawing mechanic was easy enough to duplicate and I was able to summon the same monster multiple times, but the audio one seemed random.

The second has players talk into the microphone for a few seconds. The first has players draw a design on a grid made up of 256 squares (16x16). Obviously the DS version can't do this, so there are two methods for creating new monsters.

Fans of Monster Rancher will remember that the unique thing about it was that you could insert CDs and DVDs into the console and the game would convert the data into different monsters. That doesn't lend itself to a great story, so the developers threw in Cleo, a bubbly pretty girl who acts as your guide, and the catalyst for the story (which seems to involve shadowy figures in cloaks). Like most of the Monster Rancher games, you own a farm where you raise creatures and battle them. Or rather, it brought the game back in Japan nearly a year and a half ago, and it's finally porting it to the US. Hey kids, remember Monster Rancher? It's back, in dual screen form! The monster collecting series has been around since the PSX days and has built a cult following, but never really had the same level of success as its competitors.

Does monster rancher games work on ps3