Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX

Capsule ComputersTravis Bruno

8.5/10

Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX may retain issues from the past and have a thin story but it's enjoyable monster raising mechanics and unique summoning system remains a joy all these years later.

TechRaptorWilliam Worrall

7.5/10

Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX is a great re-release of two great games. Even with some signs of age, it's worth every minute, and every penny, that you spend on it.

Gaming NexusElliot Hilderbrand

7.4/10

I don't know what I expected from Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX. Never playing a game in the series but wanting to try it out might have set my expectations too high. Monster Rancher is a unique take on a game, it also takes someone who wants to play a unique kind of game to get the maximum enjoyment from it. I don't think that was me, but I can appreciate two well made games, even if they're not my perfect cup of tea. The Nintendo Switch might be the best place for this type of slower paced, menu based game. Overall I enjoyed my time with the games, but not as much as I hoped to.

Nintendo World ReportJordan Rudek

7/10

Monster Rancher is certainly more of an acquired taste than something like Pokémon. Even more of how the game works and how you find the different monsters is hidden beneath the surface, with but a few scraps of information available to guide you through your monster breeding journey. Playing around with the music database and making your own record of which songs yield which creatures is still very much in keeping with the Monster Rancher charm, but other parts of these games, like the combat and visuals, are dated by 2021 standards. I would have liked to see more of an upgrade to the origin…

GameGrinAlana Dunitz

6.5/10

Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX is a faithful recreation of the PlayStation titles that weren’t available to everyone in the ‘90s. The CD monster creation system has been replaced with a large music catalogue and the ability to fast-forward through battles is a welcome addition as the game can feel very repetitive when you are constantly in tournaments.

MonsterVineSpencer Legacy

Visually, you can’t expect too much from this remastered collection. These are PS1 games originally, and the models and backgrounds look fine when you keep that origin in mind. They’re pretty blocky and robotic in how they move, but I find that classic look appealing. I had no performance issues, and the upscaling is fine given what’s being upscaled. The monster designs are great all-around, though the first game has a fair few palette swaps.

Checkpoint GamingDavid McNamara

6/10

The nineties were a truly wild time. Tips were frosted, denim was doubled, and the Spice Girls versus Backstreet Boys debate tore classrooms apart across the world. This era of chaos gave birth to the oddity that is the Monster Rancher franchise, a creature-collecting series focused on breeding and battling monsters torn from real-world CD-ROMs. For the first time in the west, Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX brings the first two titles onto modern consoles.

RPGamerAlex Fuller

The Monster Rancher series returns with the release of Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX. Addictive gameplay and a host of quality-of-life improvements make this an easy option for any eager breeder.

WayTooManyGamesAaron Price

5/10

Wow, 1997 and 1999. That’s how long it’s been since the two Monster Rancher games that everyone remembers. I remember as a young lad going over to my friend’s place with a stack of CDs (he had a PlayStation while I had a Nintendo 64) and trying to generate the best monsters we could. Swapping out the disk to summon different monsters was a unique concept back then, even more so now when everything is digital. Even to this day, I can’t think of any games that have done anything quite l...

VGChartzMiles Gregory

Unscored

Dated gameplay mechanics, presentational inconsistencies, and a lack of graphical updates make it hard to recommend to anyone who isn't already a sfan.The 90s were a fantastic time to be a young child obsessed with cute critters and monsters. Pokémon [...]

The core fundamentals of Monster Rancher are delightful, and while this collection has its issues, there aren’t all that many modern equivalents to what it offers, so they hold their value well. Whether this is some kind of elaborate market research with Koei canvassing interest for a potential new Monster Rancher, or a simple acknowledgement that the series still has fans and they’ll buy anything Monster Rancher-related, I don’t know. I almost hope they don’t make a new Monster Rancher, because the appeal of these games is in their simple charm. Simplicity that modern game development…