Monster Rancher 4

Raise monsters to explore and battle in this PS2 monster raising sim from Tecmo. This game improves upon previous installments by allowing more than one monster to be raised at once, interaction with the main character and the monsters, improved explorations, a customizable ranch, tag-team battles, improved 2P mode, a re-vamped battle system, and more detailed monsters. This game also features the longest most involved storyline of any Monster Rancher game to date.

Your goal is to raise monsters to win in-game tournaments, explore for items, and improve your ranch. You can also test your raising skills by battling your monsters against a friend in 2P mode.

The game still uses the innovative system of having a player insert music CDs, game discs, or DVDs into the PS2 to be read and used in making monsters. If you have a good sized collection of music, games, or movies, you can have access to a large variety of monsters very fast.

Monsters can also be made by finding in-game items, and through combining your retired monsters, so having a large collection of discs is not necessary. The game features some cute monsters, some scary/gory types, and enough variety to keep almost anyone busy for a long time.

Monster Rancher 4 is easy enough that almost anyone can dive in and play right away, making it a natural for kids. -But like the other games in the series, a patient player will be rewarded with a deeper, more rewarding experience (and hundreds of hours of gameplay). Replay value on this game, like the other Monster Rancher games is very high.