Monster Race

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KenjutheDenjuu(imported)
Posts: 458
Joined: Sun Dec 05, 2010 2:53 am

Re: Monster Race

Post by KenjutheDenjuu(imported) »

A neat little monster RPG by Koei where you race monsters and they join your team if you beat them in races. The aim of the game is to compete in and win the Very Best Cup and become the best Monster Racer. Each of the monsters have different elements and are good and bad at running on certain terrains such as grass or water etc. A nice feature is that you can switch out your monsters in the middle of races to change to ones better suited to the terrain you're on (or you can just stick to a monster you like). The monster has to slow down briefly to do this, however. The most recent game was Monster Racers for the DS, which is the most well known one outside of Japan since it got an english translation. I'm not sure if many people know, but there were actually 3 gameboy games in the series before the DS version, the first being Monster Race for the gameboy, and then Monster Race: Okawari (with Okawari meaning 'second helping'). There was also Monster Race 2 for the gameboy color, which was the last gameboy title in the series. There was also a playstation version of the original Monster Race game as well.

The overworld is sort of reminiscent of Pokemon in the first and second Monster race games, but the games themselves are fun and there are plenty of monsters to collect. The mascot for the games is a little pink porcupine creature called Ulrira, who's a grass type (Everytime I think of this guy's name I always think of Old Man Ulrira in The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening xD). He's one of the starter monsters along with a yellow Triceratops-esque dinosaur called Tops (a Rock type) and a cute snake called Noko Noko (a water type). You get to choose one these three guys at the beginning of all the gameboy games and the playstation version I believe. The DS game changed the starters, but the 3 original starter monsters do appear in the game as wild monsters.

The series itself didn't get any merchandise, except for guides for each of the games. It did get a 4 koma manga based on it, but it's a very rare piece of merchandise to find and usually goes for about 6000 to 8000 yen online (way too much for a book really xD).

Monster Race 2 boxart
Monster Race playstation boxart
Monster Racers DS Japanese boxart
TAS (Tool Assisted Speedrun) of the origjnal Monster Race for gameboy.
Part 2 of the Monster Race TAS
Huge selection of playthroughs of the different Monster Race games on Nicozon (a video site). Also has BGM music as well.
Videos for the DS game Monster Racers
Monster Race comic (fanmade?)
She's a Witch!(imported)
Posts: 46
Joined: Sat Dec 27, 2008 9:08 am

Re: Monster Race

Post by She's a Witch!(imported) »

I've played the DS game. It really is quite fun, even if the races have a tendency to get annoying in the part I stopped at(I believe it was Asia, if I remember correctly)

Either way, I absolutely loved that game, and really loved making my monsters different colors xD
KenjutheDenjuu(imported)
Posts: 458
Joined: Sun Dec 05, 2010 2:53 am

Re: Monster Race

Post by KenjutheDenjuu(imported) »

You can change their colors? Wow, I didn't know that xD

EDIT: Though, I think I do remember there being some sort of equivalent to shiny monsters in the DS version?
She's a Witch!(imported)
Posts: 46
Joined: Sat Dec 27, 2008 9:08 am

Re: Monster Race

Post by She's a Witch!(imported) »

Yeah, in the DS game, there are jewels that you can pick up, and when you feed them to your monsters, it adds a certain amount of hue(can't remember the actual term for it). There were several different color, and I believe that there were somewhere around a dozen "levels" of hue(or whatever it was called). You could then place the cursor anywhere in the shaded part, and it would change the color of your monster.

Of course, I haven't played the game in ages now, so details are really foggy. It was kinda like your typical "color wheel"
KenjutheDenjuu(imported)
Posts: 458
Joined: Sun Dec 05, 2010 2:53 am

Re: Monster Race

Post by KenjutheDenjuu(imported) »

Hm, that sounds familiar. Maybe I have heard, but i've just forgotten after so long? I remember watching a playthrough a while back, but I don't remember getting too far. Oh well, i'll have to play sometime. My copy is still sitting in my game box unplayed as of now, I really need to get started! :O
She's a Witch!(imported)
Posts: 46
Joined: Sat Dec 27, 2008 9:08 am

Re: Monster Race

Post by She's a Witch!(imported) »

Yeah. I didn't get very far because I did actually wanna buy it instead of emulating it, but I haven't found a copy ANYWHERE(then again, i haven't looked xD). I haven't played any of the previous games, but this one was indeed very fun. ~
KenjutheDenjuu(imported)
Posts: 458
Joined: Sun Dec 05, 2010 2:53 am

Re: Monster Race

Post by KenjutheDenjuu(imported) »

I had a little trouble trying to find a copy of the DS version as well, but then I eventually found one on ebay for a good price. It was really lucky, since I couldn't find it anywhere else i'd checked. I did wonder why it was so uncommon, maybe there were not that many copies released?
RacieB
Posts: 871
Joined: Thu Dec 28, 2006 4:27 am

Re: Monster Race

Post by RacieB »

Hmm, never heard of it before... I always wanted a good monster racing game though the one I had in mind was 3D. The monster designs look really neat though :D
She's a Witch!(imported)
Posts: 46
Joined: Sat Dec 27, 2008 9:08 am

Re: Monster Race

Post by She's a Witch!(imported) »

Maybe so. It seems that while it was very popular in Japan, they weren't sure of the reception in America, and they may have underestimated it. Square-Enix still underestimates the popularity of Dragon Quest, for example, despite having such popular games in DQVIII and DQIX. They released so few copies of DQVDS and DQVIDS that they didn't even cover the pre-orders in the first run, and they had to make a whole lot more xD

Either way, I do hope that I can find a copy of Monster Race sometime xD
KenjutheDenjuu(imported)
Posts: 458
Joined: Sun Dec 05, 2010 2:53 am

Re: Monster Race

Post by KenjutheDenjuu(imported) »

There's a cheap copy of Monster Racers DS here on ebay that ships from Canada. It's brand new ^^

I think I heard that the Dragon Quest series wasn't as widely distributed outside of Japan, since it's not as well known here as it is there. All of the games appear to be pretty popular here though, like Dragon Warrior Monsters and such, so it's surprising.

There's another similar monster racing game that was done in 3D called Animastar. It had a game on the Dreamcast. There was also a gameboy color game as well. It's another series that isn't too well known and was never released outside of Japan.
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