I loved Monster Rancher when I was little. Don’t think bad, I was also very fond of the other two great monster collecting sagas, but I was always fond of this series.
In addition, from the first chapter there was an obvious relationship with the world of video games. Genki, the protagonist, used a PS1 to play Mecto’s Monster Rancher (instead of the well-known Tecmo). Something that was normal, since the series was launched in 1999, but in 1997 the first virtual installment had already been commercialized.
A title that was not far from what Pokémon or Digimon offered in their day: breeding creatures and fighting to strengthen them. Be that as it may, Monster Rancher progressively fell into oblivion, even one of its most original mechanics , as taught by user thepenaltyman on TikTok.
(人 •͈ᴗ•͈) pic.twitter.com/lQNwYWWVW8
— Lab 🐀on hiatus (@Lab___Rat)
As you can see in the video, the game allowed you to insert any CD and recognize it. Once he identified what type of information it contained, he generated a different monster for each of them.
A really original way of encouraging us to use real objects that we had at home and that connected perfectly with the lore of their universe. In Monster Rancher, monsters are also generated by stone discs, so the connection was perfect.
In this way, we could put records by Michael Jackson, AC / DC or even Julio Iglesias to create different beings. For example, if you put in a Christmas song, you will receive a monster named Santa. On the other hand, if you put in a Billy Joel record, a monster similar to him will appear wearing sunglasses.
Things could get so complicated that later reissues of the game tweaked its data. So, if you wanted to get the monster called Karaoke, you had to use the second version of Nevermind by Nirvana yes or yes, the previous edition was not worth it. You have the complete list of usable CDs and their results at this link.
Obviously, most of the registration is limited to the year of release, so beyond 1997, in the case of the first game, it will only generate similar creatures. This mechanic was not only limited to the musical world, since PC CDs, Dreamcast, Sega Saturn or other PS1 games could also be used.
However, with the launch of Monster Rancher for iOS, Android and Nintendo Switch, there is a new opportunity to live this experience. More current songs and themes have been added, so it’s a perfect time to re-experiment.
