Monster Racers
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| Monster Racers | |
|---|---|
 North American cover art | |
| Developer | Koei |
| Publishers |
|
| Director | Osamu Mieda |
| Programmer | Masafumi Takano |
| Composer | Haruki Yamada |
| Platform | Nintendo DS |
| Release | |
| Genres | Role-playing, racing |
| Modes | Single-player, multiplayer |
Monster Racers[a] is a monster-taming and racing game hybrid developed and published by Koei, and published by UFO Interactive Games in North America.[1] It was released on January 22, 2009 in Japan, with a KOEI The Best re-release on December 10, 2009,[2] and on May 11, 2010 in North America, for Nintendo DS.[3] The game, set in a Pokémon-esque modern fantasy world, allows players to catch monsters and use them to compete in races. It is a spiritual sequel to the unrelated Monstar Race[b] series, originally released in 1998 on Game Boy. It received mixed reception from critics, who praised its gameplay and graphics, but decried its lack of originality and weak story.
Ten years ago, a small island in the Pacific Ocean was discovered to have strange fantastical monsters with a competitive spirit to race against each other. Since then, these monsters have spread around the world, with people around the world competing against one another with their monsters, giving rise to Monster Races as a worldwide competitive sport. You, fresh into the scene, have made the trip to Star Island to fulfil the lifelong dream to become the top racer in the world. After picking out your first monster, you take a test to obtain a license to compete in annual monster racing tournaments held on each of the seven continents of the world. Along the way, however, an evil group is out there to hinder your adventure.[4]
Gameplay
The game plays in the manner of a top-down JRPG, in which the player can explore towns and talk to NPCs to obtain quests. In the wilds, the player finds other characters to fight, and also directly controls their chosen monster in races against wild monsters to defeat or befriend them. Races have a combat element, and attacking enemies from behind or above slows them down. Players must blast opposing wild monsters with energy before the race is finished in order to capture them. Short 2D platforming races level up the player's monster, while races against other trainers are longer and give more experience points. Tournament matches have four tiers of qualifiers and four monsters racing at once.[4]
Development
Monster Racers was first announced at Tokyo Game Show 2008,[5] and was unveiled in Europe at MCM Expo 2008 and North America at E3 2009,[6][7] presented by Koei trade show models and featuring a promotional costume of Furion,[c] one of the game's legendary monsters.[8][9] Prior to the game's release, Koei Tecmo announced it was being published by UFO Interactive in North America as part of a partnership with the company, alongside Monster Rancher DS.[1]
