For those you too young to remember Monster Rancher is the video game franchise that did Pokémon before Pokémon was popular. Now, the series is seeing a small revival as a free app for iPhone, iPad, and Android devices, although it admittedly feels a bit weird without using CDs or DVDs as part of the gameplay.

According to the guys at Touch Arcade, it’s a shadow of what made the original games great:

Mobage’s My Monster Rancher just hit the App Store, and while it’s nice to see a Monster Rancher game on iOS devices, it’s sad to see what it has become. Basically, everything that was cool about the original series has either been replaced or augmented with social friend systems and IAP currency. There’s still training and battle elements, along with a few familiar faces for Monster Rancherfans, but, man, I’d love a straight port of one of the older Monster Rancher titles instead.

Even though My Monster Rancher looks like it pretty much follows nothing new except for the pay-to-play and social media format of most other mobile games on the market, I’m not quite so sure I’m ready to blow it off just yet. I mean, it’s still Monster Rancher, and I’ve got history with this series.

Heck, I even used to watch the animated series back in the day and it wasn’t bad. Does anyone remember it, or am I dating myself?

Source: Touch Arcade