Moving Chomp to its home on the bottom screen allows it to speedily recoup its energy. Chomp's energy meter is slowly drained when Chomp is on the top screen, and is more quickly depleted as Chomp executes moves or takes damage. The pet also will float around the screen and occasionally pummel baddies on its own, and can double as a living shield by absorbing damage from baddies and their projectiles. Some clobber nearby enemies, while others have a wider or longer range. Since Chomp teleports to Ellie's location to execute most of its attacks, these moves effectively behave as an extension of Ellie's core move set. While on the top screen, Chomp lends the player an assortment of mostly offensive moves (mapped to the shoulder buttons). Despite its Tamagotchi-like appearance, the pet mechanic is really more of a riff on the Castlevania series' familiars. While Ellie's move set initially felt somewhat stodgy, after a few more early upgrades I found them to be well balanced against baddies' attack patterns and provide a marked contrast to Chomp's abilities.Īnd Chomp is indeed useful. Throw in Ellie's heart-based health bar and a shop selling optional upgrades, and Hatsworth veterans should feel right at home.

Even her wall jump upgrade feels suspiciously familiar. Like the elderly adventurer, Ellie has a deliberately slow running pace and a distinctly floaty jump. Using her blaster depletes her energy meter, which is in turn refilled during melee combat. After a few early upgrades, Ellie can shoot balls of energy from her magical wristband and perform melee attacks with her sword-like satchel. Most notably, Ellie handles uncannily similarly to the charismatic gentleman.

While the 'power of friendship' theme is trite and most of the personalities are predictable, the storytelling is inoffensive and occasionally humorous. Ellie quickly meets her partner, Chomp, and together they must overthrow the Kid Kings-other children originally from Ellie's world who have seized power and subjugated the native inhabitants. Monster Tale stars a grade-school girl named Ellie who has been magically transported to a world populated by sentient monsters. While Monster Tale (like Hatsworth) suffers from some weak level design, the game largely succeeds thanks to its engrossing combat and integral pet mechanic. A fan of Castlevania and Metroid games that became frustrated with Hatsworth, I was curious to see how the team would handle the so-called 'Metroidvania' subgenre. Majesco's Monster Tale is an exploratory action game for Nintendo DS developed by DreamRift, which was founded by individuals from the Henry Hatsworth team.

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