Digimon's Ancestor?

[Crimson Fox]

Wikipedia says that Bandai released the original Digimon virtual pets on June 26, 1997, but did you know that Bandai released a game involving monsters way back in June 1989.

Wikipedia's Article

For a more in-depth review and more images including the bosses...

It's uncanny just how many parallels there are between Monster Party and Digimon as we know it now. The game stars a kid, Mark, that ends up going to a trippy monster world, and teams up with a monster, Bert, that mysteriously enters the human world. He also fights many weird monsters including what appears to be an early version Pumpkinmon. Plus, the bat creatures in the Level 3 screenshot look kind of like Bakemon.

As for the game itself, I actually own it, but its kind of meh overall. The bosses are all really interesting and the twist in Level 1 is really awesome, but the enemies are kind of cheap and it can be hard to use the boy's bat when you need to reflect attacks.

So, thoughts? Has anyone actually played this game? Does anyone see any other similarities to Digimon in the game?

[Erethzium]

Monster Party?! You mean BANDAI made that crappy game?

Doubt it has any large relation to Digimon, though. Sure the plot is similar, but isn't the whole "Human going to a monster world/alternate universe" thing kinda cliche already?

[Crimson Fox]

Well, yeah, there are plenty of stories with children going to other worlds, etc., etc. I just brought this up because Bandai came up with both Monster Party and Digimon, and they do share at least a few things. That and Pumpkinmon looks almost exactly like one of the bosses for Level 3. Give the boss a green scarf and stick an axe in his noggin and presto. XP

And yeah, agreed, the game was pretty crap. Several of the bosses were interesting and I liked the freaky, bloody twist for the second half of Level 1, but the gameplay was terrible. Seriously though, how did they get away with that much blood in an NES game? Or is it "red goo"? *lol*

[UnknownH]

I'm not sure it's really it. Maybe some parts but not a lot.
Nice idea though.

[Wisemon]

Even the Pumpkinmon could just be a coincidence. The Real Ghostbusters had Sam Hain, similar to Pumpkinmon in being a pumpkin-headed ghost, back in 1986.

[UnknownH]

Yeah. Besides, I hear they used to use Turnips for the Jack o lanterns. So if they had them back when the Irish came to the US he'd be Turnipmon.

So there's probably no real connection since As Wise said, Pumpkinmon is pretty much Samhainmon.

[Crimson Fox]

Ah well, both were made by Bandai so I thought there was at least some sort of connection. Until we start seeing Tamers use baseball bats to reflect Digimon projectiles though, I guess it's a pretty loose connection. Eh, it's still a more interesting game than that World Class Track Meet game they also made.