Monster Tale

Monster Tale is a 2011 platform video game developed by DreamRift and published by Majesco Entertainment for the Nintendo DS.^[4] It was only released in North America. It follows the story of a young girl, named Ellie, and her adventures in Monster World with her monster companion, Chomp. Together they must stop the evil Kid-Kings and return Monster World to its rightful inhabitants, the monsters, and also find a way for Ellie to return home.

Monster Tale
Cover art
Developer(s)	DreamRift
Publisher(s)	Majesco Entertainment
Director(s)	Peter Ong
Programmer(s)	Ryan Pijai
Artist(s)	Michael Veroni
Composer(s)	Ian Stocker
Platform(s)	Nintendo DS
Release	NA: March 22, 2011[1]
Genre(s)	Action-adventure Life simulation, Metroidvania[2][3]
Mode(s)	Single-player

Controversy

According to the game developers, there was pressure from publishers not to feature a young female lead. Peter Ong, the co-founder of DreamRift and director of Monster Tale, told Nintendo Power that "this choice was actually somewhat controversial with some publishers. Our experience was that many publishers are looking to avert the risk of a main character that hasn't been proven to capture large audiences. As a result, there was some concern from publishers that Ellie should change to a male or a more mature/sexy female."^[5]

Reception

Reception

Aggregate score

Aggregator	Score
Metacritic	79/100[6]

Review scores

Publication	Score
1Up.com	B+[7]
Destructoid	8/10[8]
Edge	6/10[9]
Eurogamer	7/10[10]
GameSpot	8/10[11]
GamesRadar+	[12]
IGN	8.5/10[13]
NGamer	80%[14]
Nintendo Power	8/10[15]
Nintendo World Report	8/10[16]

Monster Tale received "generally favorable reviews" according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.^[6] Critics praised the game for its sprite-based graphics, interesting combat and its action-platforming similar to the Metroid series.^[17]

Remake

On March 29, 2015, DreamRift announced a remake of the game, titled Monster Tale Ultimate, to be released via the Nintendo 3DS eShop.^[18] Announced changes to Ultimate included reduced backtracking, visual improvements, and the ability to toggle between the original soundtrack and a new orchestral soundtrack.^[19] However the 3DS version failed to ever release. On January 11, 2021, Majesco announced that Monster Tale would soon be coming to modern platforms.^[3]