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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