Ultra Kaiju Monster Rancher Lets You Raise Ultraman Baddies

Japanese Switch users and fans of Ultraman, and Monster Rancher enthusiasts will soon be able to unite in celebration. Bandai Namco is behind publishing Ultra Kaiju Monster Rancher, a spin-off of the popular farming and training-sim game based on the Ultraman franchise.

Check out the trailer from the Japanese edition of the June 28, 2022 Nintendo Direct Mini broadcast. As the series is known as Monster Farm in Japan, the game’s formal title is Ultra Kaiju Monster Farm.

In the game, players will establish their own massive farm and build it with the help of various Kaiju monsters from the Ultraman series. In keeping with Monster Rancher tradition, Ultra Kaiju Monster Rancher players will recruit new Kaiju by putting random media into the game. However, since the Switch doesn’t have a disc drive to take music CDs or DVDs, the recruitment methods are all-digital. Players can search pieces of music by title or artist to generate new Kaiju. They’ll also be able to use IC “smart” cards used in transit systems (like Suica or Icoca), or the NFC chips in smartphones, for Kaiju recruitment. Classic Ultraman Kaiju like Zetton, Gomora, and Alien Baltan were shown. Players will train their Kaiju to improve their stats, have them race rivals, build Ultra-size snow sculptures, and even do some sparring. They can also fuse Kaiju to find the ultimate monster.

Ultra Kaiju Monster Rancher is in development for the Nintendo Switch. It’ll go on sale in Japan in 2022. No overseas release plans were detailed. Shin Ultraman, a new “reboot” film from Evangelion creator Hideaki Anno, is in theaters in Japan.