Play Dragon Quest Monsters - Joker (EU) Online

Game Overview

Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker is basically Pokémon but with that classic Dragon Quest charm—chunky, colorful monsters, goofy sound effects, and way more strategy than you'd expect at first glance. You start off stranded on some weird island where everyone's obsessed with monster scouting, and before long you're sneaking through tall grass trying to recruit slimes and walking suits of armor to your cause.

The cool part? You don't just catch monsters—you fuse them into even weirder combinations. My first "great" team was this ridiculous three-headed bird thing I made by mashing together a dracky and a... whatever that lizard with a hammer tail was called. Battles move fast, but you actually have to think about positioning and which monsters cover each other's weaknesses.

It's got that classic Dragon Quest grind if you want to min-max your team, but you can also just roll with whatever weirdos you think look cool. The 3D models on the DS were surprisingly solid for the time, too—watching your little monster squad waddle behind you never gets old.