Bandai Namco and Capcom have teamed up to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Monster Hunter with the releasing of new Monster Hunter-themed Digimon Colour devices. These virtual pets allow you to raise, rear, and battle monsters, with the newly-revealed Monster Hunter editions containing iconic franchise monsters.
Two devices themed after Rathalos and Zinogre are on the way, with both allowing players to look after a range of monsters, all lovingly rendered in a neat pixel art style. Baby monsters can evolve into Rathalos, Zinogre, Khezu, Rajang, Tigrex, Nargacuga, Mizutsune, and more, with various care behaviours defining how these creatures evolve – just like with other Digimon devices.
Notably, these devices will be compatible with other Digimon Colour releases, so you’ll be able to pit your Monster Hunter buddies against iconic Digimon, and see which franchise has more powerful creatures.
At a glance, the new devices look wonderful. Each of the iconic Monster Hunter designs have translated well into pixel art, and their compatibility with other Digimon devices will certainly be well appreciated by collectors. The only challenge here is that it sounds like the Monster Hunter digivices will be quite difficult to obtain outside of Japan.
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Bandai Namco has ramped up support for Tamagotchi and Digimon digivice releases in Western regions over the last few years, bringing over a range of devices from Japan. That includes various Tamagotchi spin-off devices, like the Hello Kitty and Star Wars variants.
That said, the Digimon Colour devices haven’t released widely, and multiple versions have skipped the West. For that reason, those who want the new Monster Hunter digivices will likely need to get tricky with a potential purchase.
As announced, these devices will be available for preorder via Premium Bandai at the price of 7,700 yen (AUD $76.85). This store is not available in every region worldwide, and it doesn’t ship everywhere. For now, an alternative has not been announced, either.
With the devices set to launch in February 2025, there’s still plenty of time for that to change – but we’ll have to stay tuned to hear more. There would certainly be plenty of interest in these Monster Hunter digivices beyond territories supported by Premium Bandai, so it’s best to stay tuned, voice that interest, and see what happens.
In the meantime, we can all appreciate this is a very cool crossover, and one that simply feels right.
