Monster Hunter Tri (Nintendo Wii)

At a time when industry talk is dominated by terms like accessibility and casual appeal, Capcom's Monster Hunter franchise remains firmly attached to its hardcore roots. The latest version of the game is Monster Hunter Tri for Nintendo's Wii, bringing its brand of third-person real-time beast-slaughtering action and addictive item acquisition systems to a new audience. For franchise fans this is going to be a very familiar experience, as much of the game remains the same, though with noticeable improvements to the camera control, visuals, and the online experience. If you're new and wondering what it is that makes this game worthy of the label hardcore, then you should know this is in no way a pick-up-and-play product. Only those with patience, a willingness to learn, and an appreciation of high levels of
difficulty should apply. There's a significant time commitment associated with getting the most out of Monster Hunter Tri, but those who put in the hours will find the game offers the kind of satisfaction few other titles can deliver.

When it comes to high levels of difficulty in videogames, there can be two types. There's difficulty built to pose a challenge and that can be overcome with careful planning, perseverance, and skill, and there's the type of difficulty that's completely unreasonable that's meant to mask a lack of creative design ideas, technical limits, or simply to pad gameplay hours. Monster Hunter Tri's level of difficulty is the former. It's a tough game that readily tosses you into situations where laziness and lack of focus can swiftly result in failure. Yet its challenges aren't so difficult that they step beyond the bounds of sensibility, and its punishment is far from Demon's Souls severe.

The game is split into offline and online components. While the best experience is to play with others, I'd recommend most everyone start offline to build up equipment and familiarize yourself with the setup. It's an action-role-playing game with little story and character development. The main reason you'd play this game is to tangle with gigantic and challenging monsters and then upgrade your gear with the spoils of combat. Keeping with that focus, there's only one village in the game that serves as your hub for quests, item purchasing, trading, farming, and weapons and armor upgrading. The non-player characters (NPCs) you interact with often offer witty and humorous comments, but the main reason you're talking with them is to get to a menu to buy things or accept a new quest. So while it'll be a disappointing game for someone looking for a developed tale, the convenience of having all quests and vendors centrally located makes managing your inventory and weaponry much more efficient, saving time as you consider how to power yourself up for the next challenge.

~The ability to save your character to your Wii Remote lets you engage in multiplayer hunts anytime on a friend's console.
~In the hunt, you are never alone. Hunt together with up to 4 players online or take on arena quests with 2-player split-screen action. In single player mode, you even have the ability to hunt with AI-controlled characters named ChaCha.
~Monsters have unique and dynamic personalities, abilities and defenses, increasing in complexity as the player progresses. They camouflage themselves to ambush hunters, but will flee or call for help if outmatched.
~With ten weapon categories, including the all-new Switch Axe, and new armor and weaponry created from the remains of slain monsters, there are almost limitless opportunities for equipment customization.
~Play with either the Wii Remote and Nunchuk, with the Classic Controller or Classic Controller Pro and because communication is key in coordinated hunts Monster Hunter Tri supports Wii Speak and text chat.

The game isn't entirely without a story, however. A sea beast called Lagiacrus is disrupting life in a fishing village. As a new hunter it's your job to train, upgrade, and wipe him out, which isn't going to happen for a number of hours. First you'll need to wade through a range of introductory missions where you'll kill simple enemies or harvest resources that help familiarize you with the basics of combat and mechanics of scouring the battlefield maps for items. As you'll soon discover, there is no direct character leveling in Monster Hunter, meaning you don't gain experience for kills in the field. Instead, you power up by fashioning new sets of armor and purchasing and upgrading weapons, the best of which can only be obtained by slaughtering powerful monsters and carving up their corpses for components to be used in crafting. This is why facing off against new boss monsters in the game is such an event. Not only does each major fight represent a new level of challenge requiring skill and cunning to overcome, but it also represents a potentially new and powerful set of gear you can equip.