If you were to talk about video games, most of you would probably list the usual suspects like Super Mario, Final Fantasy, Pac-Man and Sonic the Hedgehog, along with some of the more recent and western franchises like Uncharted, World of Warcraft, God of War, Halo or Call of Duty. And probably Madden too.
But if I were to talk to you about Monster Hunter, probably a select few of you would know what I was talking about and jump for joy, while the rest of you would probably be a little puzzled. Or otherwise apathetic.
In Monster Hunter's country of origin however, it is an entirely different story.
Monster Hunter, with perhaps the exception of Dragon Quest, is the biggest series in Japan. Period. It's a pretty straight forward game actually. If you've ever even so much as glanced at a screen shot of the aforementioned World of Warcraft, you'd probably get the appeal.
For the uninitiated, players control their customized character and kill giant dinosaurs.
...It doesn't get much deeper than that, folks.
Like WoW, the game provides hours of slogging through quests, seeking to upgrade armor and equipment with each subsequent monster slain, as they award both a financial reward and materials to make new armor and weapons.
The game itself is really quite fun. It's hard to get a feeling more awesome than slaying a dinosaur (or similar facsimile).
Taking all of this into consideration, it's no surprise that Capcom announced a fourth sequel, specifically for Nintendo's 3DS.
Why the 3DS you might ask? Partially I suspect it's because the last main game, Monster Hunter 3 (released out west as Monster Hunter Tri) was on the Wii. In Japan, as you might imagine, it printed money.
The other important trend to keep in mind is portable gaming. In western countries, we tend to rely more on our tablets, iPads or phones for our gaming. It's more convenient than lugging extra weight around. But in Japan, practically everyone has portable game devices. Specifically the Nitnendo 3DS, as the Playstation Vita is still struggling with sluggish sales across the board.
There's not much to report about the title, but you can check out the latest trailer from Capcom above. It's looking much sharper than earlier trailers did. Otherwise, the only bit of info to offer is that it is currently slated for a Spring 2013 release in Japan.
So the obvious question western fans have of course is this: will it be coming out here?
Sadly, it's not really a straight yes or no. Monster Hunter has been pretty "touch and go" here in the States, where some titles from the series aren't even released . When they are, they have a hard time competing. Then again, Monster Hunter Tri did rather well, and Capcom took notice of this fact. Even if it's simply because the Nintendo Wii had nothing else like it, Monster Hunter Tri probably won some diehard Nintendo fans over who would kill for a second chance to slay monsters.
Is the gamble worth Capcom's time? I'd argue yes, but I'm just your humble game examiner. What do I know?
Anyway, as more info comes along, I will bring it to you, post haste!
SOURCE: Paul Gale Network.com
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