I never thought I would live to see the day when a game’s release is secondary to one of its own features. What the shit am I talking about? Monster Hunter Tri of course. The idea of a new Monster Hunter game is always appealing, and I’m sure there is a dedicated fan base out there that just can’t wait to get started slaying every dinosaur in their path, but the game itself is not the best thing about … the game itself. Monster Hunter Tri is monumental in that it is a Wii title that finally does online right. In the end, it barely matters what the game is about because it’s worth owning just to prove that the Wii can support a thriving online community, as long as Nintendo gets its head out of its ass.

For those of you who haven’t played Monster Hunter games before, the premise is simple. You live in a somewhat ancient world where prehistoric lizard-like beasts run amok and generally make life difficult for the simple townspeople trying to eke out a meager human life. It’s up to you, the few and the proud who take up the title of monster hunter, to protect civilization from these beasts with nothing more than your guts, a side of beef, and one huge-ass sword.

It’s a fairly straight forward mission-based system that comes across as a strange fusion of action game and MMORPG. There is only one real town in the game, and it will be your base of operations right up until the end. It is at this town that you are given task of varying difficulties. Not to worry though, the game isn’t stupid. Higher difficulties don’t open up until you complete enough lower difficulty quests, so newbies won’t have to worry about running head first into death. The environments and monsters inhabiting them actually change as you go up in quest rank, so it keeps the game feeling fresh, even though its essentially a one town affair.

Monster Hunter Tri boldly ditches the concept of levels and experience and makes it abundantly clear that a man’s worth is only measured by the size of his peni- SWORD… I meant sword. The only way to increase your power in this game is to get new gear, and getting new gear isn’t as simple as buying it from the local shop. OK, maybe in the beginning of the game it is, but eventually you need to forge this shit yourself, and since you are a Monster Hunter there is no better place to find materials for forging than the rotting corpses of monsters you have killed. Your armor will be made out of scale and hide and your weapons will be made out of tooth and bone and there is something charming about that. Watching your character carve up the corpse of your latest kill in order to get food and forging supplies is not only amusing, it feels almost believable and natural. It’s as if you’re going on a camping trip to the Land of the Lost.

Monster Hunting is a tricky affair. If you simply run head-on into combat, you’ll probably die. Each monster has its own unique behavior pattern, which you can study and use to your advantage. Like a real hunter, your job is to sneak up on the beasts when they are most vulnerable and use your surroundings to your advantage. You can set traps to help you out, but in the end fighting monsters will come down to memorizing their behavior patterns, and using that knowledge well in combat. These huge dino-beasts can basically cut you with a few swipes of a claw, so most of your fighting is a slow and calculated pattern of hit and move. If you are an action gamer just looking to kill hordes of beasties, this may not be the game for you, but if you enjoy using your brain as well as your giant sword to kill your enemies, then you will be infinitely amused.

Playing the game alone is fun enough, but Monster Hunter Tri really shines when you go online. Players can enter virtual lobbies to form groups of 2-4 to take on quests that, due to their difficulty, basically require you to have a party to take on. The rewards for these quests are greater than the rewards you get in single-player, and you’ll find that you have a lot more options when it comes to creating equipment and customizing your character when you are online.

Capcom finally realized that Nintendo’s online policies are bullshit, and forged Monster Hunter Tri into a game that really works in the online arena. First of all, there are no friend codes to speak of. Woo, fucking, hoo! Instead, it’s all just a matter of joining a lobby and forming a party. Wii speak is also fully supported (which is a shame because it means a lot of us are going to have to go out and buy wii speak.) Sure this means that you’ll be subject to some profanity and immaturity, but it’s far better than the friend code dance we have been doing for the past few years. Your characters do have IDs that you can swap with your friends to get them on your friends list, however, these are not required to play or chat together. Oh, and if you aren’t down with wii speak, you can always hook up a USB keyboard instead.

You can also download your character to your wiimote, and bring it to other people’s houses to play in an offline arena mode. This is fun but nowhere near as fun as playing online. If you have a fast internet connection and some online buddies, Monster Hunter Tri will keep you busy for a long time.

Perhaps my biggest gripe with this game is its lack of Gamecube controller support. The game only supports control schemes for the wiimote+nunchuck and classic controller layouts. To be totally honest, the wiimote+nunchuck controls suck, so the classic controller is the way to go. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people who don’t own a classic controller and they are pretty much shit out of luck. Fortunately enough, Nintendo is offering a $60 bundle pack that includes Monster Hunter Tri, and a new classic controller pro. The classic controller pro is far better than the plain old classic controller, and for $10 more, it’s an unbeatable deal. The fact that many gamers will have to purchase both a classic controller AND wiispeak to play this game fully means that Monster Hunter Tri has an unfortunately high price of entry and that can turn some people off.

Still, if you are willing to shell out the money, there is no better online experience for the Wii than Monster Hunter Tri. Killing massive lizards that are easily 10 times your size has never been this fun. If you are an action-RPG sort of guy, then you should certainly pick up this game ASAP.

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