Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate Standard Edition - Nintendo 3DS

This game was my first entry in the Monster Hunter series, and what a ride it's been. The central idea of the game is a simple loop: Kill boss monster, use its parts to make gear, use gear to kill stronger monsters and make better gear. It sounds grindy, and it absolutely is, but it manages to make each fight fun and intense. The gameplay, however, is somewhat unorthodox in that it plays as an action game with RPG elements, but is very slow and methodical. Depending on what weapon you use, movement speed ranges from a relaxed jog to a plodding, snail-like waddle. This isn't helped by the fact that before you actually get to battle a boss, you need to complete several quests where you simply collect herbs or smack around cannon fodder enemies. Once you do hit that point, however, the game shifts into high gear. Each boss is full of personality, from the giant raptor that barks orders to its pack to the flame-spewing chicken that runs around wildly to the four-legged shark that encases itself in ice armor. To fight them is an exercise in observation, preparation and patience. Every large monster has a variety of tells before each attack, and you can't take much more than four or five good hits before dropping, making it a fast-paced challenge where you're constantly looking for openings, more Punch-Out!! than Devil May Cry. To make the fight easier, you could bring traps, or craft Flash Bombs to stun the monster. Maybe you should break its horn to get a rare drop, or chop off its tail to throw it off balance. If you're successful, you collect some body parts, and inevitably find out that you need 4 more to upgrade your weapon. Speaking of which, the weapon variety in this game is ridiculous. 11 melee and 3 ranged weapons classes, each with enormous, branching upgrade paths. Perhaps this one deals fire damage, while that one could paralyze... but the other one has better sharpness, letting you pierce tough hides. Armor, meanwhile, carries several innate skills, and making a full set of a given type will give you several passive bonuses based on what armor it is. This allows for an absurd amount of customization, and it really feels great to not only find the perfect set for your playstyle, but then finally complete it after trying for hours to get that one Mantle. Also, the game has excellent Co-op multiplayer. You can join up with other hunters locally or over the internet, and then take down more powerful versions of the monsters as a team. There definitely are some bad eggs out there, but my experience has been great with others. As for story... It's probably the weakest part of the game. It essentially boils down to "Welcome to the traveling caravan. Go hunt this for someone. Now go hunt this for someone. Now hunt this monster on the box of the game that we know simultaneously nothing and everything about. Now go hunt this for someone." Of course, this game really isn't about story, especially since at least half of the content is in Multiplayer. The graphics are fine for 3DS, and the music is solid. Ultimately, I would say the best way to play is to get it along with one or two friends and then work through solo and multiplayer at roughly the same rate. I definitely recommend this game to RPG fans and Action fans alike, as if you can get past the initial learning cliff, it's easily one of the best games for 3DS.

Firstly, has to be noted that this game is enhanced by the New 3DS, I dunno why there's any argument with this with anyone. There's a noticeable difference in both framerate and texture quality and there's screenshot comparisons you can find online. Shadow quality is better as well, it's a very obvious jump. The use of the analog ...nub, is also welcomed as it lets you look around much easier than the wonky touch-screen d-pad. So yes, the game despite not being exclusive to the N3DS is factually enhanced in both performance and graphical fidelity.This is the first Monster Hunter game I've played since Freedom Unite on the PSP, I gotta say this game really stomps that version. It's a lot easier to move around- in a good way. You climb much faster up ivy & small cliffs, you're not scrambling to get up anymore, the character will hop up quickly. Overall you feel less clunky without removing that Monster Hunter feel.The game is more easily accessed in single player too as they made a single player mode for you to go through that is entirely separate from the multiplayer. The story isn't anything to note, however the events that happen are really crazy, fighting a monster on a sand boat? That's pretty awesome.The weapon variety seems unchanged but instead refined to work better. Combat feels more fast and the areas more large and interesting. Monster fights are crazy and exciting, now you can jump on their backs in an attempt to knock them over for your party to get a few free seconds of uninterrupted attacks or to heal up and sharpen your weapons.The game has a nice difficulty curve as well, it does spike here and there but it doesn't feel like previous games where you'd start a mission and get murdered on your first few hunts as a noob. They really help you get the game via singleplayer thankfully, helping you get the grips of the simple, and advanced combat mechanics. The difficulty progression in both single & multiplayer is far better done in this than in the other ones I have played.Worth getting, especially if you have a fancy new 3DS to play with.

This game is awesome. It greatly improves upon the mechanics from the 3rd one. Some may be turned off though by the grinding and lack of story but these types of games aren't meant to be story driven. It's best when you get online and play with other people and chat with each other and take down huge monsters together. I'm no veteran but I did play a lot of 3 ultimate and I have to say that I'm quite please with this new iteration. I bought it fully knowing what I was getting into and it's awesome to have new weapons and abilities you can do thru those weapons and also the environment itself. The under water portions from 3 ultimate will be missed but be able to jump off of any ledge on top of a monster in this one more than makes up for this. All in all, I would say to give it a try and try to see past the slow paced tutorial when u first start out cause once you get passed that, it is truly an enjoyable experience.