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The X Button - Monster Mismash

Get Excited If: You watched the Blue Dragon anime to its end and read Blue Dragon: Ral Grad for reasons other than the artwork.

Yeah I don't know about Alan Wake. If the story is good it might be worth paying and I've heard it is. Then again, I heard that about Heavy Rain's story and it was an absolute train wreck. This is where I'm not sure I like serious story heavy games. I mean it's fine if it's actually well done like Mass Effect or...well that's the only one that comes to mind actually. If not though then you're better off to just keep the plot largely out of the way or at least go the generally unrealistic game-ish route that a lot of JRPGs go.

Yeah I don't know about Alan Wake. If the story is good it might be worth paying and I've heard it is. Then again, I heard that about Heavy Rain's story and it was an absolute train wreck. This is where I'm not sure I like serious story heavy games. I mean it's fine if it's actually well done like Mass Effect or...well that's the only one that comes to mind actually. If not though then you're better off to just keep the plot largely out of the way or at least go the generally unrealistic game-ish route that a lot of JRPGs go.

My problem with Heavy Rain was it's failure at points to maintain a realistic setting. I'd find myself playing the game really getting into the moment there would be something out of place that would take me out of it. spoiler[One of the biggest issues I had with it was the fact that the main male lead had gotten custody of his son even though it seemed painfully obvious he was having a hard time coping with the divorce/death of his other son. I don't know how many men get custody in the best of times in America. Live chickens in a grocery store. The (at times) painful voice acting.] The game also had some pretty big plot holes (I'm not sure if they get resolved with a different ending though.)

What you might want to check out Heavy Rain for is the innovative game play and the actual moral decisions the game provides for you (unlike those in Fallout 3 and Fable some of these decisions are extremely difficult to make).

Monster Hunter is a straight action game. The story is: You live in a pre-industrial hunter-gatherer civilization. Your job is hunter, and everyone depends upon you for the raw materials needed to live. Food, shelter, tools, weapons, they all come from the monsters you hunt. Go do your job. End of story.

The battle system is deep. Movement, aim, and camera control are all 100% MANUAL. This is necessary to attack each monster's unique weak points in real-time. Your attacks go exactly where *you* place them and it's possible to be very precise, but it is not a game you pick up, play, beat, and forget.

Monster Hunter is a game of skill. Not just motor skill, but learning the monsters, their habits, their capabilities, their timings. They are unstoppable forces. Just as you can't hope to stop an oncoming truck by punching it in the grill, you cannot expect to stop an oncoming train-car-sized monster with the flick of a sword. When you begin to play, expect to lose. Expect to lose until you *think* about how to win.

You need to be smart. You need to know your own abilities with each weapon. You need to use the other tools at your disposal wisely. Snares, explosives, tracking aids, medicines, and more; they'll all help you, but only when used at the right time, often in the brief instants you'll begin to recognize as being out of harm's way.

And the payoff? Your victories and losses are entirely your own. Monster Hunter is one of the most fair games that exists, and one of very few games where it's possible to realize YOUR skill has "leveled up". You also get to keep parts of the monsters you defeat and use them to make new gear. What do you do with it? Aside from look cool, defeat bigger, badder monsters of course!

Monster Hunter is also a game of teamwork. Go online and share your victories and defeats. Even a hunter with no armor and nothing but a half-decent supply of bowgun ammo can turn a raging demon into a paralyzed, whimpering mess, but it takes at least two to truly make the most of such opportunities. You can hunt in parties up to four at a time. Make the best of it. Make friends. Fight together, fight as one.

That is Monster Hunter.

I'm soon glad for the game's WiiSpeak option. Typing out conversations on a virtual keypad gets tedious, and it, unfortunately, makes a WiiSpeak accessory all but essential if you want to get the most out of the game's online play.

Looking back on the week, I may understand why Monster Hunter isn't yet huge in North America: traditional online RPG players want a game where they're guaranteed progress just by gaining levels, and the Devil May Cry crowd wants backflips, aerial gunplay, and other nonsense that Monster Hunter can't deliver.

Unfortunately, neither control option presents a lock-on system, something sorely needed when tangling with animals that often run away or circle behind you.